July
11, 2017 Tuesday
Bedtime
Story
I
wish to add another aside as long as we are on the topic of Kármán line.
We
are all aware of the fact that the sky appears blue due to the fact that the
atmosphere and the gases in it scatter light of blue wavelengths of visible
light more than any other wavelengths.
We
also know that space appears dark because…I guess because they show that way in
movies.
But
where does this boundary lie between the blue halo of the earth and the
darkness of the space?
No
Sir, it does not lie at the Kármán line but a little beyond it at an altitude
of 160 kilometers.
Once
you fly up and reach the height of 160 km and then gaze at the sky up, it will appear
pitch dark.
Gerhard
Gentzen, our original subject of interest, never flew so high but he was
involved in the top-secret, classified construction of V-2 rocket that was
capable of reaching new heights.
The
first successful test flight of V-2 rocket was carried out on October 3, 1942
that reached an altitude of 84.5 kilometers, very close to the Kármán line.
When
the Nazi Germany caved in after the tripartite attack of the Allied forces,
teams from the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union rushed in
to capture such crucial German technology.
Eventually,
most of the original V-2 team that surrendered to American forces ended up
working in Redstone Arsenal in Madison County, Alabama.
Gentzen
was not one among these lucky ones.
As
the war reached the end and its climax and Germany was seen to be losing both
on its western and the eastern flank, the occupied Czechoslovakia suddenly got
a new whiff of strength.
In
what historically goes by the epithet of the Prague Uprising, on May 05, 1945
at about 1 pm, armed Czech resistance fighters stormed the radio buildings that
were occupied by Waffen-SS.
Similarly
at other sites of the city that were under the control of Gestapo and SiPo
(security police), found themselves besieged by these armed Czech fighters.
It
so happened that from 1943 onwards, Gentzen had been posted to the University
of Prague as a teacher of mathematics.
Even
as on May 7, the armored and artillery units of Waffen-SS launched a
counterattack with their tanks and Luftwaffe conducted air strikes on the city
against the rebels, the 1st Infantry Division of the Russian
Liberation Army (Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Armiya or ROA) swept in.
It
was an interesting revelation to me that the ROA was not part of the Soviet Red
Army; in fact the army was led by a defected Red Army General Andrey Vlasov who
was opposed to both Communism and to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
This
whole war is most interesting and I can go on and on about it, but there is a
limit to how much one can digress from Gödel’s theorems.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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