Amazing lecture by Walter Lewin

A rare chance that I got to watch LIVE teaching by Walter Lewin

Last wednesday, the 26th of Oct 2011 was one of the special days here at TU Delft. Why? Because the famous Walter Lewin was coming down to the small town of Delft and his own university (from where he received his Phd) to give a lecture on "Rainbows & skies". I did get a message on my university portal about the event, asking students to pre-register beforehand but I just ignored it, thinking that there will be sufficient space to accommodate all. Let me tell you I was wrong, very wrong.

So on that day I went to the lecture hall in aerospace building @ 13:30 hrs, only to find that people were not allowed inside unless they had a badge, which they receive only if they have pre-registered. I was disappointed but the girl at the welcoming desk gave me a slight hope that if by 14:00 hrs the badges left on the table are not taken then I could just pick up one of them and get into the hall. Along with me there were 30 others who had not registered and were waiting anxiously. I could have easily picked someone else's badge and just walked into the lecture hall but I have my own principles and my inner conscience did not allow me to do so. So I just waited, hoping against hope that I would get a chance to watch Walter Lewin LIVE.

Finally @ 14:00 there were sufficient badges left which were not picked up by people who had pre-registered so the rest of us waiting for a chance to barge into the hall picked one each and got into the hall by the back entrance. The lecture hall was jam packed with audience, young and old and all waiting to hear this great man talk.

Walter Lewin, the professor at MIT is known world wide for his amazing lectures on principles of physics and the way he teaches them to his students. Today he was going to teach us the physics behind rainbows & skies. before beginning the lecture he posed a few questions to the audience which are:

1) Whats the radius of the rainbow?

2) Whats the colour sequence of the rainbow?

3) Is the sky darker or lighter on the inside of the bow?

4) Do we get to see a second bow or perhaps even a third bow?

5) Is the light in the rainbow polarized?

To my amazement even though I had looked at rainbows before I had no clue to the answer to these questions except for the second one and this too I just knew the colour sequence but not which colour on the inside and which on the outside. Walter Lewin quoted "Anyone can look at art but it takes education to see art" and this amazing quality of his which infuses the knowledge into his students is what makes him unique.

The lecture began and in due course he went step by step starting from incidence angle from the sun to the refracted angle to the principle behind diffraction and other terms in physics to make his audience understand the concept. The lecture was well delivered and bang on target. The audience were awestruck and listened with the greatest of interest, I must admit I have never seen such a large crowd being totally glued to a lecture for the full 120 minutes. This is truly great of Walter Lewin.

At the end of the lecture the audience were able to answer all of the questions above and that too not with just figures and numbers but with the scientific principles behind getting those numbers. As Prof Lewin said before the start this lecture would change your life for ever and indeed it did change my life about the understanding of the principles behind rainbows and skies.

For those who missed this live lecture there is always 'youtube' and 'collegerama' (TU Delft's own lecture video portal)

My experience with 'The Yellow Man'

I was once again deputed to Alwar for the project I am working on ( this trip being my 5th this year) by my boss. Being at Alwar at this time of the year was no fun at all. First of all the Sun was burning down,pouring out all its heat and making Alwar one of the hottest places in North India (mind you 48 degree Celsius and hot dry wind). The second reason for it not being a fun trip is because I have already been to Alwar 7 times. But during this trip I found some good dinner companions. Let me take you through the happenings of what would happen during dinner time.

My dinner companions were Chinese (totally 3 of them). I had a good time because I usually used to have dinner all by myself which was quite boring. These guys would drive up to 'Big Bazaar' every other day after work and buy raw vegetables which includes: garlic,coriander,capsicum,green chillies and some more stuff. They would also buy bottles of beer outside,not from the hotel as the hotel was selling them at higher price( smart people aren't they?). I would go for dinner at say around 20:00 hrs and would find the three of them occupying the same dinner table every other day. I was pleased to join their company and as soon as I occupy my position at the dinner table I would be poured a glass of coca cola. The irony is that the guy would tell me that soft drink is bad for health but would keep pouring coca cola into my glass. When I refuse more he would say 'no problem' have more. These guys have bought some kind of pickle from China and would eat the vegetables I mentioned above along with this pickle. Mind you eating raw vegetables,weird isn't it? Out of the 3 guys only one fellow knew English to a decent extent. Whatever communication i had to do was with this man who would then translate my words to his pals. Also if I speak too fast he would not understand so I had to slow down my pace to the least possible. Many of the words which we take for granted is not understood by them. For example words like 'shy','global','architecture' and many more they would not understand. They would type these words into their Chinese-English dictionary and then shake their heads saying 'ooooo'.

After they finish off with their raw vegetables they would order 'veg chowmein' and gobble up the noodles by bending their heads low into the chowmein bowl,one noodle string after another. I would order my usual stuff- a soup first,followed by Naan and a side dish. Most of the days I wouldn't need a dessert because I would have coca cola with me. These guys would not try any Indian dish because they do not like to experiment so it was noodles everyday for them. I introduced them to Indian vegetable hot and sour soup which they liked and I am glad that they enjoyed it. They also enjoyed the 'Garlic naan' and now that would be their main course whenever they felt bored of noodles. It was quite interesting to get along with them, learning new things from them.

Our conversations would mostly linger about the Chinese and Indian economy, the different ways the Chinese do things and about how China is different from India. The guy who knew English to a decent extent would keep telling me that Chinese economy is 2nd in the world,only next to the American economy. I would be thinking in my mind " Buddy, wait and watch how India overtakes you in a decade". Frankly speaking we Indians have a edge over the Chinese because we speak quite good English, this is plain truth yet Indian students are asked for TOEFL and IELTS. We would then talk about how American economy is going down and how the third Asian countries are playing a major part in the world economy now. Once I stumbled upon the topic of Tibet and this guy got wild about it,cursing Dalai Lama for trying to snatch Tibet away from China. The guy is loyal to his country I tell you and who wouldn't be? But when we touched upon Kashmir he coolly tells me 40% belongs to India,30% to Pakistan and the rest to China. I was thinking " what the Hell did you just say Mister?" Kashmir belongs solely to India,you guys have infiltrated into its territory and now claim that its yours. Not fair Yellow Man, stick on to your virtues.

Our daily dinner conversations brought us closer and he invited me to Beijing. He said I could drop into his home any time I wanted and his daughter would take me round the city. Boy! this would be just amazing. Did you guys know that having a second child in China could mean you could lose your job? Yes its true. The population of China is so much that the government has imposed this law of having only one child for a couple. So my friend tells me that even though he wants to have a second child he is not allowed to have one. In a few years time would India too have certain laws to curb the population which is growing by millions everyday? Did you guys know that covering a distance of 2000 Km in China by train would mean that you have to sit only for 14 hours. Wow that's amazing, the kind of trains they have-the fast electric ones. Hats off you 'Yellow Men'. India would still take its time in getting such trains to revolutionize travel. This guy tells me that he has visited only 15 countries and I start wondering Buddy I haven't stepped out of India and you say ONLY 15!!!

We would finally break off after about one and half hours,wishing each other good night and getting ready for work the next day. Its amazing that we find different people from different cultures, interacting with them,learning new things and at the end of the day pack off as good friends. I must say 'The Chinese' are very hard working and intelligent people. If they could speak flawless English as we do there would be no race between China & India as they would have already reached the finish line. But every country has its own strengths and weaknesses.