Skip to main content

A Thermodynamics Tale

I have been reading 'The Most Powerful Idea in the World' by William Rosen - with much interest. Ever since I saw the book mentioned in Bill Gates annual letter to his trustees or something, I wanted to read it.

The reading did not start in a promising way. And then came James Watt. And the story of the condenser in the steam engine.

The story of how James Watt  while working on a steam engine finally figured out the condenser as an answer is worthy of thought. It is part science, part industriousness, part perseverance, part insight, part creativity and totally engrossing.

It struck me that in college, when we studied about the steam engine - we had but a theoretical rendering of the steam engine in Thermodynamics. There was no story there. We learnt about the steam engine in a matter of fact way, with about as much passion as one would read a telephone directory, totally bereft of the history or the emotion behind it. Or the time. Or the effort. Or the passion of a few men.

After all these years, I finally understood (or wanted to understand) how a steam engine came into being and the aa-ha moments in making that invention possible. And what an insightful read it was - far better than any textbook has ever treated it.

The book gets into the same level when it deals a little with metallurgy as well.

And it struck me that engineering and science can be taught with so much more passion - especially since it lends itself to active experimentation, day to day observation among other things.

Around the same time, I spotted this on Storify on 'making science narrative'.

There are arguments in making keeping textbooks bland which are about as valid as arguing in favour of a colourless world.

Clearly, an idea that has been missed no?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Most Powerful Idea in the World

The above titled book by William Rosen (and I am still reading it) has set me thinking. As it goes through the industrial revolution (rather, the beginning of it) - it explores as to why the industrial revolution happened when it happened. Rather, how a lot of factors came to play in making it happen. For that alone this book is worth a read. It is worth reading how a 'dotcom' kind of ecosystem existed in England with the combination of tinkerers, rich patrons, correspondence and of course, the right kind of institutions. When one studies engineering, or even science, what we hear are the rock star stories. For instance, we know that Archimedes had a 'Eureka' moment. Likewise, in this book, I realized how a 'Eureka' moment helped James Watt resolve the problematic steam engine into a workable design. While it is very romantic to believe that discoveries happen accidentally, the fact remains that somebody like a James Watt (or others) slogged through many man...
Post a Comment
Read more

Narendra Modi, Presentation Skills

This is the latest speech by Narendra Modi which was delivered yesterday at the India Today Conclave. Much analysis has been carried out on this speech, but here is a different perspective. I have written about Presentation skills - and to me this is a video that touches upon almost all aspects of presentation skills. For someone who wants to learn public speaking, presentation skills this speech is a great example. It is well worth your time, if you want to see presentation skills in action (and the bonus of a great speech). The speech is largely in Hindi, though there are parts in English as well.  Mr. Modi uses a video at the start (which is missing here) - so the speech uses other media as well - surprising the audience - since politicians arent generally given to videos. That initial video has made the audience look forward to more. The speech is extempore - which can only happen when one knows the subject thoroughly. I personally don't know how much Mr. Modi practices...
1 comment
Read more