Me and my friend Akarsh Simha were browsing through XKCD’s archives and came across this one. Being students of Physics, I thought we should extend this to a Boost too, and here is the result: 
Edit: I also wish to thank Dr. Suresh Govindarajan for the motivation behind this.
Lorentz boost by Naveen Sharma is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 India License.
It is again that time of the year in which one is left to do things which he likes and so, here I am, writing composing this blogpost, among other stuff.
Before we move on to a cacophony of the courses which I had last semester, let me describe my various other activites in the institute. For some of those, I could find time, but for some others, I couldn’t. But I ended up doing them anyways.
1. Boltzmann:
This was the first time in my stay here that the numbers started getting consistent. Now we have grown to be a pretty big group(compared to the last two semesters I mean). I learnt a lot of interesting Physics here without worrying about a stupid grade. Grades are like stock markets: You need them, they are important for survival, but you wish you never had them. Now, what I learnt in Boltzmann was how to live rather than how to survive by learning to enjoy whatever I do.
(For those of you who don’t what Boltzmann is, it is a group of students really enthusiastic about Theoretical Physics, with an equally enthusiastic professor at its helm).
2. Astronomy:
It is the International Year of Astronomy, and the Astronomy Club at IIT Madras beautifully acknowledged this fact by holding regular theory sessions every Friday evening and a couple of public observing sessions. We are truly gifted to have the 8″ Celestron GT telescope, kindly provided by the Institute. Visit the Astronomy Club site for more about how IYA was and is being celebrated.
3. Dynamical Systems:
I did a lot of miscellaneous stuff in Dynamical systems, like reading up from books, attending Prof. Balakrishnan’s lectures(the discussions at the end of the lectures were a lot of fun!) and writing Runge-Kutta algorithms to simulate phase flows. It was an exciting moment when my code correctly gave out the Lorenz attractor. I will hopefully blog more about this later, when I find time.
4. Lectures on Special Relativity:
It was a stroke of luck, this one. I was coincidentally free in the slots when Dr. Suresh gave a couple of lectures on Special Relativity to the Physics Minor students. I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and learnt a lot of formalism that one usually doesn’t in introductory texts on Relativity. I would like to thank him very much for giving me that opportunity.
Now, without much further ado, for the phooey-try section which tries to give a just description of my academics: (I was in a very satiric mood yesterday. So, I thought I’ll make a fool of myself by trying some poetry 
)
Linear Algebra and Numerical Analysis
It went like a breeze,
Before I could even finish my sneeze,
Which came through the wind,
That left the last sem behind.
The course was very abstract,
Which helped me preserve my tact.
He deserves a deep bow,
Who helped the passion to flow.
Networks and Systems
A great deal of mathdom,
We were required to fathom.
The course was a simple one,
But there were few who actually won.
The professor was crystal-clear,
And made the subject very dear,
Those who listened finally glistened,
And those who slept, finally wept.
Engineering Mechanics
We learnt beams and trusses,
With a lot of screams and tussles.
The instructor got angered at our plight
and decided to find peace in flight.
The whole class rocked and rolled,
Until every single soul snored.
The course had little motivation,
Which ultimately forced us into aestivation.
Mathematical Physics
‘Tis was a course I loved to the core,
So much so that I cried “Encore!”.
I learnt a lot of mathematical lore,
Which put me at knowledge’s fore.
‘Tis was a musical,
Worth every golden sickle.
Nay I have anything more about this,
The elixir of Mathematical Physics.
High Vacuum Science
‘Tis was a farce beyond measure,
For those who knew not what to treasure.
Subtle and High it was,
Only the almighty at nigh could pass.
They were three in number,
Warding off the slumber.
We all took ‘em for a joke,
And finally ended up broke.
Fiction
‘Tis was a course on Fiction,
Requiring a lot of diction.
A whole lot of analysis,
Led me to an intellectual crisis.
Inept am I,
at describing things that meet the eye,
So would I be taking a-leave,
Though I have much to grieve.
Principles of Measurement
The classes went off at a huge pace,
Such that everything was a total haze.
Power and Energy it was,
That made up most of the class.
This time, it was more wear and tear,
Rather than wire-and-tire.
We had a lot of fun,
Working with the electron gun.
I think that much of intellectual suffocation is enough for one day. Hopefully, I’ll break the trend of reporting about my courses after every semester by blogging about my intern next. Stay tuned, folks!
1.The disclaimer of the post on the second semester(cf. The Semerillion) carries over here too. In a nutshell, the material below doesn’t necessarily reflect the author’s ideas and feelings.
2. Each word of the title of this post is equally important.
A short description of courses:
MA205. Probability and Random Processes.
One of the smooth courses one can attend in IIT where the teacher, the student and the classroom are peaceful. We were taught by a guest faculty and believe me, he packed quite a punch! It was really interesting to learn about Markov Processes and Brownian motion at the end but I think the syllabus ought to cover more of such interesting things rather than topics like Spurious Contagion.
EC101. Electric and Magnetic Circuits.
This was a reminder to EP students and the Electrical Engineering department that mutual co-existence isn’t as easy as it sounds. There was a lot of Bremsstrahlung(cf. previous blog-post. MWell’s analysis really paid off!) even here except that here it was covered with all sorts of mathematical “complexities” like computing a fourth order determinant. “We went, we slept, we came back, we wept”.
EP210. Introduction to Engineering Optics.
This was one of the better courses we had this semester. Here, the number of benches in the class exceeded the number of students and the teacher put together by a huge margin. It was not because the classes were boring as I was led to believe initially, but because the “invisibles” wanted to test the principles learnt in class.
EP201. Elements of Classical Dynamics.
I believe Theoretical Physics is one of the coolest and most interesting subjects on the planet(Yes. I am a geek.) and my belief was more than substantiated by this course. It was taught by one of the coolest profs I’ve ever met and was taught in one of the coolest ways. This was one of the courses which leaves you asking for more and indeed, I wanted more. We were supposed to do Special Relativity(how much more cool can it get?)(Yes again! I am a geek.) and sadly, because of some time constraints, we were not able to. But, on the whole, I believe the Physics Department has more courses like this to offer to keep up our interest in Theoretical Physics.
HS592. Indian Art.
Thrice a week, we were taken to the time of the Cholas, The Hoysalas and the Pandyas. That was what this course was: A time machine. It was a very enjoyable course where we learnt some non-trivial stuff about of architecture and sculpture and also a lot of facts on Paintings and stuff. Before I get stoned for being so inept at describing things that are worth describing, I end the section on this course by saying that it is really one of the innovative courses that the HS department has to offer.
ID120. Introduction to Ecology and Environment.
True Random Number Generation(as opposed to pseudo random numbers) and a lot of mugga-mugga-wugga, mugga-mugga-wugga were what we learnt in this course. Nothing better would have made the students go to sleep on a nice Wednesday afternoon, not even a lullaby, was the sincere opinion of a suprisingly large number of students.
BT101. The Life Sciences.
The subject was very interesting though the classes were boring. (I think the large classrooms play a huge part in this). But, in the end, I believe the instructor made up for the lack of interest by delivering a set of very nice lectures on Neurology and the brain. On the whole, I enjoyed this course.
EC211. Digital Circuits Laboratory.
Here, we learnt that if there are around 1000 wires on a breadboard, there is a probability of 0.99 that one of the wires is loose and is not connected. Further more, it is deterministically true that if there are more than 6 ICs on the breadboard, one of them is burnt. But come on, it was not a complete waste of time as we learnt the virtue of patience, that quintessential trait which helps a species to survive in an ever-competitive
environment.(brr.. too much of Biology and Philosophy, two subjects the union of
which no one would like to see )
On the whole, the semester was enjoyable though the weather was not. It was too cold, especially during the last month of the semester when I was surprised it didn’t rain cats and dogs. We were caught in a cyclone and it certainly dampened my spirits a little bit.
The bottom line is that there is much room for improvement mainly on the students’ side and a little bit on the tutors’ side. I would like to end this post with a small quote by an anonymous EP student(who was in dire straits at that moment) to an Elec student: “Nullified, Petrified, Horrified, by you.”
This is my first post from within Emacs! I hope this increases the
frequency of posting from its now pathetic number and I hope this
works
Want a piece of En(genie)ering Physics? You have come to the Wright place! For those who are in the dark, Engineering Physics is one of the newest branches in “Engineering” at IIT Madras. What follows is a description of this branch by two of the branch’s own students. Now, without much further ado, let me present :
The επ-nama
1. By Marlin Jar
Disclaimer: We are gonna Bragg about ourselves and Bohr you to death.
The name being quaint for a B.Tech branch, our bloods Boyle every time we’re asked these Millikan Dollar Questions:
“Watt do you do in EP?”
Every week, from Monday to Faraday, our time is spent Moseley in exploring quantum physics, nuclear physics, statistical physics and curvilinear physiques. Not to mention making PJ’s, Poynting out profs’ blackboard errors, thieving lab equipment and Hawking them in streets.
“Do you have a bright scope after B Tech?”
A difficult Curie to answer. All we can say is our early seniors’ success Gibbs us hope.
“Why just about 10 people in your branch?”
Our small strength is our biggest strength. That’s Gauss too many cooks spoil de Broglie. ( almost redundant… We will be 23 strong in the coming year! )
“Why was this branch created in the first place?”
That’s a Rayleigh nasty question. It Hertz our feelings. Anyway, a necessity to Hooke Physics with Engineering was felt. Hence our profs, both old and Young, went to ESB with their Bose and arrows and said: “Next time it will be LASER waveguides and H-bombs if you don’t agree to our terms.” Thus EP was Born.
Courtesy:
Marlin Jar,
IV year, EP,
IIT Madras.
2. By the Lightcone:
Now, for a humBell footer to the above :
0. Watt is EP all about?
We Carnot what it is about. Hall we care about is how good we will be at Physics, at the end of Fouriers!
1. Do you have a bright scope after B.Tech?
A very Marie Curie to ask, but Franckly, a very Hardy question to answer!
2. What do the professors usually do in the classes?
They Fert for a while, Vleck our sleep, Bohr us to death, Feyn greatness and Bragg about their research. Period.
The End
Finally,a note to the reader :
0. Please don’t get bugged by the spelling mistakes. Spelling has been sacrificed for a greater cause viz., Laughter.
1. Any new additions would be welcome!
2. De broglie is pronounced as <i>”d’ broi”</i>.
That’s it for now, folks! I think that Mach is enough for one post!
Disclaimer
The statements in this post reflect the thoughts of a typical student and has nothing to do with what the author thinks about the topic, unless of course, if there are some direct references.
Of the even semester, academic year 2007-2008
A not-so-short description of the courses:
PH102 :
One of my favorite subjects, but not exactly one of my favorite courses. We had one Dr. Murugawell as our teacher whose um… unequations caused a heavy amount of Brehmsstrahlung from the class… His unequations (hopefully) will now have an identity of their own viz., Mwell’s unequations which will be the harbinger of new research in methods of teaching in IIT…
CY102 :
We had two profs for this one… one was The ONE ( for digs only: can be expanded as Organic Nalli Exemplary)in teaching… He followed the best prevailing system of The chalk, The Walk and The Talk.
The other knew his concepts well but sadly his name gives a much darker image to his teaching. Most of the students thought that he was Destined to Kill the teaching aspects of Chemistry( does it ring a bell?)… but frankly speaking, he was not so bad… Infact, he was very good, is what I think
MA102 :
This time, all the plans of revenge that the muggoos were planning to execute on the teachers( for their worrssht grading skills in MA101)were singularly diagonalized thanks to the deprecated standards of “Enrique’s top ops”(guesses any one?) where a supposed-to-be two marks question carried five marks(and this is the tip of the iceberg, I tell you)… So, the muggoos were happy with the course(atleast with the grading pattern) and the non-muggoos had nothing to crib about(this was because the muggoos thought it was not worth their mettle to RG in a so-stupid-da course)…
ME110 :
Thermodynamics is not exactly my forte so I wont be writing much about it. Still for “exactness”, it was a course which required very little effort(not for me, but) from the students’ side( in other words, ΔGmug < 0). Atleast this was the general opinion of the teachers…
EC104 :
This was a very good course in which we learnt a lot about Digital Systems and Algorithmic State machines(more familiar as Finite Automata to the Computer Science student) with digressions to enamels in between .
ME112 :
More notorious as ED to everyone who thinks that it stands for “Exceptionally Demented”, this course was peaceful for me atleast( and everyone would have heard why it was so, NNNNN times). But, for most of the people out there, this was just one of the many courses where the motto is “No pain no gain”…
WS102 :
There is nothing much to be written about this course except that it falls under the category of one of those rare “No, pain, full gain” courses. But, as always, there are “fitting” exceptions here too 
…
Finally, PH104, The Undergraduate Physics lab.(To be precise: Undergraduate for whom?) :
As always, the TA’s were revising everything that they had unlearnt during their undergraduate classes, that too with the help of the undergraduate students whose main(only,I can say) aim was to put ice, butter(and of course pseud 
) and get very good grade points… Grading reached a new high as some TA’s started giving out perfect 10s, 9.9s etc.,.
I think this covers all the “coarses” we attended during the semester.
Now let us see how the sem was, for different classes of people in the Insti….
Of the various people in the Institute
First and foremost, muggoos :
They rubbed their hands in glee,
so much that the others had to flee.
They mugged and mugged and mugged
until the others got really bugged.
Non-muggoos: Composing vetti verses such as the above one…
All people in the Institute : They cried and cried till they were fried(by the heat) …
Of grades and marks
Dont worry much about marks and grades,
coz they eventually lead to tirades
They always come and go,
But what matters is what you actually know.
Here ends the Quenta Semerillion
