Aloysius Hettiarachchi

  It appears that my previous article questioning the useful lifespan and the stability of Victoria Dam (designed by a company named Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners that has been sold or responsibility transferred to a US consultancy), has received world-wide attention. According to an article by one Maddie Burakoff titled ‘How are ancient Roman and Mayan Buildings still standing? Scientists are unlocking their secrets’ (AP) in Yahoo (on 3^rd October, 2023), it would appear to be so. I have mentioned the problems associated with the use of concrete in my LinkedIn account also when some Indian engineers started talking big about their skyscrapers that are coming up in their cities. I am happy if I was able to bring these designers to rethink about their assumptions on various kinds of Portland Cements originally patented by the English mason long time ago, via this forum. Have we put a stop to skyscraper madness?. Time will tell.

Strength of existing concrete can be tested superficially using various techniques like Schmidt’s Hammer test, Frequency analysis etc. I have found in one case that the frequency analysis of driven concrete piles giving wrong results. Testing the bond between reinforcement steel and concrete is an important aspect which cannot be done for an existing building without destroying it, to my understanding.  

The BoTree:

As for the following video by a researcher the power of Bo tree (Pipal or Ashwada tree which has been brought to India from Central Asia by Mohenjo Daro Harappan people) has been known long before Lord Buddha’s time. A reasonable account can be gleaned from the following video:

Since I am not a historian, I would not add any comment here on its reliability or otherwise. But we can use common sense to think about various aspects that he presents.

This is quite a long video. Those who are not much interested in world history may skip this.

Mohenjo Daro when translated means, mound of the dead, the narrator/author does not mention about this important fact.

So, protecting the dead bodies (and perhaps venerating them) inside big structures constructed using baked clay and lime mortar had been a practice, in Mohenjo Daro, too. That civilization has lasted about seven centuries while Anuradhapura kingdom of ours has lasted 1400 years with its very similar advance infrastructure (only in some localities). The 4000 year old Maduru Oya ancient structures, of the same period  constructed, using bricks near the modern day dam constructed under Mahaweli Scheme is also an engineering marvel. The researchers can find out what materials have been used for its construction. Looking at the images in the video people of Mohenjo Daro have lived in large numbers in small brick walled buildings just like today’s city dwellers do. They selected clay with some quantity of iron compounds in them that becomes red when burnt due to alignment of electron spin (as per current quantum mechanics model). They may be emitting EM waves of infrared (in the region of 300 GHz to 400 THz.) together with reflected red light from the sun. Those waves may be riding on other harmful wave in the region of 200 MHz as demonstrated by the engineer in the video that was give in my article mentioned at the beginning. We have read in history books that quite often armies that lived in great cities are no match for tribal nomadic armies of half that number. This may have happened three times in that Indian region: first wave from Central Asia, then the so-called Aryan invasion, and the last, Turkic invasions.

I have watched a video by an ex-IPKF officer explaining how difficult they found it to defeat the Tiger guerrilla force as they lived in the jungles (and smelled like jungle, too). Perhaps that may be the reason our jungles are being cleared in a hurry. This means when you live in organized cities, your system (logics in the brain) becomes weak and unfit to give a fight. People using gut feeling like those in our border areas can do much better.

Fourier Transform and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT):

I give below a video from Dr. Derek Muller who is running a video series called Veritasium (meaning element of truth) on science, education and anything else. He has a PhD in Physics. He explains beautifully how lots of things that we use toady are based on an algorithm (FFT) discovered 200 or so years ago and the credit for it really should go to someone else (Federick Gauss) not Fourier. We seem to have started using this most important algorithm about 150 years after its discovery. For those without a maths knowledge it is better to watch the video from the beginning to 7:50 and then from 18:52 to the end.

He explains clearly how an image is formatted using FFT, transmitted via network digitally and reassembled in our devices to give us a beautiful picture in colour. Sounds are the same from 20 Hz to 20 KHz which is human hearing range. Female voice has a fundamental frequency between 350 to 3 KHz and other waves or harmonics up to 17 KHz.  Male voice has 100 Hz to 900 Hz for fundamental waves and harmonics up to 8 KHz. So, a person’s voice can be reproduced artificially by knowing his or her fundamental frequency and a few harmonics. This means that music can be synthesize using and Arduino Nano board or even an ATtiny chip which present day school children use. It would appear from the above that lower the fundamental frequency the more manly a person sounds. 

Dr. Derek (an Australian) is a musician as well and think videos are a great way for education. I too find that even the comments given by viewers are important and sometimes give important insights into what the narrator or author does not say.

I give below a beautiful guitar play by a popular artist recorded more than ten years ago and a French version of the song also nicely sung by a popular singer. These come to us via FFT. Please enjoy!.

Aloysius Hettiarachchi