It's the last day of the holidays... but i don't feel anything about going back to school tomorrow... cos it hasn't been any holiday at all.
And that's after false promises of a "no holiday homework policy"... I certainly second renyan's idea of a student's union (RIPB feedback seems to get ignored by upstairs).
We should fight for the French 35-hour work week, or at most double that (since we're kiasu Singaporeans)... i.e. a 70-hour work week, including all homework, projects etc (i.e. max 11.5 hours per day, excluding sunday, spent on school stuff).
Ok daydreaming over... i still have the chinese 读书报告 and 鹰的天空 to finish, 2cm of geog readings and an essay... and that's ignoring the stuff that is due after T3W1...
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On another note, here's a little introduction video i did for RI-BP science odyssey, which was basically a science competition we organised for primary schools. The storyline is a bit corny but the pri sch kids seemed to enjoy it. Haha
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The ironies of a holiday
It just doesn't feel like a holiday. So much homework (especially a particular subject)... plus all the CCA stuff and etc (though those are more fun).
It is necessary for us to go back to the principle behind a holiday. What is it for? To rest, to enjoy, to do what you like (e.g. CCA, attachments etc.). The idea is that it is a break from hectic school life.
Now juxtapose that against the current situation... and the dichotomy is striking. I'm not advocating totally no holiday work, but there must be a balance. Right now it is far from a holiday.
Like that very tiring and sian one (especially for certain subject's homework...). I want a break loh. Some more term 3 very xiong one.
I don't think i'll be able to finish the holiday homework... (with this competition and that)... the list on my blog is intended to improve my efficiency. So if you see me on msn please suan me on my unfinished homework...
"Teachers have been instructed NOT give holiday homework" - xxx. How ironic. Moral of the story: teachers also not obedient one.
It is necessary for us to go back to the principle behind a holiday. What is it for? To rest, to enjoy, to do what you like (e.g. CCA, attachments etc.). The idea is that it is a break from hectic school life.
Now juxtapose that against the current situation... and the dichotomy is striking. I'm not advocating totally no holiday work, but there must be a balance. Right now it is far from a holiday.
Like that very tiring and sian one (especially for certain subject's homework...). I want a break loh. Some more term 3 very xiong one.
I don't think i'll be able to finish the holiday homework... (with this competition and that)... the list on my blog is intended to improve my efficiency. So if you see me on msn please suan me on my unfinished homework...
"Teachers have been instructed NOT give holiday homework" - xxx. How ironic. Moral of the story: teachers also not obedient one.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
I'm melting
Sian... sit in front of com for 2 hours, blowing fan, then i become all sweaty and sticky. I buay ta han on aircon to do work dunno how many times the past 2 weeks.
Can't stand the koyak singaporean weather lah. So irritatingly hot - and way too humid.
There's this idea of a comfort zone (below), beyond which work becomes inefficient. heh. justification for aircon. Luckily our classrooms got aircon (but cannot change temperature, sometimes dunno why too hot one).
I actually like colder temperatures. Around 12-22 (Hamburg) is pretty comfy, and -2 to 5 (Beijing winter) is refreshing (and not as cold as it seems). Aircon does wonders too :-)
Can't stand the koyak singaporean weather lah. So irritatingly hot - and way too humid.
There's this idea of a comfort zone (below), beyond which work becomes inefficient. heh. justification for aircon. Luckily our classrooms got aircon (but cannot change temperature, sometimes dunno why too hot one).
I actually like colder temperatures. Around 12-22 (Hamburg) is pretty comfy, and -2 to 5 (Beijing winter) is refreshing (and not as cold as it seems). Aircon does wonders too :-)
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Gerdanken #2: Schrodinger's cat
Schrodinger's thought experiment (in his own words):
A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a ``blurred model'' for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.
We know that superposition of possible outcomes must exist simultaneously at a microscopic level because we can observe interference effects from these. We know (at least most of us know) that the cat in the box is dead, alive or dying and not in a smeared out state between the alternatives. When and how does the model of many microscopic possibilities resolve itself into a particular macroscopic state? When and how does the fog bank of microscopic possibilities transform itself to the blurred picture we have of a definite macroscopic state. That is the measurement problem.
The Copenhagen intepretation:
A system stops being a superposition of states and becomes either one or the other when an observation takes place. This experiment makes apparent the fact that the nature of measurement, or observation, is not well defined in this interpretation. Some interpret the experiment to mean that while the box is closed, the system simultaneously exists in a superposition of the states "decayed nucleus/dead cat" and "undecayed nucleus/living cat", and that only when the box is opened and an observation performed does the wave function collapse into one of the two states. More intuitively, some feel that the "observation" is taken when a particle from the nucleus hits the detector.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle:
Ok I won't go too far for this one. The basic idea is that measuring a system changes it. If you measure the momentum of a particle, you will change its position. If you measure the position of a particle, you will change its momentum.
Therefore,given a particle, the uncertainty in momentum (Δp) times the uncertainty in position (Δx) is greater than or equal to the reduced planck's constant (or div 2??? some sources say div 2...).
ΔxΔp ≥ ħ/2
Welcome to quantumland
mostly lifted from wiki
A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a ``blurred model'' for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.
We know that superposition of possible outcomes must exist simultaneously at a microscopic level because we can observe interference effects from these. We know (at least most of us know) that the cat in the box is dead, alive or dying and not in a smeared out state between the alternatives. When and how does the model of many microscopic possibilities resolve itself into a particular macroscopic state? When and how does the fog bank of microscopic possibilities transform itself to the blurred picture we have of a definite macroscopic state. That is the measurement problem.
The Copenhagen intepretation:
A system stops being a superposition of states and becomes either one or the other when an observation takes place. This experiment makes apparent the fact that the nature of measurement, or observation, is not well defined in this interpretation. Some interpret the experiment to mean that while the box is closed, the system simultaneously exists in a superposition of the states "decayed nucleus/dead cat" and "undecayed nucleus/living cat", and that only when the box is opened and an observation performed does the wave function collapse into one of the two states. More intuitively, some feel that the "observation" is taken when a particle from the nucleus hits the detector.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle:
Ok I won't go too far for this one. The basic idea is that measuring a system changes it. If you measure the momentum of a particle, you will change its position. If you measure the position of a particle, you will change its momentum.
Therefore,given a particle, the uncertainty in momentum (Δp) times the uncertainty in position (Δx) is greater than or equal to the reduced planck's constant (or div 2??? some sources say div 2...).
ΔxΔp ≥ ħ/2
Welcome to quantumland
mostly lifted from wiki
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