Thoughts and quotes

 

Let us rise up to be thankful,

for if we didn’t learn a lot today,

at least we learned a little,

and if we didn’t learn a little,

at least we didn’t get sick,

and if we got sick,

at least we didn’t die;

so let us all be thankful!

~Buddha

 

A blind man once asked a wise man, “Can there be anything worse than losing one’s eye sight?”

The wise man replied, “Yes, losing one’s vision.”

~Anonymous

 

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because, someday in your life, you will have been all of these.

~George Washington Carver

 

There are only two lasting gifts we should give our children, one of these is roots, the other is wings.

~Anonymous

 

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.

~Winston Churchill

 

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

~Rumi

 

May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.

~Peter Marshall

Thoughts and quotes

 

Children are like buds in the garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow. Only through right education can a better order of society be built up.

~Jawaharlal Nehru

 

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

~APJ Abdul Kalam

 

The best thing to give an enemy is forgiveness

To an opponent, tolerance

To a friend, your heart

To your child, a good example

To a father, reverence

To your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you

To yourself, respect and to all, charity.

~Benjamin Franklin

 

For to be free, is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

~Nelson Mandela

 

Remember your mind is your greatest asset, so be careful what you put into it.

~Robert Kiyosaki

 

Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.

~Winston Churchill

Science

 

Natural Gas

Compressed natural gas CNG) is methane stored under high pressure. It is made by compressing methane to less than 1% of its volume. It is a non-toxic and relatively safe form of energy. It is mainly used in vehicles. This is important because as the world progressed, more petrol started to be consumed, which has proven to be toxic to the environment. In this context, CNG offers a more eco-friendly alternative to petrol.

History

In about 500 BC, the Chinese discovered places where natural gas seeped to the surface. They built crude pipelines using bamboo to transport the gas and used it to boil seawater. This separated the water from the salt, making the water potable and providing salt to season food.

 

The first commercial experiments with CNG took place in France in the 1850s. It eventually grew in popularity and during World War I, it was used as fuel for transport vehicles. By the 1960s, tests were being conducted by the Columbian government to see if the gas could power large carrier ships. The ships were to carry CNG in vertical pressure bottles. However, this design failed because of the high cost of the pressure vessels. In the following years, there were several attempts to develop CNG that could be used commercially. Once these attempts succeeded, CNG started to be transported across the world for commercial use.

The Process

Natural gas is usually found under the Earth’s surface. Sometimes, the pressure underground is high enough that the gas can flow naturally to the surface in liquid form. However, in most gas reservoirs, a pump helps extract the gas to the surface. The most common form of these pumps has a long rod attached to a deep piston well. The rod is pushed upwards and downwards, causing a difference in pressure, in which the gas fills. This eventually causes the gas to reach the surface. This gas usually contains some dirt and other impurities, which are filtered. After it has been filtered, the gas may be sent to a compression machine and transported via pipelines.

Sometimes, the gas may contain gas impurities such as butane or propane that are filtered and sold separately. This is done by bubbling the raw gas in a closed tower containing a cold absorption oil, which condenses the other unneeded gases and traps them. This absorption oil is then distilled and separated into individual components and sold. At this point, the purified gas is injected with a strong-smelling odour, which allows it to be easily identified in case of a leak. The gas is then transported through pipelines.

Applications

Natural gas can be used at home as well as in industry. It can be used to produce electricity by burning the natural gas, which helps spin turbine generators to produce electricity. In some cars, CNG can be used as a substitute for petrol.

It can also be used for heating as it is more effective than electric heating pumps. The heat from natural gas is delivered from forced-air systems at temperatures between 50 and 60°C. The air from an electric heating pump is typically delivered at 30 to 35°C, which is warm enough to heat a room, but much cooler than the average human temperature of 36 to 37°C. CNG can also be used for cooking at home and heating water.

 Advantages

Natural gas is a cleaner fuel as compared to other fossil fuels, which are detrimental to the planet.

It is cheaper and safer to use. It is also extremely abundant.

Nine out of 10 chefs prefer to cook on natural gas stoves as they have even heat distribution and accurate temperature control, helping food cook more evenly.

 Disadvantages

Natural gas is highly combustible, which means it could be potentially dangerous. However, a strong odour is added to it, which helps detects leaks.

It is extremely difficult to mine.

Even though natural gas is easier to store and transport, it has one significant disadvantage. Its volume happens to be four times that of petrol, which makes it more expensive to store since more needs to be spent on additional storage.

 

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

 Believe in Yourself

Some college students once asked their professor who his role model was.

After some moments, the professor replied, “The honey-bee!”

“You must be joking, sir,” the students blurted out in one voice.

“No, I am serious. The honey-bee is indeed my role model,” the professor said again, and went on to elaborate.

“Scientists say that as per aerodynamics, the honey-bee cannot fly; its wings are not proportionate to the shape and size of its body. And so, scientifically it is not possible for the bee to fly. But we all know that the bee flies ever so effortlessly. It does not know the above fact, and is not conditioned by it. The bee is aware of only one thing. It can, and is sure to, fly; and it does! This is what I admire most in the bee; its firm belief in its ability to fly that too in open defiance of science, if I may say so!”

It is said that the first secret of success is to believe in oneself. Therefore, firmly believe in yourself and your abilities. You are better than you think; more talented than you know; braver and more capable than you imagine. Follow your dreams, believe in yourselves, and don’t ever give up your efforts. Take cue from this quote from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam: “Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us, and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.”

Story

 You get when you give

Once, a group of 500 people were attending a seminar.

In between the speaker stopped and decided to conduct a group activity.

He started giving each person a balloon and then asked them to write their names on it using a marker pen.

Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

The people were then let into that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written on it within five minutes.

Everyone was frantically searching for their balloon, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of five minutes no one could find their own balloon.

Then, the speaker asked each person to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it.

Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker then explained: “This is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness; you will get your own happiness. And this is the purpose of human life... the pursuit of happiness!”

Story

 

True value of wealth

A miser, who never stopped worrying about the safety of his possessions, sold all his property and converted it into a huge lump of gold.

This he buried in a hole and every morning he went to visit it and gloat over its size.

The miser’s strange behaviour aroused the curiosity of a thief.

Spying on the rich man from some bushes, the thief saw him place the lump of gold back in the hole and cover it up.

As soon as the miser’s back was turned, the thief went to the spot, dug up the gold, and took it away.

The next morning, when the miser went to gloat over his treasure, he found nothing but an empty hole.

He wept and tore his hair, and so loud were his lamentations that his neighbour came running to see what the trouble was.

As soon as he had learned the cause of it, the neighbour said comfortingly, “You are foolish to distress yourself over something that was buried in the earth.

Take a stone and put it in the hole, and think that it is your gold.

You were never meant to use it anyway.

Therefore, it will do you just as much good to fondle a lump of granite as a lump of gold!

The true value of money is not in its possession, but in its use.

Science

 

Nuclear Energy

 

Nuclear energy is the energy stored inside an atom by the forces that hold together the nucleus of an atom.

Scientists have learned how to capture large amounts of energy from these forces, which can be used to generate electricity.

 

History

The idea of nuclear power began in the 1930s when physicist Enrico Fermi first showed that neutrons could split atoms.

In 1942, Fermi led a team that achieved the first nuclear chain reaction under a stadium at the University of Chicago, USA.

This was followed by a series of milestones in the 1950s, the first electricity produced from atomic energy at Idaho's Experimental Breeder Reactor I in 1951, the first nuclear power plant in the city of Obninsk in the former Soviet Union in 1954 and the first commercial nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1957.

 

The Process

The most fundamental formula for understanding how nuclear energy is produced is E=mc².

This formula demonstrates that matter can be converted into energy.

It also demonstrates that a large amount of energy can be generated from a very small amount of matter.

 

Nuclear energy

Nuclear energy is the energy at the centre of an atom.

Atoms make up everything around us and the whole universe.

In a process called fission, atoms are broken apart and energy is released.

This energy can be used to generate electricity at power plants.

The primary way this energy is produced is with the help of uranium, which is a common element and the key element in the production of nuclear energy.

In fission, a tiny particle called a neutron hits a uranium atom.

The atom then splits and more neutrons are produced; this results in a chain reaction that releases large amounts of energy.

This energy is used to make water boil, which turns turbines to generate electricity.

This process is carried out in a nuclear reactor-a place in the power plant where fission takes place.

 

Applications

Nuclear energy can be used for various purposes, especially in industrial applications.

The most common one is for the generation of electricity.

However, in recent times, the applications of nuclear energy have skyrocketed.

Recent developments have allowed nuclear energy to help with the desalination of water, hydrogen production, district heating or cooling and the extraction of tertiary oil resources.

In addition to this, the medical sector also benefits as it uses radiation to diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer.

Radiation can also be used to genetically modify crops. For example, a vegetable can be changed so that it is more resilient to poor soil. Significant demand for nuclear energy for industrial applications is expected to increase because of steadily increasing energy consumption, the limited availability of fossil fuels and the increased sensitivity to the environmental impacts of fossil fuel combustion.

 

Advantages

Nuclear energy doesn't release any harmful gases into the environment and is dubbed as one of the cleanest energy sources compared to fossil fuels.

 

Nuclear power plants are the most reliable source of energy, which means it is extremely rare that there will be lapses in the generation of energy.

Nuclear energy requires less fuel, which means that there is less expenditure on resources.

As technology continues to advance, nuclear energy is becoming an increasingly safe and stable option for energy production.

 

Disadvantages

It is extremely expensive to build and take care of a nuclear power plant.

There are times when freak accidents can occur as seen with Chernobyl, Ukraine, where a nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. 

However, with advancements in technology, these accidents have been significantly mitigated.

Sometimes, radioactive waste may be produced, which harms the surrounding area.

Every 18 to 24 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which becomes radioactive waste.

Nuclear power plants use large quantities of water for steam production and for cooling.

Some nuclear power plants remove large quantities of water from lakes or rivers, which could affect fish and other aquatic life.