My experience with NSS

So, in my first semester at IIT Bombay, I had to join one of NSO (National Sports Organization), NSS (National Service Scheme) and NCC (National Cadet Corps).

It was a tough choice, but I ended up with the NIC (National Innovation Club) department of NSS. At the end of the semester, we had to write a rough draft on our experience for the semester. Being the lazy person that I am, I tried to finish it as quickly as possible, while covering everything. So, if this seems not as well formatted as usual, I apologize. However,  I hope it makes for an enjoyable read! :)

You can read my report here (Because it's latexified and converting it back would take too long )


P.S. I've received word that some of my readers don't like the use of emojis, and from some of the readers I've heard that they do like it. So, I'll be opening a poll here - please do let me know!

The poll can be accessed on mobile devices by clicking the "View Web version" button down below.

The ending of a new beginning!

-Some of this content was written a few days back-

Today marks the day when my final crib session at IIT Bombay for the 1st semester concludes. This day holds many mixed feelings - It's the day when I can proudly say that I've survived a semester at IIT! Not very confidence - inspiring, I know (:P).

Around this time seems to be the right time to wonder about the memorable things this semester - what I've learnt, and maybe what I should change to get a better experience out of Insti life (Yes, adopting the lingo already! :P ).

This semester is maybe (probably) the semester with the most amount of diverse courses throughout the 5 years that I'll be here. So, it was quite fun and hectic at the same time; There was a lot of learning that took place, but I was exhausted as well.

First, it's time to look back at the goals set before coming to the Insti:

Goal list 

1) Decent CPI - I would say probably check. :) While it's not going to be "stellar", it'll probably be good enough.

2) Learning and not forgetting -

Before I came to IIT Bombay, like most of the freshers, I talked to multiple seniors before this new journey of mine. There were a lot of expectations; I’ll get a great CPI while handling multiple extracurriculars, I’ll learn rather than mugging for marks, and I’ll spend a lot of times with friends at the same time, planning new outings everyday!

Needless to say, these are quite naïve thoughts – While I didn’t believe all of the above, suffice to say that everyone can daydream, right?

Something that really hit home for me was, sometimes when I asked a senior what was taught in say this – and that course, they would stutter a lot and say that the course was not really their strength and hence they don’t remember a lot. Well, I thought, I’ll do things differently. My aim for the semester was to gain a good enough understanding of the course material, that if 10 years down the line I had to present the course material, all I would take is maybe a day or two of brushing up – the concept would be deeply imbedded by then!

This sounds like quite an ambitious plan, and rightly so I believe. It’s really hard for me to even remember what was taught in school a year back – how would I go about achieving this?

The answer is that, I had to understand where everything came from! And when is this much easier to do? When you love a subject, of course! Now, here was my plan – I would choose a subject, focus on the part most interesting to me, and build everything around it. That way, there was atleast something from the course I would always remember, and I could build my peripheral stuff around it! Sounds ingenious, doesn’t it?

If you have doubts about the above approach, you’re probably correct. I’m just a student daydreaming – I have no idea what’s possible and what’s not. But, if you’re not remembering what you learn whilst doing your undergraduate degree, is it really worth the effort for a piece of paper?

Just something to think about while I expand on this topic and talk what was lacking in my approach in my next few blog posts :)

3)  Will do a lot of extracurrics along with acads - Unfortunately, this was probably not achieved. While I did some extracurrics, I didn't exactly do a lot - something that I should improve upon and prioritize accordingly for the next semester!

Sneak peak at something I created - a character called "AndaMan" (literally, Egg Man) who fights crime with his amazing omelette making skills and shoots eggs out of his palms. He also has his own theme song that states where he's from! (Hint: You can guess it quite easily :P)

4) Meet a lot of new people - Definitely a check! I met a bunch of great people at my first semester here. We've done quite some awesome stuff together and I hope to continue the same trend in the coming semesters :)

5) Going through the "DIY" approach: Actually sitting down and doing things by myself took me a lot more time than I'd expected; While it was relatively easy to be excited about doing stuff and checking out the relevant books in the library for say the first two weeks, beyond that it was hard to keep it up.

I only got around to doing this just before the endsem; I learnt the hard way that I wouldn't be scoring much without really digging into the topics. So, I spent a few days reading books, the old fashioned "classic" method~~

So, that's how my semester measured up to be in a nutshell. Next, I've planned a photo spammed post for the Electrical department trip to Lohagad Fort and a post on my thoughts and the things that I've learnt in this semester. Also, hope to add something on my plans for the vacations! I'll end with a wise quote from a friend (I'm looking at you, Kushagra!):

"Whatever you do, don't waste these vacations. Learn something useful"

I'm going to take this to heart. :)

A short note on Gliders! (& Changes to the blog!)

So, this week is pretty busy for all the freshmen students at IIT Bombay, what with the onset of the quizzing season and all! However, along with studies come extracurricular activities; and a few weeks back, I chose to attend an Aeromodelling Workshop by the Aeromodelling Club, IIT Bombay (their page is here). And I totally loved it!

Our team made a pretty basic glider, but I still learnt a lot about Aeromodelling! Here, I'd like to share what I understood from the workshop and basically how we proceeded about to make this glider successfully.

First, we learnt some Aeromodelling principles. The basic question is: How do planes work? Here, I finally felt that all those hours reading random answers on Quora was productive! The most popular theory, the equal transit theory, is infact incorrect. There is no constraint on the currents moving above and below to complete the trip in the same time.

 A few points that I've picked up from the article links I've attached at the end:

1) It's the engine which moves a plane forward, while the wings move it upward.

2) As a curved airfoil wing flies through the sky, it deflects air and alters the air pressure above and below it.

3) SxL is an important parameter for a glider, where S is the surface area of the tail and L is the length from the center of gravity of glider to the tail.

4) Using the lift equation and torque equations (for stability), we can derive certain area and length ratios which are ideal for flight. We shall use these numbers. [I've added the last 2 points on my own].

So, basically, we were given a few pointers on the number crunching part of the design.

Tail area ~ 20% of the wing area.
Fin area ~ 10% of the wing area.

For the wingspan, due to length constraints of the board we were given to construct our glider, we could choose a length anywhere between 35-45 cm. The ratio of the length to the breadth of the wing (which I believe is called the "Wing aspect ratio") should be between 5-8.

The Tail aspect ratio should be around 3-5 and the Fin aspect ratio should be 2-3. The body length should be around 6/10th to 8/10th the wingspan.

Based on these, and the above area considerations, here are the numbers we used for our glider:

Wings

b = 42 cm
c = 6.5 cm

Tail

bt = 14.78 cm ~ 14.8 cm
ct = 3.69 cm ~ 3.7 cm

Fin

bs = 8.3 cm
cs = 3.3 cm

So, our preliminary task was to cut up all the boards into the appropriate dimensions. Then, it was decided that the tail was slightly smaller than it should've been [according to our mentor eyeballing the dimensions] - so we made a slightly bigger one, although I do not remember the exact dimensions.

The main work left after this was to shape the wings to make it an aerofoil, or atleast close to one in shape. For this purpose, we used sandpaper to rub away all the extra material and make a smooth aerofoil. This was kind of crucial. After this step, we simply attached all the pieces to our fuselage and used a glue gun to stick them together!

Now, the main part left was to balance the aircraft. We used clay for the purpose. Basically, what we wanted was to use clay on the front part of the aircraft such that the center of mass lies approximately at 1/4th the breadth of the wing, on the fuselage. This is important because it makes the glider fly straight.

And after this, we were done! We made a pretty basic design, so our team was the first to finish. Although this was something really basic, I must say that I learnt a lot from this and I hope to get time to take part in such future events (especially RC Planes!).

Shubham out!

P.S. I got inspiration for that last one from watching Obama's final speech recently! Do check it out. :)

Links:

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howplaneswork.html

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aircraft/glider_handbook/media/gfh_ch03.pdf

Pics:

Our glider!

Team pic! Kushagra Juneja (left) and Me (right)!

P.P.S - I'd like to add that I've tried experimenting a bit with the blog. Now it's possible to subscribe to this blog via email (if anyone actually wants to! :P), via the option on the middle right. You probably can't view this on mobile devices; to do that, go to the bottom of the screen, click "View web version" and then you'll see it!

Also, I've added a Lyrics for the Week section! I'll be updating this every Sunday with some of my favourite lyrics! Hope you enjoy some of these songs after seeing them here! :)

The Path (A short, incomplete poem)

Hi guys!

While browsing through my older stuff, I found some poems I wrote long back. Most of them were cringe worthy (a forced adventurous one or a over sweet romantic one, for example) but I think I wrote a really deep one.

Unfortunately, I don't have the last 4 paras with me because I never really shared that with anybody and my old phone is now dead. However, I think it's better this way; the poem seems more open ended and offers multiple interpretations. Maybe, all's well that end's well?

The longer I walk down this dark, dark path

Lengthier evermore it seems to get

I shudder, for the night is frosty;

But I must go on; for that is my resolve.

The end cannot be seen; only sensed.

I steel my nerves and walk swiftly; 

For my mind is set;

my destiny lies in conquering

the uniaxial path in front of me.

It behoves ye, dear reader

to set upon thine path!

For great treasure lies at the end

A treasure, so exquisite, one of a kind;

Found and cherished by only those who toil;

Cannot be forged, borrowed or thieved.

Do not pay heed to those who criticize

Those who try to distract, pull you from the path;

You must be strong; for they are but spectators.

It is not their path to walk!

Well illuminated, it is, for them;

But it makes no difference.

They can but shout and jeer;

But they cannot substitute the treasure;

A treasure, unique to it's acquirer.

So, I hope this poem really raises some questions. Is this poem written to be interpreted in an allegorical manner? What does the treasure signify? 

Well, this is one of those "2 AM" poems, which just flow from the mind. So, maybe it makes sense or maybe it's all garbage. I think I have some idea of what I was trying to get at via this poem, but as a fun exercise I'll invite reader interpretations in the comments! :)

P.S. I've added a subscribe by email button on the right, in case anyone actually finds this subscribe worthy =D

What is music?

Music has had a great impact on my life in the past few years. This may seem a bit weird; why would something as trivial as music impact a person's life in a non-trivial way?

The answer lies in my philosophy that the music a person listens to, shapes the person in some way. Music to me is a golden fabric interwoven with beautiful tales, immersing the listener into a different world. As we grow older and more mature, we usually (I do not have a source for this yet! Anyone interested in conducting a statistical analysis?) transit to listening to more meaningful music than when we were younger. Thus, the music you listen to reflects your personality and embodies your inner soul.

I believe that the crux of a good song lies in the lyrics and the delivery, in that order. I often get goosebumps listening to songs satisfying both of these criteria. I believe that music often introduces us to new worlds and thoughts that would have otherwise remained unexplored in our subconscious forever. I've listened to songs that have completely turned my expectations from the genre on its head.

Some of the songs that I will remember for their meaningful content are the following (in no particular order and by no means complete);

1. Let her go - Passenger

This song is simply beautiful. It conveys the fact that we often under appreciate the people in our lives; only when they leave us can we feel the pain emitting from the void in our hearts. The delivery is just perfect, with a slow, romantic tune.

2. Hallowed be thy name - Iron Maiden

This song, to me, at first seemed nonsensical because I could not understand the lyrics properly (being a newbie to metal!). It took me a few listens to get the actual hang of the song. This song is quite philosophical and paints a clear mental picture of a prisoner in his cell about to be taken to the gallows. He starts wondering about his life and the existence of god.

3. Hope - Vicetone ft Obama (I know, right?)

This. Song. Is. Epic. Seriously. I someday hope (haha!) to be half as good an orator as Obama is. This song is a must-listen. 

4. Lose Yourself - Eminem

Well, we all know it. Eminem is pretty (in)famous for being generous with his expletives. But, this song was what lifted me at my low points. Sometimes, you have to be strong. You can't be satisfied with where you are and you need to stretch yourself to bring out your best. After all, you only have one life to live, right?

5. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Just deep. I discover new meanings almost every time I listen to this song. 

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As you can see, songs of quite varying genres can be meaningful. I've found that many songs of widely varying genres have molded me into a better person. You feel both the happiness and the pain of the singer as if it were your own. Some songs just connect with the self at a metaphysical level.

Some songs have guided me through my journey, motivating me through my lows and reminding me to keep pushing and working hard towards my goal during the highs. Music is love. Music is life. <3

JEE Advanced 2017 - A review

After the current court case (and the stay on counselling) and with the great ongoing debate about JEE Advanced 2017, I'd like to thrown in my 2 cents on this topic. I've starting thinking about other topics as well, but it seems that this is the most pressing issue at the current moment.

First, I'd like to discuss the "controversial" questions. Here they are, in the order that they appear in in Code 0 of the paper.


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Code 0, Paper 1

Physics

Q3. [not in the petition] While this question has not affected me personally, it has affected my friends a bit. It also lead to a bit of confusion for me in the exam, which is the reason that I only marked 2 options to be on the safer side.

The issue in this question is with option A, which states that "The emf induced in the loop is proportional to the sum of areas of the two loops". In this specific situation, this is indeed true, since 2A-A = A is proportional to 2A+A = 3A, whereas it is not true in the general case. This leads to a bit of confusion, and hence many people have marked this option.

Given Answer: B,D

Q6. [not in the petition] The issue with this question is the option D. It states that the velocity of the two pulses are same at the midpoint of the rope. While the speed is always the same, the velocity can also be the same due to the fact that it is not mentioned at what time difference they've started the two pulses. There can be a reflection at the other end and the velocity can be the same.

What's more, Brittanica Encyclopedia notes that in common usage, wave speed and wave velocity are used interchangeably.

Given Answer: A,C

Q7. [Currently being debated] The argument of the petitioner in changing this answer is that coaching institutes have given the answer to be  B,C,D. But the thing is, I think many coaching institutes have missed the fact that the emissivity e in the question is not given in the question to be 1. Thus, only one option now matches, which does not depend on emissivity, which IIT has given as the answer.

Given Answer: D

Chemistry

Q28. [not in the petition] The first problem with this question is the 3rd compound from the left on the second row. While the question clearly states "aromatic compound", this is not an aromatic compound but rather a compound containing an aromatic ring. My friends have given me references from some books as well as a UCLA pdf of chemistry they found online.

Another issue here is the assumption that the ions will be included in the compounds. This is quite a controversial decision and here the disregard of specific terms seems to contradict the decision in favour of specificity in the wave velocity/speed question. It becomes confusing, to take the meaning which is intended or the meaning which is written on the paper? This is definitely not a good thing. I have marked 4 for this question, disregarding that particular compound.

Given Answer: 5

Q30. [Currently being debated] The act of giving bonus to this question has indeed benefited me; I had marked 5 instead of 6. The thing here is, that they have considered Be2 to exist and then commented on it's magnetic moment. I had assumed that it was a trap laid down by the IIT committee to catch the people who believe that Be2 exists; but it turned out the opposite way.

I still feel this should've been given as 5 or 6, since that would have nullified both the Hindi paper problems and this problem of giving Be2.

Given Answer: Bonus


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Code 0, Paper 2

Physics

Q10. [not in the petition] I am one of the only people I know who got partial marks in this question. For me, the issue is with Option A. Here, the flux has been given a negative sign and I genuinely got confused as to the sign. Thus, I only marked Option D. The thing is, standard textbooks like Griffiths (which I believe is used in IIT itself) state that there is no convention on direction for open surfaces.

Thus, I believe atleast technically I am right in saying that Option D alone is correct. However, I believe the best solution would have been to give both Options (A,D) and Option (D) as an answer as I doubt many people would have marked D alone as it is. I did include these arguments in my challenge of answer keys but there was no response.

Given Answer: A,D

Q11. [not in the petition] There is a bit of a wording issue in the question  in Option A, which confuses as to whether consider the pseudo torque or not. My friends were affected by this and the answer should've been given as Options (C,D) or Options (A,C,D) in my opinion.

Given Answer: A,C,D

Q17. [Currently being debated] While changing this answer to A or C would benefit me as I've marked A. But that is beside the point; this question has an answer which does not match any option. The fair thing to do is to give a bonus.

Given Answer: Bonus

Chemistry

Q30. [not in the petition] The problem in the question is Option D. While this is indeed true for hard bases, it is not true for soft bases. While I was not aware of this during the exam and left the option due to not knowing this (partial marking), some of my friends informed me about this after the exam.

It indeed seems that technically Option D is not correct and should not have been included in the answer.

Given Answer: A,B,D

Q35. [not in the petition] The problem here is the closeness of the options A,B,C. NCERT states that dehydration occurs when a water molecule is lost, which does occur here. This creates a bit of confusion to the answer that has to be marked.

Given Answer: C

Mathematics 

Q50. [Currently being debated] This question shows the mistake the petitioner is making in my humble opinion - relying on coaching institutes which agree with each other does not mean that they are right. Putting the values of both Alpha and Beta as 2(pi) in this question leads to the answer being Options (A,B,C,D) and not Options (B,C) as was proposed.

Given Answer: Bonus

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Overall, I do not think that this year's JEE Advanced paper was a success as compared to previous years. The above mentioned controversial questions account for (+18,-6) in Paper 1 and (+22,-8) in Paper 2.

Also consider the fact that the marks difference between the 1st and 500th ranker this year is only about 60 marks, as compared to about 120 marks last year.

What I really didn't like about this year's JEE is the quite easier questions, and the errors to go with it. It makes the ranklist a bit meaningless as many students with a similar knowledge level and problem solving capability are simply segregated on the basis of the controversial questions above.

In my honest opinion, last year's JEE was a rather good example of what a JEE should be like - it did not have a LOT of debatable questions like the above (I only found about 2-3 debate worthy) and had a good slew of questions across difficulty levels which really made the ranklist meaningful and properly evaluated the understanding of the canditate.

Another thing I want to comment on is the unyielding trust on coaching institutes - in my understanding, it does not make sense to base one's judgement completely based on a coaching institute's answer key. These coaching institutes also have an internal competition to be the fastest to release the answer key - In this hurry, sometimes they miss a word here or there.

While I have had great teachers in coaching, you should still take everything with a pinch of salt. After all, the teachers are human and possibilities for mistakes are always there - some examples are the emissivity question and the 2pi question in this year's paper. Moreover, just trusting coaching institutes to prove that an answer is right does not work - it is in fact a fallacy. I have been there on the days when they make answer keys. There is a great rush and lots of commotion; mistakes are made while translating answers to different codes, etc etc. in the race to release a key quickly.

Moreover, sometimes we as humans tend to be detached from reality. In this line, I refer to the rank predictors of various coaching institutes. I have been extremely fortunate in having great friends who kept giving me information on the various going - ons even after the exam and hence I was able to predict my rank quite well. However, no matter how much I told some of my friends to start looking for other options on the basis of their JEE marks - they did not yield on the basis of "Coaching predictions". I think this is quite detrimental as it can lead you to not thinking about all your options - instead living in your own bubble of expecting to get a good branch. After all, JEE is a relative exam! It matters what others have scored as well. I have documented my predictions on my Quora profile, which can be found here.

Final note: As of finishing this post, I have been informed that the IIT counsellings have been given the thumbs up. While this is indeed in my opinion the best solution at the current time in the system, it does not set a good precedent. But there is hope for JEE - and after all, what is life without hope?

P.S. Please note that all of the above is my opinion (and I do not have the references for the facts I've stated anymore, although you can google and try to find them yourself). Please do not hold me responsible for any inaccuracy in the above that affects you! Cheers and a wish for a better system for this beautiful country of ours.

The time in between

Hello! I'm a 17 year old teenager, and I go by the name Shubham (also, TheOneYouWant on some online platforms).

 Currently, my entrance exams for college are over and I have quite a bit of free time to reflect on various stuff going on. Hence, this blog! Be it my views on the Indian Education system or on some recent trends that I'm observing, this blog contains it from A to Z. Don't take these views too seriously - as the title says, these are just stray thoughts! I'm sure my opinion on topics I present here will change with time as I read about and debate on various sides of the subject.

Which brings me to the stuff I'm doing currently. Right now, I'm travelling a bit, doing some freelance work on Olympiad papers, reading answers on Quora and other stuff, and mostly spending time with relatives. While I can't wait for college to start, I also want to enjoy this free time that I might not get farther along the road. (I'll be a Fresher at IIT  Bombay, having taken Electrical Engineering Dual Degree).

So, dear reader, that's about me! I'll be glad to hear your opinions out on the various topics put forth here - do let me know!