science for everyone

Mexico re-tests swine flu cases

2009-04-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

Stricter swine flu tests have cut the number of confirmed deaths in Mexico, where the virus was first reported, from 20 to seven, authorities say. But officials warned the number of deaths likely to have been caused by swine flu has risen to 159 with more than 1,300 patients under observation. The number of cases globally is rising though no-one outside Mexico has died.
Germany has become the latest country to confirm cases of the virus, reporting three sufferers. Spain and the UK earlier confirmed two cases each and six other EU states have been monitoring patients suspected of having the virus.

At 64, the US has the greatest number of confirmed cases outside Mexico. The state of California has declared a state of emergency and President Barack Obama is asking Congress for an additional $1.5bn dollars to bolster the US response.
A US federal health official, Dr Richard Besser of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Tuesday: "As we continue to investigate cases here, I expect that we will see deaths in this country."
Canada, New Zealand and Israel have also detected the virus, and other states with suspected cases include Australia, South Korea and Peru.

Confusion

In Mexico, there is some confusion over exactly how many people died from the virus, the BBC's Stephen Gibbs reports. This is largely because the government is now subjecting the samples it has from deceased patients to a more laborious verification process. Meanwhile, the search for the source of the outbreak continues, with the focus on the vicinity of a pig farm in the eastern part of the country. The Mexican government is urging against jumping to conclusions and is suggesting the possibility remains that the virus originated outside the country, our correspondent adds.

The World Health Organisation has called a meeting of scientific experts for Wednesday to discuss the situation and the exact nature of the outbreak. arlier, it confirmed that the flu was being transmitted between humans and called on countries to check their contingency plans for a possible pandemic. But the WHO also urged caution, saying measures like travel bans were unlikely to prove effective. Spain is one of the countries outside the Americas most vulnerable to the virus because of the sheer volume of its air passenger traffic with Mexico. It has two confirmed cases of swine flu and a further 32 people are undergoing tests.

The government says the situation is "under control", that no lives are at risk and that there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission within Spain. Instead, it says all those under observation fell ill after visiting Mexico. All incoming passengers from that country and the US are being asked to fill in forms with medical information and contact details and airlines have been ordered to carry surgical masks. With more than 30,000 passengers a month travelling from Mexico to Madrid, swine flu is a logistical challenge, the BBC's Steve Kingstone reports from the Spanish capital. The authorities are preparing for the long haul, our correspondent says. (Begini nih, kalo larangan ayat Allah ttg babi dilanggar......)

mobil entreuk dan tangga

2008-12-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

Menurut hukum Newton ke 1, sebuah benda..kalo lagi bergerak, ya akan bergerak terus dengan laju yang sama,juga arah yang sama...kecuali kalo benda tadi dikasih gaya sehingga gayanya ngga balans(setimbang maksudnya). Yang begini nich udah takdirnya benda untuk terus bergerak kalo lagi bergerak, gituh. Semua benda tuh males berubah dari posisinya semula (ya kayak pejabat...sudah duduk lupa berdiri). Kalo resultan gayanya nol, ya benda yg bergerak tadi tetap aja pada posisinya..ya terus bergerak. Yang begini nich disebut hukum kelembaman.
Nah, supaya ngerti, coba klik judul di atas.Ok..

Future Education... Holistic

2008-12-20T05:05:00.000-08:00

Soal2 Fisika

2008-11-05T05:44:00.000-08:00

2008-09-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

CHAOTIC OSCILLATIONS.
Chaotic pendulum.
The apparatus consists of a double upper arm
connected to a bearing mounted support with 360 of
freedom and a shorter lower pendulum mounted
between the upper pendulum arms which also has 360
of freedom. The apparatus is released at the top of it's
arc of motion with the pendulums together and results
in a different pattern of motion each time it is released.

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION.
Oscillations: Mass on a Spring.
'mass-compensated'. It is more tightly wound at the top than at the bottom, to
compensate for the weight of the hanging spring. When hanging, the smaller diameter end is at the top, and the larger diameter end is at the bottom. Do not overload
the spring!

The 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower

2008-07-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2008: Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show.
"The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "There should be plenty of meteors--perhaps one or two every minute."

Above: A Perseid meteor over Joshua Tree National Park in California, August 11, 2007. Credit: Joe Westerberg. [more]

The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is far away, currently located beyond the orbit of Uranus, a trail of debris from the comet stretches all the way back to Earth. Crossing the trail in August, Earth will be pelted by specks of comet dust hitting the atmosphere at 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a flimsy speck of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it disintegrates--a meteor! Because, Swift-Tuttle's meteors streak out of the constellation Perseus, they are called "Perseids."

(Note: In the narrative that follows, all times are local. For instance, 9:00 pm means 9:00 pm in your time zone, where you live. )
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Serious meteor hunters will begin their watch early, on Monday evening, August 11th, around 9 pm when Perseus first rises in the northeast. This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.

"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.
A warm summer night. Bright meteors skipping overhead. And the peak is yet to come. What could be better?
The answer lies halfway up the southern sky: Jupiter and the gibbous Moon converge on August 11th and 12th for a close encounter in the constellation Sagittarius: sky map. It's a grand sight visible even from light-polluted cities.
For a while the beautiful Moon will interfere with the Perseids, lunar glare wiping out all but the brightest meteors. Yin-yang. The situation reverses itself at 2 am on Tuesday morning, August 12th, when the Moon sets and leaves behind a dark sky for the Perseids. The shower will surge into the darkness, peppering the sky with dozens and perhaps hundreds of meteors until dawn.

Above: The eastern sky viewed during the hours before sunrise on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008.

For maximum effect, "get away from city lights," Cooke advises. The brightest Perseids can be seen from cities, he allows, but the greater flurry of faint, delicate meteors is visible only from the countryside. (Scouts, this is a good time to go camping.)
The Perseids are coming. Enjoy the show!

Qualities of Spiritual Maturity

2008-07-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Spirituality in education could promote the following qualities of spiritual maturity.

love, compassion and service: Love and compassion are often associated with the beginning of a true spiritual life. Love dissolves confusion and fear and elicits kindness, openness and respect. Unless we love and trust ourselves, we cannot love others. Compassion goes beyond a personal form of love to a love of all creation.
honesty and authenticity: No longer lying to ourselves and others about what we are doing and what the consequences are. To live as we really are without delusion about the reality of the past, the present, our selfhood and behaviours.
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual clarity: Physical clarity has to do with attention to the body's health and real needs. Mental and emotional clarity have to do with awareness, discernment and lucidity. Spiritual clarity has to do with wholeness, simplicity and sensitivity.
responsibility and discipline: Becoming accountable for ourselves without feeling excessively responsible for others. Dependable and creative completion of our responsibilities and a disciplined approach to personal growth.
serenity: A state of equanimity, inner tranquillity and peacefulness in the face of challenge and change.
personal freedom: Letting go of attachments and living questions and problems into answers and opportunities without drama, escape, or avoidance.
tolerance and patience: The ability to embrace self and 'the other' in spite of perceived weakness or difference. To even move beyond tolerance to acceptance and celebration of difference and diversity. Patience means to take events and experiences as they come without complaint or expectation. It also means all things have a natural time and place to be.
faith, trust, and inner security: The ability to live without anxiety or doubt. An inner security free of fear and deprivation.
wisdom and understanding: Deep insight, possible at any age, expressed through everyday action.
gratitude, humility and willingness: Gratitude is the recognition of the little miracles that occur everyday. Humility is the ability to move beyond arrogance and grandiosity toward an honest acceptance of ourselves with all our perceived limitations and faults.
hope, happiness, joy, and humour: Hope and happiness are states of well-being and contentment emanating from a deep feeling of inner wealth irrespective of outer events or experiences. Joy and humour spring from a warm heart and a sense of the 'cosmic game'.
connection with the earth, nature and everyday life: Even though we may find great inspiration in sacred systems or transcendent experiences, we recognise the sacredness of daily activities, other people, other life forms, inanimate matter, and nature. "It's no good being an angel if you're no earthly use."
living in the present moment: The ability to live in the present rather escaping to the past or the future. The ability to constantly 'let go'.
a sense of wonder, mystery, and reverence: A direct experience of the cosmos which is unitive, inclusive, and expansive. A sense of being aware of the profound interconnectedness of all creation.
a sense of purpose and place in space and time: A sense of the unique and necessary place and personal contribution of each individual being in the world. "Where does my deep gladness meet the world's deep need?"

Reference : Grof, Christina. The Thirst for Wholeness HarperCollins, 1994.

Apollo Relic Reveals its Secrets

2008-06-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

June 20, 2008: Imagine landing on the Moon, climbing down the ladder of your spacecraft, and looking around the harsh lunar landscape—to see another, older spacecraft standing only 200 yards away.

That's exactly what happened in November 1969, when astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean stepped out of the Apollo 12 lunar module। There, within walking distance on the edge of a small crater, stood Surveyor 3, an unmanned U.S. spacecraft that had landed in April 1967.

Right: Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad inspects Surveyor 3. Conrad's own spaceship, the Intrepid, can be seen 200 yards away in the background. [More] [Stereo View]

Apollo 12's landing site had been chosen deliberately near Surveyor 3. The little lander had spent two and a half years exposed to the worst the Moon had to offer: harsh vacuum, intense cosmic radiation, meteoritic bombardment, extreme temperature swings. Back on Earth, NASA engineers wanted to know how metals, glass and other spacecraft building materials held up to that kind of punishment. Inspecting Surveyor 3 first hand seemed a good way to find out.

On their second four-hour EVA, Bean and Conrad walked over to Surveyor 3, took dozens of photographs and measurements, and began snipping off parts of metal tubing and electrical cables. They retrieved a camera. The very last thing they removed was a small scoop at the end of Surveyor's extendable arm, which had dug into the dry moon dust and gravel to make mechanical measurements of lunar soil.

The little scoop, the camera, and other artifacts returned to Earth were analyzed and then put in storage. At some point in the intervening four decades, the scoop, owned by Johnson Space Center, was transferred on permanent loan to a space museum in Kansas. And there matters quietly lay ... until recently when researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) realized that that little scoop could hold big secrets.

Namely, the secrets of digging on the Moon.

NASA is returning to the Moon with plans to establish an outpost--and this will inevitably require some digging. The rocky, dusty lunar soil or "regolith" contains many of the natural resources humans need to live. For instance, there is plentiful oxygen bound up in ordinary moon rocks and, in polar regions, deposits of frozen water may lie hidden in the soil of shadowed craters. All that's required is a little excavation.

But how? Lunar regolith is not like terrestrial soil. Here on Earth, the sand beneath our feet is shaped by a combination of biological and meteorological forces. Terrestrial soil is moist, rounded by weather, and utterly familiar. Lunar regolith, on the other hand, is a dry, glassy substance pounded into dusty smithereens by eons of meteoritic bombardment. It's not going to respond to a shovel--or a scoop--like terra firma.

Right: A micro-photo of lunar regolith. The sample is a mixture of volcanic glass beads, sharp-edged fragments of "impact glass", rock fragments and more. Photo courtesy of Larry Taylor, University of Tennessee.

"To design lunar digging equipment, we need to predict the forces required to move a scoop or other implement through lunar regolith," says Allen Wilkinson, team leader of the ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) Regolith Characterization team at the Glenn Research Center.

Surveyor 3 and a sister ship Surveyor 7 actually dug into the Moon and measured how hard their drive motors had to work to scoop, press, and scrape the soil. To interpret those measurements more than 40 years later, however, Wilkinson's team needs to know the dimensions of the Surveyor scoops. Unfortunately, they learned, the blueprints had been lost! Only a scoop itself could provide the answer.

That sent Wilkinson to Hutchinson, Kansas, in April 2007 to borrow the Surveyor 3 scoop from the Kansas State Cosmosphere in order to make detailed measurements.

Right: Surveyor 3 scoop being examined by four of the members of the Regolith Characterization team; from left to right they are Xiangwu (David) Zeng, Enrique Rame, Allen Wilkinson, and Juan Agui. Copyright 2007 Trudy E. Bell.

Measuring the scoop, however, would prove to be no simple matter. You can't just lay a ruler along the scoop and read off the dimensions. Indeed, you can't touch it at all. The Surveyor 3 scoop is in an airtight triangular container, and NASA curators do not wish the scoop to be removed because handling in air will degrade the historical fidelity of the unique artifact.

So the Glenn team borrowed photogrammetry apparatus from the Kennedy Space Center. Photogrammetry is a technique of measuring objects strictly from photographs. They have a photographic studio setup with a white background. GRC team member Juan Agui, an expert in digging force experiments, photographed the scoop in its container next to a standard photogrammetry cube, which has a precise checkerboard pattern on it. Then, using software, Robert Mueller of the Kennedy Space Center extracted dimensions using mathematical triangulation, measuring from points on the scoop to points where corners of dark checks meet on the cube. The software was developed for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board activity.

Right: Surveyor 3 scoop inside its glass container. A fountain pen in the foreground gives the image scale. Another photo shows the interior of the scoop. Copyright 2007 Trudy E. Bell.

"Photogrammetry is pretty good," Agui remarks. "We got measurements of the scoop accurate to 0.030 or 0.040 inch (~1 mm)."

They've since constructed a replica of the scoop and now they are using it to dig into simulated lunar regolith.

"Measurements of digging forces are underway," he says. The replicated scoop plunges into a rectangular "soil bed" filled with JSC-1a, a man-made moondust substitute that closely matches the known properties of lunar regolith, while a computer monitors bearing forces. "Our team is quite pleased to find that the measurements appear to be close to reproducing [the best] Surveyor 7 data from the Moon."

With this test bed in place, the team can, e.g., move forward to test alternate scoop designs and refine theories of lunar soil mechanics. "Obtaining the Surveyor replica really made the difference," says Agui.

The secrets of digging on the Moon are being revealed।

Source : http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/20jun_apollorelic.htm?list1073731

Exercises

2008-05-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

1. One newton is equivalent to
(a) one kilogram meter.
(b) one kilogram meter per second.
(c) one kilogram meter per second squared.
(d) one meter per second squared.

2. A mass of 19 kg moves at a constant speed of 1.0 m/s relative to an observer.
From the point of view of the observer, what is the magnitude of the force vector
on that mass? Assume the mass travels in a straight line.
(a) 19 newtons.
(b) 0.053 newtons.
(c) 1 newton.
(d) 0 newtons.

3. A velocity vector has components of
(a) magnitude and direction.
(b) speed and mass.
(c) time and mass.
(a) speed and time.

4. The gravitational acceleration of the Earth, near the surface, is 9.81 m/s2. If a
brick of mass 3.00 kg is dropped from a great height, how far will the brick fall
in 2.00 s?
(a) 6.00 m.
(b) 29.4 m.
(c) 19.6 m.
(d) 58.8 m.

5. Suppose that the mass of the brick in quiz item 4 has a mass of only 1.00 kg.
How far will this brick fall in 2.00 s?
(a) 2.00 m.
(b) 19.6 m.
(c) 29.4 m.
(d) 9.80 m.

6. What would happen if Earth’s gravitational pull on the Moon suddenly stopped?
(a) Nothing.
(b) The Moon would fly out of Earth orbit.
(c) The Moon would fall into the Earth.
(d) The Moon would fall into the Sun.

7. A mass vector consists of
(a) weight and direction.
(b) weight and speed.
(c) weight and time.
(d) There is no such thing; mass is not a vector.
8. You are docking a small boat. As you approach the dock, you leap from the
boat. You fall short of the dock and land in the water because the boat was
thrust backward when you jumped forward. This is a manifestation of
(a) Newton’s first law.
(b) Newton’s second law.
(c) Newton’s third law.
(d) the fact that weight is not the same thing as mass.

9. In three-dimensional space, the direction of a vector might be described in
terms of
(a) right ascension and declination.
(b) distance and speed.
(c) time and distance.
(d) its length.
10. While driving on a level straightaway, you hit the brakes. The acceleration vector
(a) points in the direction the car is traveling.
(b) points opposite to the direction the car is traveling.
(c) points at a right angle to the direction the car is traveling.
(d) does not exist; it is zero.

Exercise : in Indonesia

2008-05-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Exercise : motion

2008-05-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

P R O B L E M S

1.   A bicyclist starts from rest and after traveling
along a straight path a distance of 20 m reaches a speed
of 30 km/h. Determine his acceleration if it is constant.
Also, how long does it take to reach the speed of 30 km/h?

2.   A car starts from rest and reaches a speed of 80 ft/s
after traveling 500 ft along a straight road. Determine its
constant acceleration and the time of travel.
3.   A stone A is dropped from rest down a well, and
in 1 s another stone B is dropped from rest. Determine
the time interval between the instant A strikes the water
and the instant B strikes the water. Also, at what speed
do they strike the water?

4.   Ball A is released from rest at a height of 40 ft
at the same time that a second ball B is thrown upward
5 ft from the ground. If the balls pass one another at a
height of 20 ft, determine the speed at which ball B was
thrown upward.

Exercise : Motion, Heat

2008-05-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

Exercise 1

1   A car travels along a straight road. The speedometer readings after every 5 s is tabulated below.
        Time (s)                                      Speed (m/s)
            0                                                        0
            5                                                        10
            10                                                      20
            15                                                      30
            20                                                     30
            25                                                     30
            30                                                     30
            35                                                     15
            40                                                     0

(a) Draw a speed - time graph to show the variation os speed with time.
(b) Describe the motion of the car
(c) How far from the starting point is the car after 20 s ?
(d) What is the total distance travelled by the car ?
(e) What is the average speed of the car ?

Exercise 2

1. A student has been asked to determine, as accurately as possible, the external diameter and length of a plastic tube. The plastic tube is about 0.6 cm diameter and 10 cm in long.
Which pair of measuring instruments should the student use ?
          Length                         Diameter
(A)    micrometer                 metre rule
(B)   vernier calipers           micrometer
(C)   vernier calipers           vernier
(D)   micrometer                  calipers
                                                                                 (B)

2. The diagram below shows part of a vernier scale.

What is the correct reading ?
(A)   30.5 mm                    (B)   32.5 mm
(C)   37.0 mm                    (D)   43.0 mm
                                                                         (B)
3.  A tunnel has a length of 2.5 km. A car takes 4 min to travel between the two ends of the tunnel. What is the average speed of the car ?
(A) 10.42 m/s                    (B)    0.69 m/s
(C) 42.67 m/s                    (D)   625 m/s              (A)

4.   A car takes 1 hour to travel 50 km along a highway and then 0.3 hour to travel 15 km along a side road. What is the average speed of the car for the whole journey ?
(A)   45 km/ h                    (B)   50 km/h
(C)   55 km/h                     (D)   60 km/h             (B)

5.   Which quantity X is calculated using this equation ?

(A)   Instantaneous velocity          (B)   Average speed
(C)   Average velocity                     (D)   Acceleration                    (B)

6.   A stone falls freely from the top of a cliff into the sea. Air resistance may be ignored. Which statement describes its motion ?
(A)   It falls with decreasing speed                 (B)   It falls with decreasing acceleration
(C)   It falls with constant speed                     (D)   It falls with constant acceleration
                                                                                                                                                           (D)

7.   A car accelerates from traffic lights. The graph shows how the car's speed changes with time.

How far does the car travel before it reaches a steady speed ?
(A)   10 m                       (B)   20 m
(C)   100 m                     (D) 200 m                             (C)

8.   An aeroplane is launched vertically upwards into the air and its velocity - time graph is shown below.

What is the maximum displacement made by the aeroplane ?
(A)   30 m                         (B)   60 m
(C)   120 m                       (D)   240 m                            (C)

9.   A trolley runs down a slope from rest. In the first 3 seconds it travels 3.2 m. What is the constant acceleration ?
                     (C)

10.   A girl throws a stone vertically up to a woman standing at a height of 2.0 m above the woman. If the stone is thrown up with a velocity of 7.0 m/s, what is the velocity of the stone at the instant when it is caught by the woman ?
(A)   3.0 m/s                    (B)   6.2 m/s
(C)   9.0 m/s                    (D)   9.4 m/s                           (A)

11.   Which states of matter are very difficult to compress and has a fixed volume ?
(A)   Solid, liquid and gas
(B)   Solid and liquid only
(C)   Liquid only
(D)   Solid only                                    (B)
12. The graph shows the change in temperature of a material as it is heated. Which part on the graph shows when the material is boiling ?

(A)   A         (B)   B          (C)   C        (D)   D                                         (D)

13.   The graph shows the speed of a car as it accelerates from rest. What can be said about the acceleration of the car ?

(A)   increases throughout the journey
(B)   decreases throughout the journey
(C)   increases, becomes constant and then decreases
(D)   decreases, becomes constant and then increases                      (C)

14. The graph shows how the speed of an object varies with time.

Which of the following is correct ?
(A)   The average speed of the object during the first 4 s is 20 m/s
(B)   The acceleration of the object during the first second is 20 m/s2
(C)   The deceleration of the object is 10 m/s2
(D)   The object is traveling at a constant speed during the last second             (B)

THE RIGHT KIND OF EDUCATION

2008-05-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

THE ignorant man is not the unlearned, but he who does not know himself, and the learned man is stupid when he relies on books, on knowledge and on authority to give him understanding. Understanding comes only through self-knowledge, which is awareness of one's total psychological process. Thus education, in the true sense, is the understanding of oneself, for it is within each one of us that the whole of existence is gathered.
What we now call education is a matter of accumulating information and knowledge from books, which anyone can do who can read. Such education offers a subtle form of escape from ourselves and, like all escapes, it inevitably creates increasing misery. Conflict and confusion result from our own wrong relationship with people, things and ideas, and until we understand that relationship and alter it, mere learning, the gathering of facts and the acquiring of various skills, can only lead us to engulfing chaos and destruction.
...
Life is pain, joy, beauty, ugliness, love, and when we understand it as a whole, at every level, that understanding creates its own technique. But the contrary is not true: technique can never bring about creative understanding.
Present-day education is a complete failure because it has overemphasized technique. In overemphasizing technique we destroy man. To cultivate capacity and efficiency without understanding life, without having a comprehensive perception of the ways of thought and desire, will only make us increasingly ruthless, which is to engender wars and jeopardize our physical security. The exclusive cultivation of technique has produced scientists, mathematicians, bridge builders, space conquerors; but do they understand the total process of life? Can any specialist experience life as a whole? Only when he ceases to be a specialist.
...
Without understanding ourselves, mere occupation leads to frustration, with its inevitable escapes through all kinds of mischievous activities. Technique without understanding leads to enmity and ruthlessness, which we cover up with pleasant-sounding phrases. Of what value is it to emphasize technique and become efficient entities if the result is mutual destruction? Our technical progress is fantastic, but it has only increased our powers of destroying one another, and there is starvation and misery in every land. We are not peaceful and happy people.
When function is all-important, life becomes dull and boring, a mechanical and sterile routine from which we escape into every kind of distraction. The accumulation of facts and the development of capacity, which we call education, has deprived us of the fullness of integrated life and action. It is because we do not understand the total process of life that we cling to capacity and efficiency, which thus assume overwhelming importance. But the whole cannot be understood through the part; it can be understood only through action and experience.

Education and the Significance of Life

2008-04-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia. This is especially true in colleges and universities. We are turning out, as if through a mould, a type of human being whose chief interest is to find security, to become somebody important, or to have a good time with as little thought as possible.
Conventional education makes independent thinking extremely difficult. Conformity leads to mediocrity. To be different from the group or to resist environment is not easy and is often risky as long as we worship success. The urge to be successful, which is the pursuit of reward whether in the material or in the so-called spiritual sphere, the search for inward or outward security, the desire for comfort - this whole process smothers discontent, puts an end to spontaneity and breeds fear; and fear blocks the intelligent understanding of life. With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.
In seeking comfort, we generally find a quiet corner in life where there is a minimum of conflict, and then we are afraid to step out of that seclusion. This fear of life, this fear of struggle and of new experience, kills in us the spirit of adventure; our whole upbringing and education have made us afraid to be different from our neighbour, afraid to think contrary to the established pattern of society, falsely respectful of authority and tradition.
Fortunately, there are a few who are in earnest, who are willing to examine our human problems without the prejudice of the right or of the left; but in the vast majority of us, there is no real spirit of discontent, of revolt. When we yield uncomprehendingly to environment, any spirit of revolt that we may have had dies down, and our responsibilities soon put an end to it.
Revolt is of two kinds: there is violent revolt, which is mere reaction, without understanding, against the existing order; and there is the deep psychological revolt of intelligence. There are many who revolt against the established orthodoxies only to fall into new orthodoxies, further illusions and concealed self-indulgences. What generally happens is that we break away from one group or set of ideals and join another group, take up other ideals, thus creating a new pattern of thought against which we will again have to revolt. Reaction only breeds opposition, and reform needs further reform.
But there is an intelligent revolt which is not reaction, and which comes with self-knowledge through the awareness of one's own thought and feeling. It is only when we face experience as it comes and do not avoid disturbance that we keep intelligence highly awakened; and intelligence highly awakened is intuition, which is the only true guide in life.
Now, what is the significance of life? What are we living and struggling for? If we are being educated merely to achieve distinction, to get a better job, to be more efficient, to have wider domination over others, then our lives will be shallow and empty. If we are being educated only to be scientists, to be scholars wedded to books, or specialists addicted to knowledge, then we shall be contributing to the destruction and misery of the world.
Though there is a higher and wider significance to life, of what value is our education if we never discover it? We may be highly educated, but if we are without deep integration of thought and feeling, our lives are incomplete, contradictory and torn with many fears; and as long as education does not cultivate an integrated outlook on life, it has very little significance.
In our present civilization we have divided life into so many departments that education has very little meaning, except in learning a particular technique or profession. Instead of awakening the integrated intelligence of the individual, education is encouraging him to conform to a pattern and so is hindering his comprehension of himself as a total process. To attempt to solve the many problems of existence at their respective levels, separated as they are into various categories, indicates an utter lack of comprehension.
The individual is made up of different entities, but to emphasize the differences and to encourage the development of a definite type leads to many complexities and contradictions. Education should bring about the integration of these separate entities - for without integration, life becomes a series of conflicts and sorrows. Of what value is it to be trained as lawyers if we perpetuate litigation? Of what value is knowledge if we continue in our confusion? What significance has technical and industrial capacity if we use it to destroy one another? What is the point of our existence if it leads to violence and utter misery? Though we may have money or are capable of earning it, though we have our pleasures and our organized religions, we are in endless conflict.
We must distinguish between the personal and the individual. The personal is the accidental; and by the accidental I mean the circumstances of birth, the environment in which we happen to have been brought up, with its nationalism, superstitions, class distinctions and prejudices. The personal or accidental is but momentary, though that moment may last a lifetime; and as the present system of education is based on the personal, the accidental, the momentary, it leads to perversion of thought and the inculcation of self-defensive fears.
All of us have been trained by education and environment to seek personal gain and security, and to fight for ourselves. Though we cover it over with pleasant phrases, we have been educated for various professions within a system which is based on exploitation and acquisitive fear. Such a training must inevitably bring confusion and misery to ourselves and to the world, for it creates in each individual those psychological barriers which separate and hold him apart from others.
Education is not merely a matter of training the mind. Training makes for efficiency, but it does not bring about completeness. A mind that has merely been trained is the continuation of the past, and such a mind can never discover the new. That is why, to find out what is right education, we will have to inquire into the whole significance of living.
To most of us, the meaning of life as a whole is not of primary importance, and our education emphasizes secondary values, merely making us proficient in some branch of knowledge. Though knowledge and efficiency are necessary, to lay chief emphasis on them only leads to conflict and confusion.
There is an efficiency inspired by love which goes far beyond and is much greater than the efficiency of ambition; and without love, which brings an integrated understanding of life, efficiency breeds ruthlessness. Is this not what is actually taking place all over the world? Our present education is geared to industrialization and war, its principal aim being to develop efficiency; and we are caught in this machine of ruthless competition and mutual destruction. If education leads to war, if it teaches us to destroy or be destroyed, has it not utterly failed?
To bring about right education, we must obviously understand the meaning of life as a whole, and for that we have to be able to think, not consistently, but directly and truly. A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove. We cannot understand existence abstractly or theoretically. To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education.
Education is not merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the significance of life as a whole. But the whole cannot be approached through the part - which is what governments, organized religions and authoritarian parties are attempting to do.
The function of education is to create human beings who are integrated and therefore intelligent. We may take degrees and be mechanically efficient without being intelligent. Intelligence is not mere information; it is not derived from books, nor does it consist of clever self-defensive responses and aggressive assertions. One who has not studied may be more intelligent than the learned. We have made examinations and degrees the criterion of intelligence and have developed cunning minds that avoid vital human issues. Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.
Education should help us to discover lasting values so that we do not merely cling to formulas or repeat slogans; it should help us to break down our national and social barriers, instead of emphasizing them, for they breed antagonism between man and man. Unfortunately, the present system of education is making us subservient, mechanical and deeply thoughtless; though it awakens us intellectually, inwardly it leaves us incomplete, stultified and uncreative.
Without an integrated understanding of life, our individual and collective problems will only deepen and extend. The purpose of education is not to produce mere scholars, technicians and job hunters, but integrated men and women who are free of fear; for only between such human beings can there be enduring peace.
It is in the understanding of ourselves that fear comes to an end. If the individual is to grapple with life from moment to moment, if he is to face its intricacies, its miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable and therefore free of theories and particular patterns of thought.
Education should not encourage the individual to conform to society or to be negatively harmonious with it, but help him to discover the true values which come with unbiased investigation and self-awareness. When there is no self-knowledge, self-expression becomes self-assertion, with all its aggressive and ambitious conflicts. Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and not merely indulge in gratifying self-expression.
What is the good of learning if in the process of living we are destroying ourselves? As we are having a series of devastating wars, one right after another, there is obviously something radically wrong with the way we bring up our children. I think most of us are aware of this, but we do not know how to deal with it.
Systems, whether educational or political, are not changed mysteriously; they are transformed when there is a fundamental change in ourselves. The individual is of first importance, not the system; and as long as the individual does not understand the total process of himself, no system, whether of the left or of the right, can bring order and peace to the world.

by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Activities for student..

2008-04-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

What Is Science?
Science is not just a collection of facts. Of course, facts are an important
part of science: Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0 degrees
Celsius), and the earth moves around the sun. But science is much, much
more. Science involves:

★ Observing what’s happening;
★ Classifying or organizing information;
★ Predicting what will happen;
★ Testing predictions under controlled
conditions to see if they are correct; and
★ Drawing conclusions.
Science involves trial and error—trying, failing
and trying again. Science doesn’t provide all the answers. It requires us to
be skeptical so that our scientific “conclusions” can be modified or
changed altogether as we make new discoveries.

Children Have Their Own “Scientific Concepts”
Very young children can come up with many interesting explanations to
make sense of the world around them. When asked about the shape of
the earth, for example, some will explain that the earth has to be flat
because, if it were round like a ball, people and things would fall off it.
Presented with a globe and told that this is the true shape of the earth,
these children may adapt their explanation by saying that the earth is
hollow and that people live on flat ground inside it.

Helping Your Child Learn Science, U.S. Department of Education Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Washington, D.C., 2004.

2008-03-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

An example of constantly accelerated linear motion problem and it's solving. [Hibbeler, Dynamics]

Phyisics book for us..