Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Continuous or Discrete?

Discrete: not to be confused with Discreet...

It has been a while since my last post... anyway, I'm back here...

I am a student of Physics and at a later stage, computing... I remember my old physics classes - that many things which we took for being continuous were infact discrete, take sunlight for example we think it is always coming to us in a straight line continuously, however it is not so - it is the photons of light which is coming and they are coming one after another, like an army of ants marching after the one in front and in perfect order!

The same goes for electricity, we think that the current is always flowing but here too the case is different, be it electrons which is carrying the charge or the alternating current in the household electric supply, its always on - off - on - off and so on... 50 times a second (for those of us here),but here too lies an order... a harmony in motion...

But what about nature, are the elements of nature continuous or discrete...

Read what I write here and then visualize it with your eyes closed... you are standing on a hill, a breeze is flowing, blowing through your hair, slowly... slowly, a puff of air... then another, not a gale force wind which is continuously hitting at you... but more serene, one gust now... stop... another gust now...

Feel it, is it continuous or discrete?

I will give you one more exercise, again read and think... visualize...

You are standing on a beach... a wave of water comes and flows over your feet... then recedes back... then comes another and goes back again...

Think...

Continuous or discrete?



All for now folks... till next time!


Oh! By the way, here is how the dictionary defines "discrete",

discrete |disˈkrēt|
adjective
individually separate and distinct : speech sounds are produced as a continuous sound signal rather than discrete units.

DERIVATIVES
discretely |dəˈskritli| adverb
discreteness |dəˈskritn1s| noun

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin discretus ‘separate’ ; compare with discreet .

USAGE On the difference between discrete and discreet, see usage at discreet .

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