Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In Nuts and Bolts , Roma Agrawal takes a look at the good old spring: “Springs are things that store energy when their shape is changed by a force. When the force is removed, they ping back to their original shape and release that energy – and this energy is made to do something useful.” The more they can be made to curve, the more energy they can store. Think of how a bow works – pull (store energy), release (energy transferred to arrow).   Springs can store energy in multiple configurations – “when squashed” (e.g. ballpoint pen), “when stretched” (e.g. trampoline), or “when twisted”. One of the easiest laws in physics was Hooke’s Law, the one that describes the relation among force, energy and stretching/compression of a spring. It was an easy equation, no calculus, perfectly linear. And thus, one never give any thought to – there are so many harder equations… Except, as Agrawal tells us: “This law was far-reaching. Beyond springs, Hooke’s Law allowed engineers to predi...

In recent years, the US has switched to what it calls the “small yard, high fence” policy. What this means is that in most areas, it will be as business as usual. But in a handful of areas, which the US deems as relevant to its national security, it will impose a lot of restrictions on what can or cannot be made available to others. This policy was clearly framed with China in mind.   High-end semiconductor chips fall in this “small yard, high fence” category. As the name suggests, the constraints and bans apply only to the highest end chips. Since most of the other countries involved in key parts of the chip industry fall under the American sphere of influence (Europe and Japan mostly; South Korea a bit more reluctantly), the “small yard, high fence” policies are enforced by those countries as well.   Not surprisingly, at the highest end of chips, this is having a crippling effect on China and Chinese companies, says Pranay Kotasthane in When the Chips are Down . Hua...

  Next up in the small inventions that make a huge difference, Roma Agrawal talks of the wheel in Nuts and Bolts . This may take you aback – what is there to write a chapter about the wheel? Don’t we even have the saying “Don’t reinvent the wheel”, which suggests that the wheel was perfected ages back?   Historical records suggest that the wheel was not invented for transportation. No, the wheel was invented for pottery! Why pottery? To create vessels to store food and water. What? As humans began to settle into agriculture and thus larger colonies, people found themselves further and further away from the fields or rivers, hence the need to store and carry food and water increased.   It was only after humans had domesticated animals and thus had something to pull a vehicle with that the “vessel-maker” wheel was transformed into a “destination-maker” wheel, writes Agrawal. But the early wheel had many drawbacks – cut from logs, they were heavy; they were uneven i...

DEI. It stands for the “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies companies follow wrt their employees. This approach was pushed for very hard by Biden. With him gone and Trump in, DEI is now in Trump’s crosshairs.   A simplistic, knee-jerk reaction would be to assume is it’s because Trump is an MCP or a misogynist or pro-white (you get the idea). But Trump’s reason is what many of us in India can relate to! He says he wants to discard DEI policies in favour of “a society   .   .   .   based on merit ”. Did that sound familiar to how many Indians feel about reservation policies?   Corporate America has been quick to fall in line with Trump. Just as quickly as they fell in line with Biden earlier. A reminder, writes Raghu Jaitley that: “Politics may be downstream of culture, but everything else is downstream of politics.”   No, Jaitley isn’t bashing politics or politicians. His point is a lot deeper. It is true that women, blacks and various other groups do...