In my 21 years of education (and still counting), I have known a lot of things, mostly jargons. But when it comes to knowing something in depth, I am a big zero. The basic mistake, I realized, lies in the fact that I always forgot to ask a simple question-WHY?
Yes! Friends, this wh-question ranks above all others in my priority list. Some facts transcends reasoning. But in a world where almost everything tangible can be reasoned, this is an important question. Let me explain. We all know that the Earth is tilted at an axis of 23.5 degrees (on an average) with the vertical. Why? More or less all of us have dreams while in our slumber. Why? Earthquakes frequent Nepal and the North-Eastern regions of India. Why? The list never ends.
We take these statements and conclusions for granted. This is what I am talking about! We know, we don't question why, but we just know! There is a problem in this system. If spoken in economic terms, there will be a stagnation some day if this is the current state of affairs for every individual in this planet. Luckily for us, there are a good number of people bothering to ask this question.
My eyes were opened by a certain somebody, whose eyes were opened at a recent internship she had at IIT Kharagpur, one of the premier technological institutions in India. Being a certified Civil Engineer, basics of reinforced concrete should be as easy as drinking a glass of water. We had studied that the steel rods used for reinforcements can take tension but not the concrete. Concrete takes compression but fails in tension. So we use reinforced concrete to negate the effect of a possible failure in concrete. But why? I had no idea!
This explanation will not be English to many, so please feel free to skip this para while reading (if you want to). Concrete is a heterogeneous material consisting of cement, sand, aggregates, water and a few other materials. For convenience, we will consider it to be in two parts - the solid part consisting of the aggregates and the fluid part consisting of the cement paste. Now let's consider a tensile force is applied to a concrete block. What happens? The cement paste has a high poisson's ratio compared to the aggregates, so it tries and moves outside in the direction of the force, and this movement is way faster than that of the aggregates' movement in the same direction. So we see a differential movement of two components of the same material. Thus, concrete fails in tension. Now let's have a reinforced concrete block and consider a tensile force applied to it. For one, the block doesn't fail. Why? Let's split this explanation into two halves. First, we consider longitudinal reinforcements. The concrete around the steel rods and the rods themselves form a strong bond and a bond force develops. So when tensile force is applied, the concrete and steel rods rod will take the same amount of force. What the steel rods do is something very philanthropic. They take all the effect on tension on them, and distribute it uniformly throughout the whole length of the block. As they have a high yield point, it's pretty hard to break them, and the concrete block is safe from failure. But we can't say so absolutely unless we consider the second half of this explanation. There are transverse reinforcements also. They hold the block in one piece and don't allow the concrete to expand under the effect of tension. So now, the concrete doesn't have to bother much about tension as the longitudinal reinforcements do most of that for them and the transverse reinforcements restrict their movement under tension, so differential movements are out of question. Hence, our concrete block is safe!
Phew! That's a lot said in one para! Trust me when I say, this is the simplest explanation I could conjure. The real life concrete technology is a lot more complicated. But for others not remotely related to Civil Engineering who would read my post (and hopefully the para), this should be enough.
What I am coming at is the fact that it is the lack of our curiosity that acts as a hindrance to innovation. Today the world is amazed at Mangalyaan's success, but it was a product of curiosity to learn from others' failures and our own addition to them. In this fast-paced 21st century, innovation is around every other corner. It is the fuel for our survival.
We must wake up from our slumber and start being curious, especially for things in our profession. In that way, we can not only understand new technologies in a better way, but also make innovations ourselves. It doesn't have to be ISRO, DRDO, IISC, IITs, MIT, NASA, and the others in this lanky list to innovate. It has to be us. There shouldn't be an incentive to be curious.
But for those demanding an incentive, it's for your survival fella! Knowledge is the ultimate power, ain't it?
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