May 29, 2005
An imaginary “scandal”
Theodore Darlymple in The New Criterion:
A literary agent contacted Rahila Khan by post and asked to represent her. Until then, Miss Khan had refused to meet in person anyone with whom she dealt, or even to send a photograph of herself: but she agreed to meet the agent who wanted to represent her. The agent was surprised to discover that Miss Khan was actually the Reverend Toby Forward, a Church of England vicar. The vicar’s understanding of the tragic world of Muslim girls living in British slums, caught between two cultures and belonging fully to neither, possessing little power to determine their own fates, seems to be accurate. Indeed, he explores this world with considerable subtlety as well as sympathy.
The girls are vastly superior, morally and intellectually, to their white counterparts. Their problem is precisely the opposite of that of the white youths: far from nihilism, it is the belief in a code of ethics and conduct so rigid that it makes no allowances for the fact that the girls have grown up and must live in a country with a very different culture from that of the country in which their parents grew up.
I am certain that he is right that we can enter into the experience of other people. I confirm this each time I ask a Muslim patient who is resisting a forced marriage whether her mother has yet thrown herself to the ground and claimed to be dying of a heart attack brought on by disobedience. However miserable my patient may be, she laughs: for this is precisely what her mother has done, and it comes as a great relief to her that someone understands.
More here.
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References:
1. "The New Century Dictionary of the English Language", D. Appleton-Century Company, New York, London, 1946, first copyright 1927, page 222.
2. "Mechanics" by Keith R. Symon, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, Mass, 1953, 2nd, edition, pages 237-238.
3. "Theoretical Mechanics" by T. C. Bradbury, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., N.Y., 1968, pages 495-496.
In reference (1), the word catenary is defined from the noun catena "A chain or connected series, esp. of extracts from the writings of the fathers of the church." Catenary: "Pertaining to or resembling a chain." or "the curve of a perfectly flexible, inextensible, infinitely fine cord when at rest under the action of forces; esp., the curve assumed approximately by a heavy cord or chain hanging freely from two points not in the same verticle line."
One of the most elegant problems in physics of statics is the mathematical solution of this problem, where the laws of Newton are applied to the static equilibrium of a uniform flexible string, with uniform weight per unit length, and suspended under the action of gravity, suspended from two fixed points.
The details of the solution of this problem are shown in reference (2) with the well known result that the position y(x) of any point x on the string is given by a constant plus a sum of another constant multiplied times a sum of two exponential functions of x, which can be combined into a constant plus another constant multiplied times an hyperbolic function.
Another very elegant and enlightening method of reaching the same result is with the calculus of variations as discussed in reference (3). Instead of applying the forces of static equilibrium directly, here one invokes the principle that "since the chain is hanging stationary in stable equilibrium, we can assume that its potential energy is a minimum..."
One can then plot that actual shape of a given suspended cord and compare with observed shapes. All hanging cords, wires, ceiling tiles, etc., basically assume this same shape; electrical transmission lines, telephone wires between poles, clothesline wires, even old sections of sheet rock in ceilings or ceiling tiles, while flat when installed, sag over time into the shape of a catenary. Issac Newton, basically taught humanity how to calculate this shape and how and why it originated, in his laws, provided to civilization at no charge, with no payments "for use of intellectual property" everytime an engineer uses Newton's Laws, and tested and compared with observation over and over again for centuries. There is much art and beauty in science and mathematics too. Too bad most artists have little knowledge of these subjects.
Winfield J. Abbe, Ph.D., Physics
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | May 29, 2005 7:49:56 AM
The above comment was intended to be posted on the next article "Jasper Johns: Catenary".
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | May 29, 2005 7:55:29 AM
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