The college's public speaking workshop was held on Saturday. This time, I was not a participant, but am more of a facilitator (albeit unofficial). I did a short sharing and also handled a half an hour session of the workshop. Mr Johnny, who spoke for 2 hours about "The Art of Public Speaking" was brilliant. When I first stepped into the room, I was shocked to see so many people. I guess I didn't expect to see as many people as I did. I started to worry, because I felt that I wasn't really prepared. As I did not have a computer, I could prepare the slides but I was not able to practise with the slides till Saturday itself. However, I breathed a sigh of relief when Ms Sri told me that only the participants for the competition itself will be staying back after lunch (which was where my session comes in). The first part, the sharing, didn't go quite well. My pendrive was giving some problems, and the laptop couldn't read it, until after many tries. Then, when I started talking, I stuttered a little, paused A LOT, forgot everything, referred to my unreadable scribbling, and overrall, I think did an awful job. =( Nevertheless, at least I ended it OK. (Thank goodness). After Ms Sri briefed them on how the competition rounds were going to be like, it was time for the "how to write a good speech" part of the workshop. This time, as I started talking, I started to feel the same comfortable feeling that I used to feel whenever I spoke up on stage. It was like I was in command, and this was my comfort zone, and I am talking about something that I know very well. =) I was still skeptical about how I did, but the lecturers seem quite happy with it, so that's another sigh of relief. Nevertheless, as the qualifying rounds ensued, I started to get this nostalgic feeling. Being a participant and an observer gives a different feeling altogether. Watching the participants being nervous, chatting excitedly after they completed, talking about how they couldn't think of anything to say, etc etc... I found that I missed the "competition feeling". Being participants together creates a certain sort of bond, but being a non-participant creates a slight distance even though we are all still students. Suddenly I crave for a competition. I miss all the excitement, the nervousness, the suspense, and the connection participants have. My competitive spirit is restless. It needs satisfying. =p
Last night, I was over at my sis' place. We went out nearby for the most scrumptious satay which was very satisfying indeed, but sighed in dismay as it started to pour with rain. Neither one of us brought our umbrellas out. The rain was incessant, so when the shopkeepers started to clear up and draw down the horizontal doors, we decided to just walk in the rain. The rain had subsided a little, but not stopped. It was a chilly night, so I decided to have a warm shower at her place instead of risking frostbite with a freezing cold shower back in the hostel at midnight. After that, it was already past midnight, and 50% extra charge would apply on taxis anyway, so I just stayed on. We were about to watch a movie at first, but neither of us was in the mood, so we just talked. And of all the topics to talk about while both of us were in a sleepy state, we ended up discussing QUANTUM MECHANICS!!! Imagine that. x_x We were discussing Schrodinger's cat and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The cat is actually a very interesting analogy in quantum physics which explains the uncertainty principle that I learn in chem. Apparently, the story goes this way: A cat was placed in a chamber which was filled with some radioactive substance. If the radioactive substance were to decay, a mechanism whereby a hammer will break a vial of hydrocyanic acid(poison, probably more easily recognised as cyanide) will be triggered and this will kill the cat. However, to an observer, before you open the chamber you have no idea whether the cat is dead or alive, because you do not know whether any decay has taken place. Thus the cat can either be dead or alive, and if an average was taken then the cat is both dead and alive, and since we do not know for certain if it is dead or alive it is both dead or alive or neither dead nor alive. The cat is said to be in superposition of dead and alive states. Apparently, this analogy explains the uncertainty principle of electrons, in which states that the exact position and momentum of an electron cannot both be known at the same time with certainty. It is also related to the wave-particle duality concept of photons of light.
I still don't understand it fully. When you add in the theory of multiple universes, that is when I start to faint.
And yes, that was yesterday's bedtime story. I guess that explains why it was so difficult to get up this morning for class.
2 comments:
soooo..... at the end of the experiment... did the cat die?? or the cat got cancer due to too much radiation and die?? or the cat became mutated and became immortal?? *im bad in physics* =P
lol its an analogy, not a real experiment. in one universe the cat is dead, in another universe the cat is alive, in one situation the cat can be alive when you want to open it but dead when u finally open it. or it can be alive before and after or dead before and after. lol. the answer is that it is uncertain :p it can be dead, it can be alive, and u have no way t know coz by the time u open the box all u know is whether its dead or alive after u open the chamber but u don know if its dead or alive before u opened it. lol yeah i know its confusing, i'm bad in physics too so i don't know if i interpreted it correctly. lol jus a fancy way of saying "its uncertain"
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