Inspiration

Recently I came across an article by acclaimed Scott Aaronson titled 'Who Can Name the Bigger Number'. This extensive article talks about a game of writing the biggest number you can think of, using any mathematical operation, given you have 15 seconds.

Sounds quite simplistic right? So what's your answer? Using tons of exponential you can write in 15 seconds with your incredible writing speed? Come on. Give it a try.

So how did I come across this article? Not that suddenly one day, the thought of insanely large number would strike my mind. Everyone's familiar with the concept of infinity. I could just get away with that. Anyway this is not how we have been taught mathematics.

Actually I came across a game online named 'Angelic Hierarchy' which simulates a turing machine and urge you to write the biggest number (in sequence of ones and zeroes) before halting. Rules are very well explained on the website. Go on. Play it.

Hmm...a game! Now that seems more probable.

There was prevalent question when I was preparing for JEE - What's your favourite subject?

I'm sure everyone come across this omnipotent question eventually. What would be your answer? Don't think too much. Just say whatever you enjoy studying. At that time, I used to say it's Physics. I was crazy about it and certainly the strongest. I loved to know about natural phenomena, modelling them mathematically, precisely calculating their behaviour wrt. space and time (of course we confined ourself to ideal conditions). It was fascinating because we could see the implication in our daily life. It has always been a part of us but we were seeing it in a different form altogether, in terms of expressions and equations.

In my excitement of fumbling with notion of Physics, even more fundamental ingredient of the overall taste took the backseat. I was more interested in the dish than what all goes into it. It's said - Mathematics is the queen of Physics but I would say the realm of this queen extends much beyond the king's. It's vast. Unimaginably vast. While the domain of Physics was construed of physical reality, Mathematics extends its wings way beyond imagination.