Education on Victor42

Why Isnt the Summer Solstice the Hottest Day of the Year

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 16:54:00 +0000

For most of China, the dog days of summer are just around the corner. July and August bring a special kind of misery where a quick lunch run can feel like you’re losing a layer of skin. Late last August, a colleague and I pondered why summer drags on for so long. His theory involved some myth I can’t recall, but I confidently declared, “It’s the concrete. It soaks up a ton of heat and takes a couple of months to let it all go.”

I immediately knew that sounded a bit too simple. It felt right, but it wasn’t very scientific. So, today, let’s get to the bottom of it.

We all know the summer solstice hits around June 21st. It’s the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N latitude, near Shantou).

In theory, this is when we get the most solar radiation. After the solstice, the sun’s direct rays head south, and the days start getting shorter. So why are July and August even hotter?

It Starts with a Lag

Let’s begin with something we see in daily life.

Think about this: if you live in a concrete building, you’ve felt how it stays cool in June even when it’s hot outside. Opening a window is pure bliss. But come September, the crisp autumn air is a lie the moment you step inside your oven-like home.

This is especially true in South China during the “Huinantian” (Resurgence Days) in May and June. Hot, humid air condenses on the cool indoor surfaces, turning walls and floors into a dewy mess. This proves that buildings have a significant thermal lag.

My concrete theory was looking good until I remembered the 24 Solar Terms. Our ancestors knew about the “dog days” of summer long before concrete existed. This phenomenon is older than our cities; it’s baked into the Earth itself.

Earth, the Giant Thermos

To understand this, picture the Earth as a giant thermos, its surface a mix of oceans and land.

The ocean is a massive water tank with an incredible ability to store heat. It can absorb huge amounts of energy with only a slight temperature increase.

Land is more complicated. It’s a mix of water, rock, soil, and man-made structures.

Water is the key player, acting like a sponge for heat. It’s a small part of the land’s mass but holds the most heat.

Rocks and soil, on the other hand, are terrible at long-term heat storage. They have a lower specific heat capacity and are poor conductors. I once visited the Mingsha Sand Dunes in Dunhuang, where the surface sand was scorching, but just a few inches down, it was cool. The heat doesn’t travel deep.

Urban structures like concrete and asphalt are even more extreme. They have a similar heat capacity to soil but are darker, especially asphalt, which absorbs over 90% of sunlight. With no moisture, they can’t “sweat” to cool down. They bake all day and radiate heat all night, creating the urban heat island effect.

But none of this explains why temperatures keep rising after the solstice.

Here’s a better analogy: the leaky balloon. The sun pumps air into the balloon (Earth), while the Earth radiates heat back into space (the leak). On the solstice, the pumping is at its strongest. For two months after, the pumping weakens, but it’s still faster than the leak. The balloon keeps inflating.

Similarly, after the solstice, the Earth still absorbs more heat than it radiates. The planet’s heat reservoir keeps growing until, one day during the “dog days,” intake equals output. That’s the peak. After that, we finally start to cool down.

This is like “carbon peak.” It sounds bad, but it marks the point where the growth rate finally turns negative—a trend reversal.

In this process, water plays the decisive role. Water is the Earth’s most powerful “heat sponge,” capable of absorbing enormous amounts of heat with only a slight increase in its own temperature. The specific heat of water is 4-5 times that of sand and rock, meaning it can store far more heat in a much milder way.

The diurnal temperature range of a place is largely determined by the presence of water. In lush, vegetated areas with ample moisture, the temperature difference between day and night is small. In arid deserts, the difference is extreme.

To take it to an extreme, what if the Earth had no water or atmosphere? We have a perfect real-world example: the Moon. Without water as a “heat sponge” and an atmosphere as a “thermal blanket,” the heat absorbed during the day is almost entirely radiated away at night. The Moon’s surface temperature can soar to 127°C (260°F) during the day and plummet to -173°C (-280°F) at night. With such rapid heating and cooling, the phenomenon of thermal lag would cease to exist.

So, when we complain about the weather, let’s not forget the Moon. Our planet, thanks to the gentle “thermostatic suit” of water and atmosphere, has avoided becoming a hellscape of alternating extremes. They are one of the greatest miracles that allow life to thrive on Earth.

The Air Blower Barrel: The Subtropical High

But the Earth’s own heat accumulation isn’t enough to explain the suffocating heat of the dog days. The real knockout punch comes from an old acquaintance from the weather forecast: the subtropical high. What is it, exactly? A mass of air?

Yes and no.

Picture this: in a large river, a stable vortex forms in a specific spot due to the flow patterns. The vortex itself seems permanent, but the water molecules within it are constantly being replaced. The subtropical high is a magnificent, stable air vortex in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The one that affects China the most is the Western Pacific Subtropical High. Its raw material comes from the equator. Air, heated to a scorching temperature at the equator, rises to high altitudes and then splits into two streams, one north and one south. The northward stream cools at high altitude, sinks, and traces a huge arc, landing around 30°N latitude to form this massive high-pressure system.

If it’s a current of air, why doesn’t it just dissipate?

To understand its stability, we can imagine it as a bottomless, topless air blower barrel:

The Top: Hot air from the equator rises, deflects, cools, and sinks, continuously pouring into the barrel.
The Squeeze: The air pouring in compresses the space inside the barrel. This compression causes heating, resulting in a hot-over-cold air structure inside. This stratification prevents vertical convection. The hot air above acts like an invisible lid, letting air in but not out.
The Walls: The trapped air naturally tries to escape horizontally. But as it blows outward, it’s deflected to the right (due to the Coriolis effect in the Northern Hemisphere). At a certain point, it bends 90 degrees, creating a clockwise “wind wall.” Other air trying to escape from the inside collides with this wall, preventing the wall from deflecting further inward. These forces merge, strengthening the wind wall and creating a balance that contains most of the air.
The Leaks: At the bottom, however, this air barrel wall becomes less sturdy due to friction with the ground. It leaks air in various directions, forming the trade winds and westerlies.

We’ll discuss the “Coriolis effect” in detail in the next chapter; for now, just focus on the wind wall. Ever walk into a mall in the summer and feel that blast of air from an air curtain pointing straight down at the entrance? The door is open, but it’s two different worlds inside and out. That’s the blocking effect of a wind wall.

This is how this high-pressure vortex maintains its relative stability.

The subtropical high, this “air blower barrel,” is a living thing. Its shape and position are constantly changing. When it expands northward and envelops your city, the weather forecast will say the area is under its “control,” a very fitting term.

Imagine the scene from the movie Independence Day where the alien mothership slowly emerges from the clouds and hovers over the city—the subtropical high brings that same sense of oppression.

It makes you feel scorching hot in two main ways:

Sinking Air, Cloudless Skies: Inside the high, the air sinks. This presses the hot surface air down, preventing it from rising to meet the cold air above, which suppresses cloud formation. The result is a clear, sunny sky, allowing the sun to launch a direct physical attack on you.
Transporting Moisture, Muggy Heat: The high often packages and delivers the hot, humid air from over the tropical oceans. High humidity prevents your sweat from evaporating, effectively crippling your body’s cooling system. This is a magic attack.

It’s crucial to note the difference between how the body feels heat from ground radiation versus heat from water evaporation. The former is “sensible heat,” the latter is “latent heat.”

The ground radiates heat via infrared radiation, transferring some of its stored energy to your house, your body, and the surrounding air. The ground cools down, but for you, it’s a heating process—that roasting feeling you get on a summer evening.

When water evaporates, it absorbs a large amount of “sensible heat” and converts it into “latent heat” stored in the water vapor molecules. This heat, which was on the ground or on your body, suddenly seems to vanish into thin air. This is true cooling. Of course, the heat hasn’t disappeared; it’s just been carried away to the heavens by the water vapor.

So, in July and August, you can experience two very different kinds of summer heat. When you’re away from the subtropical high and only dealing with ground heat, it’s a relatively dry heat. You can ride a bike in the hot wind and barely break a sweat. When the subtropical high hits, it’s the kind of heat that makes your clothes stick to you, so muggy you don’t even want to speak.

These are two different summers. One is the summer of a vibrant, energetic high-school athlete; the other is the summer of a sweaty, stressed-out recent grad hunting for a job.

The Coriolis Effect

Now let’s dive into the Coriolis effect, also known as the geostrophic deflection force, and see where the “barrel wall” comes from.

This force is fascinating. It’s not a real push or pull but an inertial phenomenon.

Imagine a cannonball fired from the equator, aimed straight for the North Pole. There are two ways to understand the Coriolis effect.

From the perspective of an observer on the ground:

When the cannonball launches from the equator, in addition to its northward velocity, it carries a huge west-to-east inertial velocity from the Earth’s rotation (about 1670 km/h or 1040 mph). As it travels north, the latitude increases, the circumference of the latitude line decreases, and the rotational speed of the ground below it slows down. But the cannonball, due to inertia, maintains its high equatorial speed. Consequently, it “outruns” the ground beneath it, causing its path to curve eastward. For a northbound cannonball, this is a deflection to the right.

Conversely, if fired from the North Pole towards the equator, the cannonball’s initial east-west velocity is zero. As it flies towards the equator, the ground beneath it is moving eastward at an increasing speed. The cannonball “can’t keep up” and lags behind, deflecting westward. For a southbound cannonball, this is also a deflection to the right.

From a God’s-eye view:

Watching from space, you’d see the rotating Earth move the cannonball to the side. You’d notice that when the cannonball launches from the equator, its initial direction isn’t straight up but diagonally up and towards you. Ignoring gravity, it would travel in a straight line in space. But gravity pulls on it, essentially “taping” this straight line onto the Earth’s surface, making it follow a “straight line on a curved surface.” This is also known as a great-circle route, the shortest path on a sphere. You can see this by stretching a string on a globe. The cannonball would travel northeast, reaching a high latitude where its direction is due east, then curve southeast, its latitude decreasing until it returns to the equator.

It was aimed north, but it passes the North Pole to the northeast. To someone on the ground, doesn’t that look like a rightward deflection?

So, the Coriolis effect isn’t a force; it’s an illusion. We are spinning but often forget we are. We only realize something is amiss when things don’t travel in the straight lines we expect.

The famous Foucault pendulum experiment in science history used this principle to prove the Earth’s rotation. It’s also why atmospheric phenomena are always spinning.

But wait! Sharp-eyed friends might spot another issue. What if the cannonball is fired horizontally at a mid-latitude, with no initial north-south velocity? Why does it still deflect? The “different speeds at different latitudes” explanation doesn’t seem to cover this.

Congratulations, you’ve entered the deep end of the Coriolis effect. You’ve discovered an important fact: physically, the Coriolis effect isn’t driven by a single principle. The north-south deflection is mainly due to the conservation of angular momentum, but the east-west deflection is primarily caused by the balance of centripetal force.

First, let’s reiterate an important concept: Gravitational Force ≠ Gravity.

Gravitational force (F) is due to the Earth’s mass; it exists whether the Earth spins or not and points towards the Earth’s center. Centripetal force (f) only exists with rotation; the faster the spin, the more centripetal force is needed. It points perpendicularly towards the Earth’s axis of rotation. These two forces have different directions. The part of the gravitational force that remains after accounting for the centripetal force is the gravity (mg) you feel. Of course, since gravitational force is very large and the required centripetal force is very small in comparison, the direction and magnitude of gravity are very close to that of the gravitational force.

Note that gravitational force is constant, while centripetal force isn’t a force an object actually receives; it describes the force required for an object to maintain its orbit at a certain speed.

So, for a cannonball at rest, the gravitational force is constant. The component of gravity in the direction of the centripetal force (let’s call it the centripetal component) provides just enough force to keep it stationary.

If fired eastward, the gravitational force is unchanged, but its orbital speed is now its own speed plus the Earth’s rotational speed. It’s moving faster than its latitude. The centripetal component of gravity can’t provide enough force to hold it. It has a tendency to fly off into space, opposite to the direction of the centripetal force. This outward tendency can be split into two components: one perpendicular to the surface and one along it. The perpendicular one doesn’t affect deflection but creates the interesting Eötvös effect (which we won’t get into, or we’ll never finish). We’re interested in the motion along the surface. The cannonball will move towards a lower latitude where more centripetal force can be provided. So, it moves south, deflecting to the right.

If fired westward, the same logic applies. Its combined speed is slower than its latitude. The centripetal component is now excessive, creating a tendency to pull it towards the axis of rotation. Along the surface, this manifests as a northward movement, which is also a rightward deflection.

Once it deviates from a pure east-west path, the angular momentum factor starts to play a role in the north-south direction, ensuring the cannonball continues to deflect.

Studying this leaves a strange feeling. How can this be? Can multiple physical laws combine to form a new one? Is this some kind of nesting doll? But mathematicians see it differently. The formula they derived for the Coriolis force is:

$$ {\displaystyle {\vec {F_{c}}}=-2m({\vec {\omega }}\times {\vec {v}})} $$

I won’t explain it in detail, but this formula covers both east-west and north-south cases simultaneously. Oh, so two different things in physics are the same thing in math… Sorry, my mistake.

Let’s stop here with the Coriolis effect. We have enough information to explain the thermal lag. In short, the existence of the Coriolis effect allows the subtropical high to maintain its “barrel wall,” trapping the high-pressure air inside and creating this unique atmospheric phenomenon.

A quick reminder: in everyday life, the Coriolis effect is not very noticeable. The direction of the vortex in your toilet or sink drain is mainly determined by the shape of the basin and the initial disturbance of the water, not this force.

The Conspiracy of the Thermos and the Air Blower

Alright, back to the main topic. We can now summarize. After the summer solstice, two factors conspire to keep the weather getting hotter:

The Thermos: The Earth’s continued accumulation of heat.
The Air Blower: The external heat delivered by the subtropical high.

Which factor has a greater impact? That’s like asking in a gas explosion whether the gas or the spark is more to blame.

The heat stored by the land, especially by the “heat sponge” of water, is the gas filling the air. It determines the baseline and duration of the heat. On one hand, it stores a massive amount of heat in early summer, preventing the surface temperature from rising too quickly, which is why the solstice isn’t the hottest day. On the other hand, the heat it has accumulated peaks in July and August, finally causing a significant rise in near-surface temperatures, creating a kind of “stone pot bibimbap” baking heat.

At this point, the intense heat is like gas filling the air, just waiting for a spark.

And the humid, scorching blast from the subtropical high is that fatal spark, making you feel like you’re about to explode. This is the inescapable reality of the dog days of summer.

Well, after all that, I know you don’t feel any cooler. Neither do I. Even the toothpaste in my bathroom is warm.

Finally, on the topic of summer, you might also be interested in this: Why Can the Summer Sun Shine on a North-Facing Wall?

Zhejiang Museum of Surveying, Mapping, and Geoinformation

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:33:00 +0000

On a whim, I took a day off to explore this niche museum I’d stumbled upon. It’s part of the Zhejiang Academy of Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology. I didn’t expect much, planning just a quick look, but the quality was surprisingly high. The very first exhibit had me hooked.

The museum spans two floors. The first floor traces the history of Chinese surveying and mapping from ancient to modern times. The second floor features two halls: one on modern applications of surveying and GIS (Geographic Information System), and another on maps. The GIS hall is packed with interactive, kid-friendly exhibits.

Time was short—just one morning—so I snapped as many photos as I could to pore over later, though I still missed most of it. Anyway, let’s take a quick virtual tour.

Ancient Chinese Surveying and Mapping

The first hall on ancient surveying techniques posed a question we moderns rarely consider: without rigorous science like geometry, did early humans rely purely on intuition?

Absolutely not.

While our perception can be vague, interacting with the physical world demands precision. The laws of physics make quantitative measurement a necessity.

Vertical Surveying

Take well-digging. The ancients couldn’t just dig on a whim. A well had to be perfectly vertical to prevent collapse and make drawing water easier. They might not have known about gravity, but they understood that a hanging weight points straight down.

The pointed piece of wood in the bottom left is a plumb bob, suspended by a rope from the well’s center. The large wooden stake next to it is a sighting pile. It’s hard to see through the glass, but there’s a small hollow carved in its top. While digging, they kept the plumb bob pointing at that hollow. As the well deepened, the rope lengthened, and the sighting pile was moved lower. With this setup, they could keep the well perfectly vertical, as shown in the diagram.

This simple setup was the world’s earliest surveying tool. This method is still used in construction today. You’ve probably heard of it: the plumb line.

Horizontal Surveying

While gravity makes finding ‘up’ and ‘down’ easy, the horizontal plane is trickier to measure precisely.

This is where maps come in. Cave paintings weren’t just art; alongside scenes of daily life and belief, ancient people drew highly practical maps.

This 3,500-year-old rock painting of a settlement in Cangyuan, Yunnan, shows the distribution of houses and roads—an abstraction of the physical world.

The further I walked, the more I appreciated the genius of the map. As land-bound creatures who can’t fly, our world is essentially two-dimensional. We don’t burrow underground or float in the air, so it’s natural to represent our world on a flat surface, ignoring altitude and focusing on the cardinal directions.

A map is the ultimate tool for filtering key information from the noise of the natural world. A tribal chief cared where the houses, roads, and livestock were, but not how many trees were in a certain area.

From Qualitative to Quantitative

But the Cangyuan rock painting is purely qualitative. It shows a house is near a road, but not how far. It doesn’t tell us which of two houses is closer.

Why does this matter? Without quantitative data, we can’t make comparisons at scales beyond what the eye can see.

We understand the world through comparison, relating new concepts to what we already know. By spotting similarities and differences, we learn.

For example, if I tell you the Earth’s circumference is 40,000 kilometers, the number is too big to grasp. But if I say that light can circle the Earth 7.5 times per second, you get it. The fastest thing we know takes a noticeable amount of time to circle our planet, which means Earth is immense.

That 7.5 is a quantitative expression. Numbers allow for comparison, and using math to measure the world frees us from vague intuition.

To compare numbers, they must share the same units. Which is longer, one meter or one zhang? Without a conversion, nobody knows. Standardizing units unifies a country’s mathematical language. Yes, math has dialects: calculation methods are grammar, and units are pronunciation. When everyone speaks the same mathematical language, people from different regions can trade more easily or collaborate on building the Great Wall, enabling the efficient flow of resources.

This puts Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s standardization of weights and measures in a new light. It wasn’t just a grand gesture; it was a practical necessity for ruling a vast empire.

The exhibit also revealed something I’d never considered: the Qin Dynasty had officials specifically in charge of surveying and cartography. This shows how crucial these tasks were to the state; at such a macro level, no decision could be based on feeling alone.

With standardized units and measurement techniques, it became possible to shrink vast territories onto small maps.

A topographic map from Mawangdui Tomb No. 3. I’ve transcribed the description:

Measuring 96x96 cm, it depicts the southern part of the Changsha Kingdom in the early Western Han Dynasty, now the upper Xiang River, the Nanling and Jiuyi Mountains, and surrounding areas. The orientation is south-up. The scale is roughly 1:170,000 to 1:190,000. Analysis confirms it is a surveyed topographic map.

I’m not familiar with the geography of Hunan and Guangxi. Note that the Mawangdui map must be rotated 180 degrees to match modern maps. Over 2,000 years, river systems may have changed, but the mountains still seem to align well. Can any friends from Hunan or Guangxi comment on the accuracy of this Han Dynasty survey?

The Math Behind Surveying

Once surveying methods exist, someone is bound to create a science out of them.

geometry(n.)

early 14c., also gemetrie, gemetry, from Old French geometrie (12c., Modern French géométrie), from Latin geometria, from Greek geometria “measurement of earth or land; geometry,” from combining form of gē “earth, land” (see Gaia) + -metria “a measuring of” (see -metry). Old English used eorðcræft “earth-craft” as a loan-translation of Latin geometria.

The word “geometry” traces back to ancient Greece, where it meant “earth measurement.” It allowed for objective comparisons of land area, settling disputes between farmers. From such practical problems, this science of shapes emerged.

China had its own geometric pioneers. Liu Hui, a mathematician of the Three Kingdoms period, wrote a treatise on measuring the height of a sea island in his commentary on the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. It systematically used the principle of similar triangles to remotely measure an island’s height without setting foot on it. This was China’s first mathematical work on surveying.

Measuring a sea island might sound trivial, but it freed surveyors from physical constraints, enabling the remote measurement of large, distant objects. The principle of similar triangles is foundational to modern astronomy.

A nearby interactive exhibit demonstrated the principle. Tapping the screen showed an ancient cartoon figure with a pole, taking a few measurements to get the result.

Place a pole of known height, step back until its top visually aligns with the island peak, and record the horizontal distance to the pole. That creates a small right triangle (eye–pole top–pole base) similar to the large triangle (eye–island peak–island base). One sighting gives a ratio between height and distance but leaves both unknown. Repeat from a second spot farther out along the same sightline with another pole and measure the separation between the two pole positions. Those two similar-triangle equations plus the known separation give two equations for two unknowns, allowing you to solve for the island’s height and distance.

So, not only is the island’s height calculated, but the distance to it is found as well.

Measuring Water Levels: The Grand Canal

With basic math, even without systematic physics, ancient people could build incredible things, like a nationwide canal.

Here’s a question: Is the water level of the 1,700-km Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal constant?

Impossible. The terrain varies, with some cities on high ground and others in lowlands. A canal built at a high elevation would flood low-lying cities if it leaked. Building it at a low elevation would require carving through mountains to reach higher cities.

So, canals are built in sections, each with its own water level. The Panama Canal, for example, uses locks to separate segments. A chamber between two segments changes its water level. A ship enters, the gate behind it closes, and water from the next segment flows in, raising the ship to the next level. Step by step, the ship conquers the terrain.

An astute observer might ask: doesn’t water constantly flow out of the higher sections? Yes, it does. A canal isn’t a self-sustaining system; it needs external water sources to replenish the upper levels. A dry season could even shut it down.

Clearly, building the Grand Canal was more than just digging a long trench. It required immense, precise surveying and calculation to find suitable routes. Guo Shoujing of the Yuan Dynasty was the first in China to use “sea level” as a baseline to compare canal sections, introducing the concept of “altitude.”

A bit of trivia: The Grand Canal was built during the Sui Dynasty, but it wasn’t the “Beijing-Hangzhou” Grand Canal at first. The Sui capital was Chang’an, and later Luoyang. A canal would have to serve the capital. The original main artery was centered on Luoyang, connecting the northern plains to the southern Jiangnan region, funneling goods to the capital.

In the later Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the political focus shifted north, and the importance of Chang’an and Luoyang faded. Massive resources were poured into the canal between Beijing and Hangzhou, which gradually became the main trunk.

I learned this from the Canal Museum by the Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou. If you’re interested, major cities along the canal likely have their own museums documenting this history.

Measuring the Earth: The Meridian Line

Besides measuring things on the ground, the ancients also measured the Earth itself.

In ancient civilizations worldwide, heaven and earth were seen as connected and mutually influential. The Tang dynasty monk Yi Xing was tasked with creating a more accurate astronomical calendar to predict celestial events and guide life on Earth. He set up 13 observation stations over a vast distance, from Mongolia to Vietnam, and had his teams simultaneously measure the altitude of the North Star and the length of the noon shadow.

Because the Earth is a sphere, the North Star’s altitude and the noon shadow’s length vary with latitude. Using this data, he calculated the arc length of a degree of the meridian with the highest accuracy of his time.

In ancient China, “zi” meant north and “wu” south, so a “ziwu line” was a north-south arc on the Earth’s surface—what we call a meridian line.

The arc length of one degree of longitude is key data; it can be used to calculate the size of the Earth. This discovery could have sparked an age of exploration for China. But that didn’t happen, partly because the concept of a spherical Earth wasn’t yet widely accepted.

Measuring the Sky: The Cross-Staff

The ancients also measured the sky.

At sea, with no landmarks, the sky is the only guide. By day, you have the sun. At night, what do you have? The moon is unreliable; as Earth’s satellite, its position is too variable.

Ancient nighttime navigation relied on the stars. This worked because the distant stars form a fixed map in the sky.

Strictly speaking, stars aren’t completely fixed; their own motion and the Earth’s precession slowly change their positions. But these changes are so gradual that for ancient navigators, the stars were a stable and information-rich guide, even more so than the sun. The challenge was learning to read this celestial “map.”

The cross-staff was a tool for measuring a ship’s latitude, usually by sighting the North Star.

It looks complex, but the principle is simple. You select one of the square boards. Holding it at arm’s length, you align its bottom edge with the horizon. If the top edge lines up with the North Star, you’ve found the star’s altitude.

If the “six-finger” board lines up, you’d say, “The North Star is six fingers high.” This measurement could be converted to latitude using a table. A “finger” was a unit of about 2cm. If the alignment wasn’t perfect, you’d try a smaller or larger board.

Amazingly, this crude device played a huge role in Zheng He’s voyages. The method was obviously prone to error—arm lengths differ, and holding the board perfectly vertical on a rocking ship is difficult. But this principle inspired more advanced instruments, like the sextant.

Coincidentally, I found an article from the museum’s official WeChat account that details how to use the cross-staff.

The cross-staff and sextant measure latitude. Longitude was a much harder problem for all ancient seafaring civilizations. But why was knowing only latitude so useful? If you were sailing to a known location, you could look up its latitude, sail north or south until you reached that latitude, and then simply sail east or west along it.

However, I suspect this method would be less effective in archipelagos.

Nationwide Large-Scale Surveys

Rulers throughout history recognized the benefits of accurate measurement and periodically launched nationwide survey campaigns.

Guo Shoujing of the Yuan Dynasty was ordered to conduct a nationwide survey, rivaling Yi Xing’s in scope.

To compile a new calendar, Guo Shoujing led an unprecedented “Four Seas Survey.” It ranged from the Paracel Islands in the south to near the Arctic Circle. Using instruments he invented, like the simplified armillary sphere (Jianyi), he measured the latitudes of 27 locations with accuracy very close to modern values.

In what is now Dengfeng, Henan, Guo Shoujing built an observatory that functioned as a giant gnomon; it’s the oldest surviving observatory in China. To improve accuracy, he invented a “shadow definer” that used a pinhole to measure shadow length to within ±2 millimeters.

This is the Jianyi, a simplified armillary sphere. It looks anything but simple, but its function was direct: to measure a celestial body’s coordinates.

Time was running short, so I didn’t examine the Jianyi closely. I was the only visitor, and a staff member, noticing my interest, told me I could use the paper from the entrance to make a souvenir map rubbing. I chose the “Mountains and Rivers of the Nine Provinces.” Here’s the result:

I asked how large the museum was and realized I’d seen only a fifth of it in half a day. I sped up, stopping only for things that immediately caught my eye and taking photos of the rest.

The renowned scholar-emperor Kangxi personally studied and directed a massive survey that produced the Huangyu Quanlan Tu (Map of the Imperial Territories).

Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty personally directed a large-scale survey using latitude, longitude, and triangulation. It produced 641 coordinate points across the country. Combined with China’s vast geographical literature, this data was used to create the Huangyu Quanlan Tu, China’s first map based on measured coordinates. Its coverage, accuracy, and speed were unparalleled in the world at the time. The project also led to the first survey of Mount Everest and provided the first empirical evidence that the Earth is an oblate spheroid, marking a great leap for Chinese surveying technology.

Regarding the “first discovery that the Earth is an oblate spheroid,” I did some digging. With so much data, they spotted a pattern: the arc length of one degree of latitude was longer at high latitudes than at low latitudes. This meant the Earth is slightly flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. The difference between Earth’s polar and equatorial diameters is just 0.33%—a tiny discrepancy on a planetary scale, discoverable only through precise measurement. However, “first discovery” should really be “first confirmed,” as Newton had already theorized an oblate spheroid.

But this led me to a contradiction: why does a longer arc length at higher latitudes mean the poles are flatter? My intuition said the opposite.

Let’s exaggerate. If the Earth spun much faster, centrifugal force would flatten it like a lens. A cross-section would show that the meridian arc from 0 to 45 degrees is clearly longer than the arc from 45 to 90 degrees.

To avoid being tricked by intuition, I reasoned it out. A quarter meridian can be divided into 90 one-degree arcs. If the high-latitude arcs are longer, then ... < arc 44-45 < arc 45-46 < .... Logically, the total arc length above 45 degrees should be greater than that below it. But my diagram shows the opposite. Where’s the flaw?

After some research, I found the flaw was in my understanding of “latitude.”

We’re used to thinking of Earth as a perfect sphere where latitude lines are evenly spaced. On a perfect sphere, definitions of latitude don’t matter. But on an oblate spheroid, the two common definitions differ:

Geodetic Latitude: The angle between the normal (a line perpendicular to the surface) and the equatorial plane. This line does not necessarily pass through the Earth’s center.
Geocentric Latitude: The angle between a line from the surface to the Earth’s center and the equatorial plane.

As the diagram shows, 45 degrees geodetic latitude is not where you’d intuitively think it is. Conflict resolved.

My mistake was assuming geocentric latitude, a classic case of modern knowledge leading to a wrong assumption. Geographical latitude is geodetic. From an ancient perspective, geodetic latitude is far more intuitive and measurable—you don’t even need to believe the Earth is a sphere to use it. The concept of geocentric latitude, on the other hand, is meaningless without a spherical Earth model.

Enough about latitude. Back to the Huangyu Quanlan Tu. The museum had a QR code for an audio guide, which I’ve transcribed:

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1223

There were also several other ancient surveying instruments on display:

Kangxi Era Globe (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1224

A globe offers a visual overview of the Earth. This one was made by the Imperial Household Department workshop, based on the Kunyu Tushuo (Illustrated Account of the Earth) by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Belgian missionary and Emperor Kangxi’s science tutor. The theory of a round Earth is the basis for latitude and longitude measurement and map projection.

Gilt Copper Orrery of the Seven Luminaries (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1225

Used to demonstrate the movements of the seven luminaries (Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon) and celestial events like eclipses. Longitude for the Huangyu Quanlan Tu was measured primarily by observing lunar eclipses and the occultations of Jupiter’s moons.

Imperial Gilt Copper Astrolabe (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1226

Used to calculate time for geodetic surveys. It consists of a base plate, a celestial plate, a triangular gnomon, and a plumb line. The celestial plate is rotated to align the gnomon with key stars, and the time is read from the corresponding solar term on the base plate.

Theodolite with a Single Telescope (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1227

Used to measure azimuth angles. The disk is engraved from 10° to 360° and has four sight vanes. Two are fixed, and two are movable, supporting a telescope with a spirit level for horizontal correction.

Copper Altitude Quadrant (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1228

Used to measure the altitude of a celestial body or an object above the horizon, and also for horizontal angles. The base has an embedded compass to correct the measurement direction.

Plane Table (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1229

Used to measure distances and survey plots of land. One side has fixed sight vanes, and a movable alidade is in the lower-left. Drawing paper is clipped to the board, allowing for simultaneous surveying and drawing.

Black Lacquer Box of Drawing Instruments (Replica)

http://ws.taoart.com/bwgAudio/audio/detail.htm?id=1230

This two-layered box contains over thirty drawing instruments, including various dividers, compasses, scales, rulers, and a protractor.

Modern and Contemporary Chinese Surveying and Mapping

After the ancient section, I skipped a small exhibit on modern history and went straight to the contemporary surveying area.

Surveying Datums

First up: national surveying datums. In plain English: what do we measure, and by what standards?

The geodetic control network defines 3D coordinates. Ground survey reference stations are scattered across the country. Like the international prototype meter and kilogram, their coordinates are maintained with extreme precision, and all other locations are calculated relative to them.

This involves ground stations, real-time satellite monitoring, and data centers. Even minute factors like tectonic plate movement are tracked, allowing the system to dynamically update the true coordinates of each station.

A model of a classic geodetic origin. China’s geodetic origin is in Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province. It was chosen in the last century because it was near the country’s geographical center and geologically stable. This facilitated the expansion of the control network nationwide.

Today, however, the network no longer uses a physical origin. With modern technology, the geodetic origin is defined as the Earth’s center of mass, in line with international standards.

The vertical control network is similar, defining numerous reference points for altitude.

This is a model of a leveling benchmark, the starting point for altitude measurements, located on Guanxiang Hill in Qingdao.

There are also reference points for gravity.

And a network of reference stations for satellite navigation and positioning.

A satellite navigation and positioning reference station.

Applications of Datums

What can we do with these datums?

With accurate 3D coordinates, we can perform precise nationwide analysis for the first time.

The Hu Huanyong Line diagonally divides China. A comparison of the two sides reveals a stark population imbalance:

In 1935, geographer Hu Huanyong proposed a line dividing China’s population density. It runs from Heihe to Tengchong. At the time, 96% of the population lived on 36% of the land southeast of the line, while 4% lived on the other 64%.

This demographic divide persists. According to the 2010 census, 94% of the population lives on 43% of the land southeast of the line, with 6% on the remaining 57%.

Hu didn’t just draw an arbitrary line. It’s a real geographical boundary where population density drops off sharply, and it has been stable for a long time. It reflects China’s geographical realities and closely matches the 400mm annual precipitation line. Monsoons, water resources, terrain, and history have all contributed to the distinctly different civilizations on either side: agricultural and pastoral.

The first national geographical census determined the breakdown of cultivated land:

Type	Area (10,000 sq km)	Percentage (%)
Paddy Field	30.39	19.00
Dry Land	109.52	68.49
Orchard	11.64	7.28
Other	8.36	5.23
Total	159.91	100

It also tallied the distribution of water resources by altitude:

Region	Area (10,000 sq km)	Percentage (%)
Extremely High Altitude	0.49	2.37
High Altitude	4.72	22.86
Medium Altitude	2.01	9.73
Low Altitude	13.43	65.04
Total	20.65	100

And vegetation cover by altitude:

Region	Area (10,000 sq km)	Percentage (%)
Extremely High Altitude	37.42	6.27
High Altitude	129.00	21.62
Medium Altitude	210.42	35.26
Low Altitude	219.94	36.85
Total	596.78	100

Further on, an exhibit detailed the three measurements of Mount Everest’s height. The latest official height is 8848.86 meters to the “snow surface.” You can easily find the story behind this online.

I passed a futuristic installation with a sleek console and an oddly shaped screen, like something from an alien spaceship.

It was an interactive exhibit on how survey data is used for earthquake disaster relief.

Another clever device: rotating discs on a barrel showed the historical changes of cities in Zhejiang.

The modern section on the first floor was much larger than I’ve shown. I didn’t photograph many of the display boards with dense text.

As I left the first-floor hall, I saw two opposing interactive walls. Touching a painting on the wall lit up the corresponding object, reminding visitors of the pervasive impact of surveying technology on modern society.

Applications of Surveying Technology

On the second floor, the focus shifted from history to the technology itself.

Of course, it began with a touch of history, showcasing the geographical views of different civilizations over time.

Note the timeline: the theory of a spherical Earth was proposed in the 6th century BC. Two centuries later, there was already strong evidence to support it.

In the 6th century BC, the ancient Greek Pythagoras proposed the concept of a spherical Earth. Two centuries later, Aristotle further argued for it based on the spherical shadow during a lunar eclipse, astronomical observations, and the way ships disappear over the horizon.

Yet, nearly 2,000 years later, most people still believed the Earth was a flat disc.

Before the 15th-17th centuries, many Europeans believed the ocean was a vast, flat plane ending in a waterfall. This view was gradually overturned during the Age of Discovery.

It’s a powerful reminder of how long it can take for a now-obvious truth to overcome cognitive inertia. It also makes you wonder: what if the scientific spirit of ancient Greece had continued uninterrupted?

Numerical Measurement

Once we knew the Earth was a sphere, we had to measure it.

A few related but distinct concepts are at play here. Imagine the Earth as a perfect ellipsoid (the green dashed line). The actual solid surface (mountains, seabeds) is uneven (the solid green line). You can’t use this uneven surface as a baseline for measuring height. A more uniform reference is sea level (the solid white line). But because Earth’s mass isn’t evenly distributed, the sea level (the geoid) doesn’t perfectly match a standard ellipse.

Coincidentally, I’d just seen a NASA image of the geoid on social media. It gives you a great visual for how much the geoid, shaped by gravity, differs from a perfect sphere.

This device lets you see how topographic maps are made. Using the geoid concept, imagine slicing the Earth with parallel planes at regular intervals. The lines where these planes intersect the terrain are the contour lines.

You can shape the sand in the sandbox, and an overhead projector instantly redraws the contour lines on the new terrain.

This area was lined with an impressive collection of surveying instruments.

The section on marine positioning caught my eye. The diagram shows two common acoustic positioning methods for missions at sea.

The long-baseline method (left) is used for long-term projects in a fixed area, like oil drilling or cable laying. A ship deploys an array of transponders on the seabed and calibrates their positions to centimeter-level accuracy. The ship can then use signals from at least three transponders to pinpoint its own location with extreme precision.

The short-baseline method is used to track moving underwater objects, like ROVs. It works in reverse: the ship emits a sound wave, and receivers at three different points on the ship listen for the object’s reply, calculating its position for precise control.

The unmanned survey boat is surprisingly small.

This exhibit showed the evolution of underwater survey technology. Ancient methods involved lowering a weighted, knotted rope and counting the knots to determine depth.

With sonar, you can measure the depth along a ship’s path.

Multibeam sonar scans a wide swath at once, creating a full 3D image of the seafloor, not just a line of depth soundings.

And so, we land-dwellers have a detailed understanding of the ocean floor. Our maps can even reflect submarine topography.

We can also map topography across time. This diagram shows how the coastline of the Zhejiang region has changed over geological eras.

Image-based Measurement

With modern computer vision and AI, a new path to surveying has opened up: visual measurement, or remote sensing. We capture images and analyze the data within them.

The history of remote sensing technology.

An interesting device showed how aerial drone photos of a city are stitched together. This is the same process used to create the satellite layer in map apps.

Remote sensing goes beyond visible light, using infrared, microwave, and other bands to gather richer information.

GIS Systems

This hall was a highlight, showcasing the true power of surveying technology. All the history and techniques discussed so far are about collecting data.

But are numbers and images the end goal? In data analysis, raw data is useless, no matter how much you have. It must be cleaned, processed, and integrated to derive meaning.

Similarly, scattered survey data must be integrated into a system to create a multi-dimensional reconstruction of our world. This is GIS: the Geographic Information System.

This board displays one of the earliest applications of GIS.

In mid-19th century London, during a cholera outbreak, Dr. John Snow (no, not that one) mapped the locations of cases. He noticed they clustered around a specific water pump, allowing him to identify and disable the source of the contamination.

This is a landmark case in the history of data analysis. I’ll recommend a documentary at the end that covers this story.

This interactive screen offered a complete introduction to GIS. I really wanted to explore it, but I’ll have to save that for next time.

This installation demonstrated GIS for supermarket site selection. Imagine a city wants to build a new public-welfare supermarket. It needs to be on a main road, serve a large population, be near a transport hub, have reasonable rent, and avoid existing competitors. Following the steps, the device filters down to the optimal locations.

Only by integrating data on road networks, population, transport hubs, land prices, and property types can such an analysis be performed. This highlights the unique power of GIS.

There was also a racing game I didn’t try. I’m not sure what aspect of GIS it demonstrated, but it seemed popular with kids—it’s all over Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) posts about the museum.

This flood inundation analysis tool demonstrates a value far greater than site selection. It simulates a river basin flood, allowing for rapid assessment of which villages will be affected, enabling time-critical evacuation decisions.

When we see disaster relief news, we see frontline responders and strategic command centers. But behind their rapid response is a robust geographic information database.

A nation’s strength is highly correlated with its level of informatization. National power is the ability to mobilize resources, and data’s role in that is ever-growing.

This installation showed how remote sensing technology helps fight forest fires.

Manual or automated analysis of fire imagery provides crucial, real-time intelligence for firefighting efforts and helps predict a fire’s spread.

Next, I passed through a dome theater. I caught the 10:40 AM show, a 5-minute film about the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. Unfortunately, it didn’t make great use of the dome format; it felt more like a regular video projected on a curved screen.

This series of panels showed macro-level applications of GIS in public life.

The role of GIS in the power grid can be abstract, so let me explain.

We take for granted that electricity is always there when we flip a switch. But when you turn on an air conditioner, where does that extra power come from?

At the other end of the grid, a natural gas plant might ramp up its output slightly. Or a solar farm might discharge a bit from its battery storage.

Electricity travels at near light speed. The moment you turn on your AC, it needs that power. How does the plant know?

This is the incredible challenge of a national power grid. The grid must constantly predict load changes and dispatch flexible power sources (hydro, gas, batteries) to match demand in real-time.

What if supply and demand don’t match? The entire grid and all its connected equipment must operate at a precise AC frequency. A significant mismatch causes the frequency to drift, which damages equipment. Damaged equipment destabilizes the frequency further, creating a vicious cycle that can lead to a nationwide blackout.

Therefore, the grid must predict and react to demand changes almost instantly, automatically dispatching power plants. This instantaneous response requires perfect time synchronization across the entire system.

This is where GIS plays a vital, life-or-death role: providing that precise time synchronization.

This installation simulated a military application of GIS: using satellite positioning to direct missile strikes.

Target locked. I hit the launch button and slipped away to the next exhibit. Heroes in movies always walk away from explosions without looking back, right? 😉

The Story of Maps

The last hall on the second floor was dedicated to maps, the product of all this surveying. “Viewing the world on a tiny square”—the phrase perfectly captures the essence of a map.

Entering the hall, I was greeted by a stunning collection of rare ancient maps—a paradise for any map lover.

The people of the Marshall Islands invented sea charts made of bound sticks.

A Babylonian stone-carved world map.

A floor plan of a garden from a tomb in Egypt.

Ptolemy’s world map.

Ptolemy is famous for his geocentric model. Modern people, accustomed to the heliocentric model, often see him as a figure of ridicule, but that’s a Whiggish perspective to be avoided. Ptolemy actually made enormous contributions to astronomy and geography.

In geography, he was a great synthesizer of past knowledge. On his map, he used innovative projection methods and rigorous math to represent the spherical Earth on a flat plane with minimal distortion. It was the most comprehensive and accurate map of its time. He also established a precise latitude and longitude system, correlating Earth’s coordinates with those of the celestial sphere.

Ironically, his map contained a major error. He underestimated the Earth’s circumference by nearly 30% (Eratosthenes’s earlier calculation was off by only 2%). He also overestimated the east-west span of Eurasia and was, of course, unaware of the Americas. On his map, it looked like only a narrow sea separated Europe from the Far East. Because of Ptolemy’s immense academic influence, his flawed map was taken as gospel and, by a twist of fate, helped inspire the Age of Discovery.

An ancient map from the Islamic world, full of the atmosphere of the Arabian Nights.

The first detailed nautical chart of Northern Europe.

The Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Map of the Myriad Countries of the World), was drawn in Ming Dynasty Beijing by the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci. It was China’s first map with complete longitude and latitude lines and delivered a huge shock to the prevailing Chinese view of a flat earth under a round heaven, with China at the center.

To soften the blow, Ricci used a clever trick: he shifted the prime meridian to place China and the Pacific Ocean at the center of the map.

A map of the Aztec capital, drawn by Europeans.

A map of Hainan Province from the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty. Frankly, many modern tourist maps aren’t this beautiful.

An old map of Hangzhou inspired by Marco Polo’s travels. It comes from a Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of the Cities of the World) and is the only East Asian city included.

After the map appreciation, I came to another section of the map hall, which mainly talked about the various aspects behind maps, such as projection methods, and the relationship between maps and national sovereignty.

Due to time constraints, I only snapped a few photos about map projections before leaving in a hurry.

The most common projection today is the Mercator, shown above. Its problem is that it drastically enlarges high-latitude areas, making Greenland look nearly the size of South America. Comparing a map to a globe makes this distortion obvious.

Afterword

I left buzzing with excitement. I’d truly discovered a hidden treasure. A second visit is definitely in order; there’s so much I didn’t have time to properly appreciate.

The museum’s structure is very clear: it starts with the history of surveying, delves into the technology, and ends with the products—GIS and maps. The logical flow is impeccable. It’s a very high-quality museum.

It’s just so low-key. I suspect the name holds it back. But if you’ve read this far, I’m sure you’re interested. If you get the chance, go see it for yourself.

Visitor Tips: The museum is free but has no parking. You can find street parking a few blocks north, or park at the Alibaba Digital Ecology Innovation Park, a 5-10 minute walk away. This park, once Alibaba’s closed headquarters, is now an open campus for e-commerce companies. There are no walls or gates. You can park there (for a fee), and the cafeteria is open to the public (though possibly not on weekends). If you want to spend a whole day at the museum, it’s a great place to take a lunch break.

Finally, I recommend the BBC documentary Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. Its topic is highly relevant to the second half of the museum. Watching it beforehand will make your visit even more rewarding.

How I Use AI to Write High-Quality Popular Science Articles

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:03:00 +0000

I recently wrote a pop-science piece on chemistry, Why Water Puts Out Fire. Did you notice it was actually written by an AI?

What? Fooling my readers? Not at all. It’s not what you think. I didn’t just give a prompt like “write a pop-science article on why water puts out fire” and blindly copy-paste the output. Try it yourself, and you’ll see what a mess that makes.

This article was created using a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) I developed to turn curiosity into genuine understanding, and then into a high-quality science article.

1. In-depth Discussion

Whenever a topic sparks my interest, I dive into an in-depth discussion with an AI like Gemini 2.5 Pro. I probe the underlying principles to build a systematic understanding, all while fact-checking key details to sidestep AI hallucinations. The goal is to learn something myself before I write anything.

For the article on water extinguishing fire, you can see the full chat history with the AI here: https://my.feishu.cn/docx/TRWldvN8uo9VRqxly8Fc30HwnYg?from=from_copylink

2. Manually Drafting the Outline

Next, I manually draft an outline based on what I’ve learned.

This is a 100% human-driven step. It lets me leverage my science communication skills to structure the narrative, decide when to use metaphors for imagery, and drop in a catchy phrase or two.

Drafting the outline is also my way of using the Feynman Technique. I organize the content based on my mental model of the topic. The act of writing it clarifies anything that was fuzzy before. I think by writing; I need to externalize my thoughts.

Once the draft is done, I feed it to the AI for a fact-check and to get suggestions on structure and flow. The AI often provides valuable new angles, and I’ll refine the outline based on its feedback.

3. AI-Generated Body Text

With the final outline, I prompt the AI to write the full article.

I also provide one of my own articles as a style guide, telling the AI to keep the tone direct and concise.

This part is usually quick and painless. Thanks to the solid groundwork, the AI’s output is typically high-quality and only needs a few minor edits.

4. AI-Human Collaboration on Illustrations

Next, I give the finished text to the AI and ask for illustration ideas, including descriptions of what they should show and where they should go. Most of the suggestions are spot-on, and even the ones I don’t use often spark new ideas.

Finally, I take this text, now with image prompts, to an AI Agent platform like Coze. I use its image search and editing tools to populate the article with visuals. I then review them, and if they’re not a good fit, I’ll find or generate better ones myself.

Right now, AI agents are still hit-or-miss. The image relevance and quality are often low, so I end up doing most of the work. But it’s an incremental process. Today it handles 10%, tomorrow maybe 30% or 50%. One day, this part of the job might be fully automated.

And just like that, the article is done and ready to be published.

Final Thoughts

This approach lets me deepen my own understanding—ensuring the content is something I’ve truly learned—while freeing me from the tedious work of fine-tuning sentences.

During an AI workshop with former colleagues, someone asked what I use AI for most. My answer: “Learning.”

AI has compressed nearly all of human knowledge into its parameters. For any curious person, it’s a treasure trove. There’s so much to explore that I can barely keep up with my own learning, so why are so many people rushing to just churn out content and act as mere information pipelines?

As I once mused on X(Twitter):

AI’s productivity is tempting; you always want to be creating something with it.

But if your goal is personal growth, running a media account that just parrots AI content is pointless. True growth comes from creating and processing information yourself.

If your own output is better than AI’s, using AI is a step backward.

Of course, if you’re just in it for the money, that’s another story.

Have you seen the anime “Hitori no Shita: The Outcast”? There’s a memorable, arrogant character named Wang Bing who uses a dark art to devour his opponents’ spirits, only to be unceremoniously crushed, much to the audience’s delight.

But the Wang family’s core idea isn’t entirely wrong. Think of AI-generated information as “spirits.” The difference is, “consuming” them doesn’t harm anyone since they’re infinitely replicable. You can build automated systems to mass-produce content, growing your channels like a spirit army. Or, you can digest the information slowly, permanently upgrading your own skills. Only the latter offers compounding personal growth.

I’ve been doing this since before the AI boom, though it was much harder then. I keep a massive digital notebook called “TIL” (Today I Learned), where I’ve documented my deep dives into everything from cloud classification to uranium enrichment. I have over 300 entries.

I rarely revisit most of them. Some things stick, others are forgotten. But the act of writing is a powerful memory aid.

In the age of AI, this notebook has become a goldmine. By feeding my TILs into a knowledge base, I can instantly retrieve specific details, bringing dormant knowledge back to life.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve outsourced my memory. The brain isn’t for storing atomic facts; it’s for recognizing the patterns that connect them. To find those patterns, you first need to process a lot of facts. If you let an AI do the summarizing, you’re memorizing conclusions without context—they won’t stick. Why else would authors write entire books to explain ideas that fit into a single paragraph?

So, back to writing. Once you have a standardized workflow, the most important part is asking good questions. Get that right, and the rest falls into place.

I am my own Quora.

How Does Water Put Out Fire

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:50:00 +0000

This question just popped into my head. I bet my daughter will ask it when she’s a bit older. Pause for a moment and think, how would you answer it?

Think carefully. A serious answer, please. No wise cracks.

This detailed explanation is probably best saved for when my daughter is in middle school. If she asked me right now, I’d probably just say, “Because water cools things down, so the fire can’t keep burning.”

But that’s fine. I’m the one who’s curious, so let’s dive deeper.

What is Fire?

To understand how to extinguish a fire, you first have to understand fire itself.

High school chemistry taught us that combustion requires three elements, forming the “fire triangle”:

Fuel: Something that can burn, like wood or gasoline. These are essentially reducing agents.
Oxidizer: Something that helps things burn, usually oxygen from the air. These are oxidizing agents.
Heat: Something that provides the initial energy, like the heat from a match.

All three must be present.

By the way, oxygen isn’t the only oxidizer. Hydrogen can burn in chlorine, and many substances burn violently in fluorine. It’s just that on Earth, oxygen is the most common one.

This is a scientific approach: for water to put out a fire, it must remove at least one of these three elements. Which one? Let’s hold that thought and dig deeper.

Now, let’s step into the microscopic world of chemistry and see how these three elements ignite.

Here’s a little-known fact: liquids don’t actually burn. The vast majority of combustion we see happens in the gas phase.

At a microscopic level, combustion is a rapid, violent oxidation-reduction reaction where fuel molecules and oxidizer molecules collide at high speed, turning into other molecules and releasing light and heat. For efficient collisions, the best state is a gas, where everything is thoroughly mixed.

Let’s do a thought experiment with a cup of gasoline. We’ll put it in a special device that’s both a freezer and an oven, and slowly heat it from near absolute zero (the coldest temperature in the universe) without an open flame:

At about -40°C, gasoline molecules gain enough energy to evaporate from the liquid surface into a gas. This gasoline vapor spreads into the air, with higher concentrations near the liquid surface. A quick spark will ignite this thin layer of vapor in a “poof,” and then the flame will extinguish. This temperature, -40°C, is the flash point of gasoline; from this temperature on, it can be ignited.
Continue heating. At about 280°C, something amazing happens: even without an external heat source or a spark, the gasoline suddenly bursts into flame and burns until it’s gone. This is the autoignition temperature. At this temperature, the collisions between gasoline vapor and oxygen molecules are so violent that for every molecule that burns, the heat it releases vaporizes another one from the cup.

See? The secret to a sustained flame is the evaporation rate. The hotter it gets, the faster it evaporates. At the autoignition temperature, the rate of vapor production meets or exceeds the rate of consumption by burning. Once this fuel supply line is established, combustion becomes a self-sustaining positive feedback loop.

The Peculiarity of Solid Combustion

The combustion of solids is more complex than that of liquids. Let’s use burning wood for another thought experiment.

The burning of wood occurs in two stages:

Stage 1: Flaming Combustion.

When wood is ignited, the complex organic macromolecules inside it break down in a process called pyrolysis. Pyrolysis produces two things: flammable gases (like methane and carbon monoxide) and solid charcoal (which is almost pure carbon).

This process is similar to liquid combustion, but “evaporation” is replaced by “pyrolysis.” Evaporation is a physical change—the molecules themselves don’t change. Pyrolysis is a chemical change—large molecules break down into smaller gas molecules. These flammable gases mix with the air and burn, creating a beautiful flame around the wood. Since hot gas rises, flames always appear at the top.

Stage 2: Smoldering.

When most of the gas has burned off, the flames disappear, leaving glowing red embers. Flaming combustion is over, and the flameless smoldering phase begins.

This process is more like a close-quarters battle. Oxygen molecules, the attackers, charge directly at the surface of the charcoal to react with the carbon atoms. The product, carbon dioxide, is a gas and flies away immediately. Fresh carbon atoms from below move up to the front line. This cycle repeats until the charcoal is consumed. The remaining ash consists of non-carbon impurities.

The pure surface combustion of charcoal has a huge advantage: it’s stable and controllable.

Its rate of heat release mainly depends on two variables: the fuel’s surface area and the oxidizer’s supply. The surface area is nearly constant, so the only variable is the oxygen supply. Therefore, its heat output can be precisely controlled, making it an ideal fuel, not just for its high heat value.

This property has special applications. Take steam locomotives, for instance, which burn coal (similar to charcoal). The fireman can control the fire’s intensity by adjusting the damper, which regulates the airflow into the firebox. This, in turn, controls steam production and the locomotive’s power.

Purple arrows show exhaust gas being expelled, which draws hot yellow-orange gas from the firebox. The firebox then sucks in fresh air, shown by the green arrows.

Even more clever is the blastpipe in the chimney. It ejects exhaust steam from the pistons at high speed, creating a vacuum that fiercely sucks fresh air into the firebox. This is based on the Bernoulli principle: the faster a fluid flows, the lower its pressure. The more the blastpipe blasts, the stronger the draft, the more oxygen enters the firebox, the hotter the fire burns, and the more steam is produced. It’s a brilliant positive feedback loop.

So, what if both the fuel and the oxidizer are solids? Does that kind of combustion exist?

Yes. The classic example is the thermite reaction. Mix aluminum powder (the fuel) with iron oxide powder (the oxidizer) and ignite it. The aluminum will snatch the oxygen atoms directly from the iron oxide. This solid-solid reaction releases temperatures up to 2500°C, hot enough to melt the resulting iron. The liquid iron allows the powders to flow, promoting continuous contact and sustaining the reaction.

To take it a step further, what happens if you strongly heat a solid fuel without an oxidizer?

It will only pyrolyze, not burn. This is a crucial part of modern chemical engineering. For example, heating coal without air (dry distillation) yields three important industrial materials: coke (for steelmaking), coal tar (a chemical feedstock), and coal gas (a fuel).

Now back to a fundamental question: Why does charcoal undergo pure surface combustion, while liquid fuels do not? This stems from differences at the molecular level.

Gas molecules are like rubber ducks in a pool, floating around randomly and bumping into each other.

Liquid molecules are like a pile of Buckyballs, held together by weak forces but able to slide past each other. This weak attraction is easily overcome by heat, allowing them to evaporate and escape.

Solid atoms (like carbon), however, are like a structure built with mortise and tenon joints. Each atom is locked in place by strong chemical bonds. The heat of combustion is not nearly enough to break this structure, so the atoms cannot escape as a gas and can only react on the surface. For instance, carbon’s autoignition temperature is a few hundred degrees, but its sublimation point (the temperature at which it turns to gas) is over 3600°C. It would have burned away long before it could vaporize.

The Essence of Combustion

By now, you might suspect the “fire triangle” model is a bit too simple. The conditions for brief combustion and sustained combustion are different.

Brief combustion: Requires fuel, an oxidizer, a temperature high enough for evaporation/pyrolysis, and an external ignition source.
Sustained combustion: Requires fuel, an oxidizer, and a temperature at the autoignition point.

The fire triangle model can’t explain why a flame is self-sustaining. So, scientists proposed the “fire tetrahedron,” adding a fourth element: an uninhibited chain reaction.

Once combustion starts, oxidizer and fuel molecules collide violently, creating new molecules and releasing heat. But that’s not the most powerful part of the chain reaction.

Besides collisions between whole molecules, many molecular “fragments” called free radicals are also involved. These are molecules that have been damaged in previous violent collisions. Some have lost an electron; others have an extra one. Free radicals are like hungry wolves, frantically attacking other molecules to become stable. This intensifies the collisions, generating more heat and more free radicals.

This process self-replicates and self-amplifies like a snowball rolling downhill. This is what makes fire so terrifying and magnificent. The power humans gained from mastering fire wasn’t just the heat of a torch against a wild beast. It was the leverage—a single spark could burn a prairie, providing cooked food and clearing land for farming. This power overwhelmed the physical strength of any other species.

Another chain reaction we’re familiar with is the one in an atomic bomb.

Speaking of which, what is an explosion? Is it brief or sustained combustion?

A (chemical) explosion is usually classified as brief combustion. When enough flammable gas has accumulated in the air at its flash point, a local ignition source reaching the autoignition temperature can trigger an extremely fast chain reaction. During the accumulation phase, the ambient temperature must remain below the autoignition temperature; otherwise, it would burn up before it could accumulate.

The Answer Revealed

Let’s summarize the microscopic combustion process:

Gaseous fuel: The most direct; burns when mixed with an oxidizer.
Liquid fuel: Must first evaporate into a gas.
Solid fuel: Mostly needs to first pyrolyze into a gas (flaming combustion), with the remainder undergoing surface combustion (smoldering).

As you can see, with few exceptions, most combustion follows the same path, shifting the battlefield to the gas phase.

Now, we can finally answer the original question. How exactly does water put out a fire? It attacks the “fire tetrahedron” on two fronts:

Attacking “Heat” (Cooling): This is water’s primary role. Water has an extremely high heat of vaporization; one gram of water turning into steam absorbs about 2260 joules of heat. To put that in perspective, that’s enough energy to lift a 100 kg (220 lb) person more than 2 meters (7 feet) off the ground. When water hits a fire, it absorbs a massive amount of heat, preventing the fuel from vaporizing and thus breaking the chain reaction.
Attacking the “Oxidizer” (Suffocation): This is a secondary factor. The huge volume of water vapor produced expands by more than a thousand times, displacing oxygen and stopping the combustion.

Of course, not all fires can be put out with water:

Electrical fires: Water conducts electricity and can cause electric shock or short circuits.
Oil fires: Oil is lighter than water and will float on top, spreading the fire as the water flows.
Reactive metal fires: Metals like potassium, sodium, and magnesium react with water to produce flammable hydrogen gas, essentially adding fuel to the fire.

Ultimately, the main reason water extinguishes fire is its powerful cooling ability. The same as the simple answer at the beginning.

But the journey of exploration is what’s interesting. An answer given without thought and one reached after a deep dive carry completely different weights.

If I’d known all this back in middle school, maybe I wouldn’t have failed chemistry.

80 Years of Middle East Turmoil From Israel's Founding to the Gaza War and Beyond

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:19:00 +0000

I’ve never been particularly interested in war and politics.

Born in the late 80s, I grew up hearing bits and pieces about the conflicts in the Middle East from the news, but I never really dug into the background. The summer after high school, with time on my hands, I read a book on the five Arab-Israeli wars. Lacking historical context, all I remembered years later were five dates.

As an ordinary person enjoying a (very fortunate) peaceful life in East Asia, I’m more drawn to things that advance humanity, like technology. I’ve always felt that politics, while powerful, has a fleeting impact. Science, technology, and economics, however, ripple through centuries. You can’t neatly separate them, of course, but with limited energy, I chose to focus on the latter.

Recently, after hearing one too many reports about Middle East conflicts, I decided to fill this gap in my knowledge. It all started with a simple question:

When Israel and Iran—countries that don’t share a border—attack each other through the air, how do the neighboring countries whose airspace is violated react?

The short answer is they protest and condemn it, but they are either powerless to stop it or tacitly allow it because their own internal situations are far from stable. As long as the fighting doesn’t spill onto their own soil, they aren’t willing to draw a hard line.

From there, one question led to another. I started chatting with an AI, verifying what I learned, and eventually covered every major event in the Middle East since Israel’s founding. Now that I have a conceptual map of modern Middle Eastern history, I had the AI organize these study notes based on my understanding.

Of course, I don’t plan on becoming a Middle East expert; this is just a starting point. A deep dive into any one of these events would reveal countless complexities that contradict this framework. The calculus of national interests often forces countries and leaders to act against their stated positions—the complexity of history is undeniable. But for an outsider an ocean away, this framework is a useful starting point. It’s a huge leap from knowing nothing at all.

The Middle East, a strategic crossroads of continents, has been a global geopolitical flashpoint since World War II, especially after Israel’s founding in 1948. A tangled web of ethnic, religious, resource, and external power struggles has fueled constant conflict, making the path to peace exceptionally treacherous. These notes offer a chronological review of the region’s major conflicts, analyzing them from the perspectives of Israel, the United States, the Arab world, and Iran. We will also look at the dynamics during periods of relative peace, particularly the intricate relationships within the Arab world.

1. 1948 Arab-Israeli War (War of Independence)

Overview

On May 14, 1948, as the British Mandate for Palestine ended, Israel declared statehood. The next day, armies from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia attacked to prevent the new state’s existence and aid Palestinian Arabs, sparking the war.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: For Israel, this was its “War of Independence”—a fight for its very survival. Facing a multinational invasion, Israel mobilized its entire population. With subtle international support (notably from the U.S. and USSR), it not only defended its territory but also expanded it, securing its existence as a nation.
U.S. Perspective: As an emerging superpower in the early Cold War, the U.S. recognized Israel on its first day. The decision was driven by domestic political support and the strategic goal of backing a pro-Western democracy to counter Soviet influence. At the same time, the U.S. tried to balance its relationships with Arab oil-producing nations.
Arab World’s Perspective: This war is what the Arab world calls the “Nakba,” or the Catastrophe. Arab nations saw Israel’s creation as a violation of Palestinian Arab rights and a threat to the entire Arab nation. However, their coalition was hampered by poor coordination and internal divisions, leading to a bitter defeat. This failure fueled widespread frustration and paved the way for radical nationalism and military coups. In the aftermath, Jordan took control of the West Bank, and Egypt took the Gaza Strip.
Iran’s Perspective: At the time, Iran’s pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty was focused on internal development and its border with the Soviet Union. It had little direct involvement in the conflict and remained relatively neutral, despite general sympathy for the Palestinian cause in the Islamic world.

The Aftermath

The war ended with armistices, not peace treaties, sowing the seeds of future conflict.

Israel’s Perspective: Israel focused on consolidating its new state and territory. It began absorbing waves of Jewish immigrants while building its economy and military, bracing for future conflicts.
U.S. Perspective: While backing Israel, the U.S. also recognized the strategic importance of Arab oil producers and tried to maintain a balance. As the Cold War deepened, America bolstered pro-Western regimes to counter Soviet influence in countries like Egypt and Syria.
Arab World’s Perspective: Humiliation from the defeat spread. An influx of Palestinian refugees created a long-term humanitarian and political crisis in neighboring countries. Secular nationalist movements, like Nasserism in Egypt and the Ba’ath Party in Syria, gained traction, championing pan-Arabism and military might to confront Israel. Tensions mounted between the region’s old monarchies and its new military-nationalist regimes.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran stuck to its pro-Western foreign policy and close ties with the U.S. The Shah focused on modernization and raising Iran’s regional profile but stayed out of the direct Arab-Israeli conflict, prioritizing domestic development and stability.

2. 1956 Suez Crisis

Overview

In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. In response, the UK and France (the canal’s main shareholders) forged a secret alliance with Israel (which saw the move as a threat to its shipping). That October, the trio attacked Egypt, occupying the Canal Zone and the Sinai Peninsula.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel’s goals were to break Egypt’s blockade of the Straits of Tiran and crush the Palestinian “Fedayeen” guerillas in Gaza. Though militarily successful, Israel was forced to withdraw under intense U.S. and Soviet pressure, revealing that its military freedom was checked by the great powers.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. opposed the invasion, fearing it would destabilize pro-Western Arab states and give the Soviet Union a foothold in the Middle East. Using its economic and political leverage, the U.S., along with the USSR, forced the invaders to back down. This signaled the shift of power in the Middle East from Britain and France to the U.S.
Arab World’s Perspective: Nasser’s nationalization was hailed as a triumph of national sovereignty. His prestige skyrocketed across the Arab world, and pan-Arab nationalism reached its zenith. Despite the military setback, Egypt won a major political victory, cementing Nasser’s regional leadership. Many Arab nations grew more suspicious of the shadow of Western colonialism.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran maintained its pro-Western stance. The crisis had little direct impact, but the rising tide of nationalism across the region was felt at home.

The Aftermath

After the crisis, UN peacekeepers were deployed to the Sinai, and Israel secured passage through the Straits of Tiran.

Israel’s Perspective: The crisis showed Israel how fragile its military victories could be, leading it to lean more heavily on its relationship with the U.S. for its security. Israel continued to build its military and seek ways to break its diplomatic isolation.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. solidified its role as the dominant Western power in the Middle East, eclipsing Britain and France. It began to intervene more directly, using aid and alliances (like the Baghdad Pact) to cement its influence and counter growing Soviet influence in “progressive” Arab states like Egypt and Syria.
Arab World’s Perspective: Nasser’s pan-Arabism grew, and he courted Syria and Iraq to form a unified Arab federation. This worried conservative monarchies like Saudi Arabia, who preferred cooperation with the West, widening the rift within the Arab world. The Palestinian liberation movement began to chart a new course.
Iran’s Perspective: Under the Shah, Iran became a key pillar of U.S. strategy in the region. Using its oil revenues, Iran strengthened its military and sought to play a larger regional role to counterbalance Arab nationalism.

3. 1967 Six-Day War

Overview

In May 1967, Egypt ordered UN peacekeepers out of the Sinai and again blockaded the Straits of Tiran, escalating regional tensions. On June 5, Israel launched a preemptive strike on Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, destroying their air forces in hours. In a stunning six-day victory, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel framed this as a war of self-defense. Facing mounting military threats and a crippling blockade, it struck first. The victory gave Israel crucial strategic depth and boosted its international standing, but it also created the long-term challenge of governing large occupied territories and a hostile Palestinian population.
U.S. Perspective: While urging restraint before the war, the U.S. quickly backed Israel afterward. With the Cold War in full swing, the U.S. saw Israel as a vital check on Soviet expansion (the USSR was arming Egypt and Syria). U.S. policy tilted heavily toward Israel, though it still promoted peace to maintain stability. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 242, establishing the “land for peace” principle.
Arab World’s Perspective: The Six-Day War was a humiliating defeat. The loss of strategic territory shattered the credibility of pan-Arab nationalism and damaged Nasser’s leadership. Resistance groups like the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) grew, arguing that Palestinians had to rely on their own strength, not on Arab states. Divisions in the Arab world deepened as some nations soured on direct confrontation with Israel.
Iran’s Perspective: The war reinforced Iran’s pro-Western stance. The Shah saw Israel as a potential partner to balance radical Arab nationalism. Iran’s economy benefited from surging oil revenues, which the Shah used to build a powerful military and establish Iran as a regional power.

The Aftermath

The Six-Day War redrew the map of the Middle East. Israel’s control over the occupied territories became the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s Perspective: Israel solidified its control over the new territories and began building Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights—a policy that would become a major obstacle to peace. Israel’s confidence, backed by military might, soared, but it also faced growing international condemnation for the occupation.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. became a more active mediator, sponsoring UN Resolution 242 and its “land for peace” formula, which would anchor future peace talks. America walked a fine line, providing military aid to Israel while trying to manage anti-U.S. sentiment in the Arab world to protect oil supplies.
Arab World’s Perspective: The dream of pan-Arabism lay in tatters. The PLO grew into the primary representative of the Palestinian people, setting up bases in Jordan and Lebanon. This led to conflicts with host governments, like Jordan’s “Black September” in 1970, when the king expelled PLO fighters. Arab states grew more divided on how to confront Israel and deal with the PLO.
Iran’s Perspective: As a key U.S. ally in the Gulf, Iran cemented its regional influence. The Shah used oil wealth to fund an ambitious military and modernization program. However, its pro-Western and quiet pro-Israel policies created distance with more radical Arab states.

4. 1973 Yom Kippur War

Overview

On October 6, 1973—Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism—Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack to reclaim territory lost in 1967. They made initial gains, but Israel, resupplied by a massive U.S. airlift, stabilized the fronts and counter-attacked. The war ended in a tense ceasefire.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Caught off guard by intelligence failures, Israel suffered heavy initial losses. The war shattered the nation’s myth of invincibility. However, with U.S. aid, its military proved resilient. The close call prompted a strategic shift, leading Israel to seek a peace agreement with Egypt.
U.S. Perspective: The war was a major Cold War proxy battle. The U.S. launched “Operation Nickel Grass,” a huge airlift of military hardware, to save Israel and protect its own strategic interests. Afterward, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy” brokered a peace process between Egypt and Israel, sidelining the Soviets and stabilizing oil supplies. A retaliatory Arab oil embargo also forced the U.S. to prioritize its relationships with oil-producing nations.
Arab World’s Perspective: Though they didn’t reclaim all their territory, the early military successes restored a sense of dignity, erasing the shame of 1967. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat scored a major political victory, paving the way for peace talks. The oil embargo revealed the Arab world’s economic leverage. However, Egypt’s decision to pursue a separate peace with Israel led to years of isolation from other Arab states.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran remained neutral, but as a major oil exporter, it reaped massive profits from the ensuing oil crisis. This windfall further fueled the Shah’s military buildup and modernization drive, cementing Iran’s role, alongside Saudi Arabia, in America’s “Twin Pillar” strategy for the region.

The Aftermath

The Yom Kippur War led to a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process.

Israel’s Perspective: Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt, its most powerful Arab adversary. This was a landmark diplomatic achievement that secured its western border. However, Israel held onto the West Bank and Golan Heights, leaving the Palestinian question unresolved.
U.S. Perspective: Kissinger’s diplomacy cemented America’s role as the indispensable mediator in the Middle East, shutting out the Soviets. The U.S. became the primary sponsor of the peace process and strengthened ties with Egypt and Saudi Arabia to protect oil supplies and promote stability.
Arab World’s Perspective: Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel got it expelled from the Arab League, marking the first major split in the Arab world’s stance on Israel. Hardline states like Syria and Libya rejected peace, while others grew open to negotiations. The PLO, feeling sidelined, began seeking its own political path.
Iran’s Perspective: The oil boom allowed the Shah to accelerate his ambitious military and modernization programs. Iran became a formidable regional power, but its secular, pro-Western policies fueled growing discontent among the country’s religious conservatives, setting the stage for the Islamic Revolution.

5. 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution

Overview

In 1979, the Islamic Revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, toppled Iran’s pro-Western monarchy and established the Islamic Republic. The event fundamentally reshaped Iran’s identity and policies, sending shockwaves across the Middle East and the world.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: A quiet regional partner transformed overnight into a hostile Islamic regime, creating a new and profound strategic threat. The Islamic Republic branded Israel the “Little Satan” and vowed its destruction, making Iran a primary security obsession for Israel.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. lost its most crucial ally in the Middle East, a devastating blow to its regional strategy. The subsequent hostage crisis humiliated America on the world stage. From then on, the U.S. treated Iran’s regime as a “rogue state,” targeting it with sanctions and a policy of containment.
Arab World’s Perspective: The revolution received a mixed reception in the Sunni-dominated Arab world. Some people were inspired by the overthrow of a secular monarch, but most rulers, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, were terrified. They feared Iran’s Shiite character and its vow to “export the revolution” would incite their own populations. The revolution dramatically intensified the Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide.
Iran’s Perspective: The revolution turned Iran from a pro-Western nation into an anti-Western, anti-Israel Islamic state, fiercely independent and committed to “exporting its revolution.” Iran began to position itself as the leader of the Islamic world, challenging U.S. and Israeli power by supporting resistance groups across the region, especially in Lebanon and Palestine.

The Aftermath

The Iranian Revolution radically altered the Middle East’s balance of power.

Israel’s Perspective: Having lost Iran as a strategic buffer, Israel came to see the new regime as a long-term, ideological enemy. This view hardened as Iran began arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups. Israel’s focus shifted to Iran’s nuclear program, which it viewed as an existential threat.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. hit Iran with heavy sanctions and began courting new allies, like Saudi Arabia, to contain Iranian influence. It also boosted its military presence in the region to counter the threat from Tehran.
Arab World’s Perspective: Most Sunni Arab states, particularly the Gulf monarchies, grew deeply wary of Iran’s revolutionary Shiite government. This fear pushed them into a closer military and political embrace with the United States. The revolution sharpened the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites across the region.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran committed itself to spreading its revolutionary ideals. By backing non-state actors like Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it built a network of influence to wage a long-term struggle against the U.S. and Israel. Iran also began developing a ballistic missile program.

6. 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War

Overview

In September 1980, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, hoping to take advantage of post-revolution chaos in Iran, invaded. The brutal war that followed lasted eight years, killed over a million people, and shattered both economies.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel was happy to see two of its main adversaries bleed each other dry. Though Iraq was a sworn enemy, Israel saw Iran’s new Islamic regime as the greater long-term threat. It adopted a complex and covert strategy to ensure the war dragged on, famously facilitating U.S. arms sales to Iran in the “Iran-Contra Affair.” The goal was to prevent either side from winning decisively, thereby weakening both.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. was officially neutral but, fearing the spread of Iran’s revolution, gradually tilted toward Iraq, providing it with intelligence and economic support. The primary U.S. goal was to prevent an Iranian victory.
Arab World’s Perspective: Most Gulf Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, were terrified of Iran’s revolution and backed Iraq with billions in aid. A few, like Syria and Libya, sided with Iran, exposing deep fissures in the Arab world. The war turned Iraq’s army into a regional powerhouse.
Iran’s Perspective: For Iran, the war was a “Sacred Defense” that united the country and consolidated the revolution. The Iranian people showed incredible resilience but paid a terrible price. The war solidified the regime’s power and anti-Western ideology but deepened its rift with most of the Arab world and the U.S.

The Aftermath

The war left Iraq with a powerful army and massive debt, while Iran focused on reconstruction and cementing its revolutionary ideals.

Israel’s Perspective: The immediate military threat from Iran was gone, but the growth of Iraq’s army and its support for Palestinian militants kept Israel on high alert. Israel also remained wary of Iran’s deepening ties with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
U.S. Perspective: The war boosted U.S. influence, positioning it as a key broker between Iran and Iraq. However, its support for Saddam Hussein’s regime would have fateful consequences.
Arab World’s Perspective: The war weakened both countries but left Iraq as a military giant, which unsettled its Gulf neighbors. The Arab world remained divided on how to handle post-war Iraq and counter Iran’s influence.
Iran’s Perspective: The war hardened the regime’s anti-American and anti-Israel ideology. Iran began rebuilding its military and expanding its regional influence through non-state actors. Relations with most Arab countries remained tense.

7. 1982 Lebanon War

Overview

In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, using an assassination attempt on its ambassador to the UK as a pretext. The stated goals were to destroy the PLO’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon and support a friendly Maronite Christian government. The invasion led to the siege of Beirut, the PLO’s expulsion from the country, and a years-long Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel aimed to end the PLO threat from Lebanon and install a friendly government. It succeeded in driving out the PLO but soon found itself bogged down in Lebanon’s brutal civil war. The long occupation faced fierce resistance, sparked intense controversy at home, and ended with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal in 2000.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. initially supported Israel’s right to self-defense but grew alarmed at the scale of the invasion. It sent Marines as part of a multinational peacekeeping force to oversee the PLO’s evacuation. However, American involvement ended in tragedy with the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. The U.S. sought stability but failed to create a pro-American government.
Arab World’s Perspective: The Lebanon War exposed the Arab world’s impotence once again. Many nations condemned the invasion but failed to act. The PLO’s expulsion further weakened Arab support for the Palestinian cause. The war also allowed Syria to deepen its influence in Lebanon and fueled the rise of the country’s Shiite community.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran saw the war as a golden opportunity. With Syria’s help, it sent Revolutionary Guard trainers to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. They helped organize local Shiite militias resisting the Israeli occupation, a process that gave birth to Hezbollah. Hezbollah became Iran’s most successful proxy, a powerful anti-Israel vanguard that dramatically extended Iran’s reach.

The Aftermath

The war left Lebanon in a vortex of civil war and foreign intervention.

Israel’s Perspective: The PLO was gone, but Israel was stuck in the Lebanese quagmire, fighting a long and costly guerrilla war against Hezbollah. The experience profoundly changed Israeli society and politics, prompting a deep rethink of its military intervention policies. Israel finally withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. played a difficult role. Its military intervention failed to stop the fighting and led to American casualties, making Washington more cautious about future entanglements in the Middle East.
Arab World’s Perspective: The focus of the Palestinian struggle began to shift from the PLO to the new Shiite resistance in southern Lebanon. Arab states continued to offer rhetorical support but took little action. Syria’s influence in Lebanon grew stronger.
Iran’s Perspective: This was a major success for Iran’s strategy of exporting its revolution and building a proxy network. The rise of Hezbollah gave Iran a powerful ally on Israel’s border, a cornerstone of its regional strategy. Iran’s influence, channeled through non-state actors, began to grow.

8. 1990-1991 Gulf War

Overview

In August 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. The UN demanded a withdrawal, and when Iraq refused, a U.S.-led international coalition launched Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, decisively ejecting the Iraqi army from Kuwait.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Though Iraq fired Scud missiles at its cities, Israel—at Washington’s urgent request—did not retaliate. This was to avoid fracturing the U.S.-led coalition, which crucially included several Arab states. The episode underscored the strength of the U.S.-Israel alliance and Israel’s strategic calculations.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. saw the invasion as a direct threat to its interests and the global oil supply. It assembled a vast coalition to uphold international law and restore regional stability. The war was a display of American military and diplomatic power in the new, post-Cold War world.
Arab World’s Perspective: The invasion shattered Arab unity. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria joined the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. But Jordan, Yemen, and the PLO sided with Saddam, exposing deep divisions. The war left a massive U.S. military footprint in the region, particularly in Saudi Arabia, which angered Islamic radicals.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran remained officially neutral but was privately pleased to see its rival, Saddam Hussein, weakened. Iraq’s defeat and the subsequent UN sanctions greatly reduced the strategic pressure on Iran.

The Aftermath

After the war, Iraq was crippled by years of sanctions and weapons inspections. The U.S. military presence in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf, expanded dramatically.

Israel’s Perspective: With Iraq neutralized, a major threat was removed. The post-war political climate helped accelerate the peace process with the Palestinians, leading to the Oslo Accords and mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO.
U.S. Perspective: U.S. influence in the Middle East reached an all-time high. It sponsored a new round of peace talks, trying to use its post-war leverage to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the long-term stationing of U.S. troops on Saudi soil planted the seeds for future anti-American terrorism.
Arab World’s Perspective: The war deepened the rift between pro-Western conservative states and pan-Arab nationalists. Some governments forged closer ties with the U.S., but Iraq’s defeat and the enduring U.S. military presence fueled popular resentment and provided fertile ground for Islamic extremism.
Iran’s Perspective: With Iraq weakened, Iran’s international isolation began to ease, allowing it to assert more influence in the Persian Gulf. It continued to build up its military and deepen ties with proxies like Hezbollah, preparing for the next phase of its regional strategy.

9. Second Palestinian Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada, 2000-2005)

Overview

In 2000, a provocative visit by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem ignited Palestinian fury, sparking a new uprising. The Second Intifada was far deadlier than the first, defined by a brutal cycle of Palestinian suicide bombings and massive Israeli military crackdowns.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel saw the intifada as a wave of terrorism threatening its citizens. It responded with overwhelming force, launching large-scale incursions into Palestinian cities and building a controversial separation barrier. The violence shattered the Israeli public’s faith in the peace process.
U.S. Perspective: The intifada coincided with the 9/11 attacks, which shifted America’s focus to a global war on terror. While the U.S. made attempts to mediate, its priority was now counter-terrorism, not Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The peace process ground to a halt.
Arab World’s Perspective: Arab nations sympathized with the Palestinians and condemned Israel’s actions, but their response was muted. Preoccupied with domestic issues and their own role in the war on terror, their ability to intervene was limited. Disappointment with the Palestinian Authority’s leadership grew, while support for armed groups like Hamas increased.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran staunchly backed the Palestinian resistance, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It saw the struggle as a key front in its fight against U.S. and Israeli power. Through funding and weapons, Iran significantly boosted its influence over the Palestinian cause.

The Aftermath

The Second Intifada left Israeli-Palestinian relations in ruins and the peace process dead.

Israel’s Perspective: The violence destroyed any remaining illusions about the Oslo process, leading Israel to adopt a security-first approach. It built the separation barrier and, in 2005, unilaterally withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza, only to impose a tight blockade on the territory.
U.S. Perspective: After 9/11, the U.S. strategic focus was entirely on the war on terror. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was relegated to a lower priority. The U.S. paid lip service to a “two-state solution,” but with little real pressure or investment, the process stagnated.
Arab World’s Perspective: The Palestinian issue began to fade as a priority for many Arab governments, who were more concerned with domestic stability and the threat of extremism. A bitter power struggle erupted between the Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, leading to Hamas’s takeover of Gaza in 2007 and a geographic and political split of the Palestinian leadership.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran exploited the Palestinian divisions, strengthening its support for Hamas and other militant groups. This enhanced its role as a power broker on the Palestinian stage and allowed it to pose a more direct threat to Israel.

10. 2001 War in Afghanistan

Overview

After the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan. The goal was to overthrow the Taliban regime, which had sheltered Al-Qaeda, and dismantle the terrorist network.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: As a key U.S. ally, Israel fully supported the war on terror, seeing it as part of the same fight against the extremist groups that targeted it.
U.S. Perspective: The 9/11 attacks were a national trauma that put counter-terrorism at the center of U.S. foreign policy. The invasion of Afghanistan kicked off the “Global War on Terror,” a long and costly campaign that would dramatically reshape U.S. priorities in the Middle East.
Arab World’s Perspective: Most Arab governments officially backed the U.S. campaign, but public opinion was divided, torn between condemning terrorism and fearing American military intervention. The Saudi government, embarrassed by Al-Qaeda’s origins, scrambled to distance itself from extremism.
Iran’s Perspective: As a long-time enemy of the Taliban, Iran initially welcomed the U.S. invasion and even provided some covert assistance. But as the U.S. military footprint in the region grew, Tehran grew wary, fearing it might be next on Washington’s list.

The Aftermath

The war quickly toppled the Taliban, but the U.S. and its allies soon found themselves mired in a long and difficult counter-insurgency campaign.

Israel’s Perspective: The war had little direct impact on Israel, though it worried that America’s focus on counter-terrorism might divert attention from the growing threat of Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. Perspective: The Afghanistan war was the first chapter in the war on terror. It set the stage for a dramatic shift in U.S. military deployments and strategic thinking, leading directly to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a new focus on combating non-state actors.
Arab World’s Perspective: The war amplified fears of extremism across the Arab world but also deepened mistrust of U.S. military intervention. Some regimes ramped up their counter-terrorism cooperation with the U.S., while others struggled to contain the spread of radical ideas at home.
Iran’s Perspective: The fall of the Taliban was an initial win for Iran, but the growing U.S. military presence on its borders made Tehran feel encircled. It responded by accelerating its own defense and nuclear programs.

11. 2003 Iraq War (Second Gulf War)

Overview

In March 2003, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, bypassing the UN Security Council. The stated justification was that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and supported terrorism. The regime was quickly toppled, but no WMDs were found, and Iraq plunged into years of sectarian bloodshed and chaos.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel strongly supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, seeing him as a dangerous enemy who threatened it with WMDs and sponsored Palestinian militants. The war removed a major threat, but the ensuing chaos in Iraq and the rise of Iranian influence created new and complex challenges.
U.S. Perspective: The Bush administration saw the invasion as a key front in the war on terror, aiming to remove a hostile regime and spread democracy. The reality was a costly occupation, a bloody civil war, the birth of new and even more virulent extremist groups (like ISIS), and a severe blow to American power and prestige.
Arab World’s Perspective: The war was deeply divisive. Few mourned Saddam’s regime, but the unauthorized invasion and occupation of a major Arab state by a Western power ignited widespread anti-American rage. The war unleashed a wave of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that destabilized the entire region. Some Arab governments feared a U.S. campaign to forcibly remake the region, while others quietly worried that the war would empower Iran.
Iran’s Perspective: For Iran, the war was a “strategic gift.” The U.S. had eliminated its mortal enemy, Saddam Hussein, relieving immense military pressure. Iran moved quickly to fill the power vacuum, using its deep ties to Iraq’s long-oppressed Shiite majority to build political influence and sponsor powerful militias. The war gave Iran unprecedented strategic depth and a dominant role in Iraq.

The Aftermath

The war shattered Iraq’s state and society, unleashing a brutal sectarian civil war and creating the conditions for the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS).

Israel’s Perspective: The conventional threat from Iraq was gone, but Israel became increasingly alarmed by Iran’s growing influence in Iraq and neighboring Syria. It saw this as a new and dangerous strategic threat, and began conducting regular airstrikes in Syria to degrade Iran’s military presence and stop weapons transfers to Hezbollah.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. found itself trapped in a costly and demoralizing nation-building quagmire. The war failed to create a stable democracy, instead fueling regional instability and ISIS. The drain on U.S. resources and credibility accelerated a strategic re-evaluation, leading to the “pivot to Asia.”
Arab World’s Perspective: The war tore the Arab world further apart. Sunni-Shiite tensions exploded, fueling a series of proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran in places like Syria and Yemen. Many Arab states watched with alarm as Iraq disintegrated and Iran’s influence grew.
Iran’s Perspective: The war was a strategic windfall. By backing pro-Iranian political forces and militias in Iraq, Iran successfully built a “Shiite Crescent”—a land bridge of influence stretching from Tehran to Beirut. This dramatically expanded its regional power and put it in a stronger position to challenge its adversaries.

12. 2010 “Arab Spring”

Overview

In late 2010, a popular uprising in Tunisia sparked a chain reaction of protests, revolts, and civil wars across the Arab world. The “Arab Spring” toppled long-standing dictators in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen and plunged Syria into a brutal civil war.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel watched the “Arab Spring” with deep apprehension. The instability on its borders was a major threat. It feared that collapsing regimes in Egypt and Syria could be replaced by radical Islamists or create lawless vacuums for terrorist groups.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. initially supported the protestors’ calls for democracy but grew more cautious as the region descended into chaos. Its policy shifted toward prioritizing stability over democratic reform. America’s influence was challenged, and it began to reduce its regional footprint and “pivot to Asia.”
Arab World’s Perspective: The “Arab Spring” tore the region apart. Tunisia managed a fragile transition to democracy, but Libya, Yemen, and Syria collapsed into devastating civil wars. Monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain brutally crushed their own protests. The upheaval intensified sectarian conflicts, proxy wars between regional powers (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE), and the fragmentation of the Arab world.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran initially celebrated the uprisings as an “Islamic Awakening,” hoping to ride the wave of popular discontent. It threw its support behind its ally, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and strengthened its ties with the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq, using the regional chaos to expand its own influence.

The Aftermath

The “Arab Spring” left a legacy of failed states, brutal civil wars, and humanitarian disasters. The chaos fueled the rise of extremist groups like ISIS and created massive refugee crises.

Israel’s Perspective: Facing a more volatile neighborhood, Israel became more pragmatic. In Syria, it focused on preventing Iran from establishing a permanent military base and arming Hezbollah. The shared threat of Iran also led to quiet but growing cooperation between Israel and several Gulf states.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. learned a hard lesson about the costs and complexities of promoting democracy in the Middle East. Its focus shifted back to counter-terrorism and stability. The Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” signaled a broader U.S. strategic retreat from the region, pushing allies to take on more responsibility for their own security.
Arab World’s Perspective: The Arab Spring left the region more divided than ever. The Sunni-Shiite sectarian rivalry played out in brutal proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a new bloc of assertive monarchies emerged, intervening in regional conflicts to counter Iranian influence. Traditional pan-Arab nationalism faded, replaced by more sectarian and tribal identities.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran skillfully exploited the regional chaos to deepen its influence in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Its intervention in Syria was decisive in saving the Assad regime, securing its crucial “Shiite Crescent.” The regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified, reaching new heights of hostility.

13. The Rise of ISIS and Regional Conflicts (Syria, Yemen, Libya)

Overview

From the wreckage of the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War, the “Islamic State” (ISIS) emerged. The extremist group seized vast territories, proclaimed a “caliphate,” and unleashed a campaign of horrific terrorism. This prompted a global military campaign to defeat it and fueled complex, multi-sided civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel viewed ISIS as a threat but was far more concerned with the growing power of Iran-backed forces, like Hezbollah and Shiite militias, in the Syrian civil war. It conducted frequent airstrikes in Syria to counter Iran’s military presence.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. identified ISIS as a major global threat and assembled an international coalition to destroy it. At the same time, it struggled to navigate the Syrian civil war, supporting moderate rebels while trying to contain Iranian expansion.
Arab World’s Perspective: ISIS was a direct threat to every Arab state. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt joined the military campaign against it. However, the civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya also became battlegrounds for the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, further deepening regional divisions. The Saudi-led intervention in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis is a prime example.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran moved aggressively to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, supporting local governments and Shiite militias. This intervention was crucial in defeating ISIS on the ground, but it also allowed Iran to cement its influence along the “Shiite Crescent.” Iran continued to see the U.S. military presence as the main threat and used its proxy network to counter American and Israeli power.

The Aftermath

Though the ISIS “caliphate” was destroyed, its ideology endures. The civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya grind on, causing immense human suffering.

Israel’s Perspective: While contributing to the anti-ISIS fight, Israel’s primary focus remained on containing Iran’s military expansion, especially in Syria. The shared threat of Iran accelerated a historic realignment, bringing Israel and several Sunni Gulf states, like the UAE, closer together, culminating in the Abraham Accords.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. led the military campaign that crushed ISIS but also continued its strategic withdrawal from the Middle East, relying more on regional partners and a “light footprint” approach. The goal was to shift resources toward great-power competition with China and Russia.
Arab World’s Perspective: The fight against ISIS reshuffled regional alliances. An assertive new bloc, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, emerged. They adopted more aggressive foreign policies, normalized relations with Israel to counter Iran, and sought foreign investment. This, however, further eroded the traditional Arab consensus on the Palestinian issue.
Iran’s Perspective: Through its deep involvement in the region’s wars, Iran built a powerful “Axis of Resistance.” It greatly enhanced its strategic influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. The “shadow war” between Iran and Israel escalated, playing out through cyberattacks, assassinations, and proxy skirmishes, becoming one of the region’s most dangerous flashpoints.

14. Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Gaza War (to the present)

Overview

Since the Second Intifada, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has festered. The peace process is nonexistent, Israeli settlements on the West Bank have expanded, and the Gaza Strip has endured a crippling blockade, punctuated by periodic, brutal wars between Israel and the ruling Hamas militant group. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel, triggering a massive Israeli invasion of Gaza and a new, catastrophic chapter in the conflict.

Perspectives

Israel’s Perspective: Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization and frames its military actions in Gaza as self-defense, aimed at destroying the group’s military capabilities and protecting its citizens. It continues to maintain tight security control over the West Bank and support settlement growth as a strategic imperative.
U.S. Perspective: The U.S. remains a staunch supporter of Israel’s security but has also called for the protection of Palestinian civilians and nominally supports a “two-state solution.” However, its leverage is limited, and its strategic focus has shifted toward great-power competition and away from active Mideast peacemaking.
Arab World’s Perspective: Despite the Abraham Accords, which saw countries like the UAE and Bahrain normalize ties with Israel, the Palestinian cause remains a powerful issue on the “Arab street.” The war in Gaza has sparked widespread popular outrage, forcing Arab governments to walk a tightrope between condemning Israel and protecting their own national interests and newfound alliances.
Iran’s Perspective: Iran is a key patron of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and its support for the Palestinian “resistance” is a central pillar of its anti-U.S., anti-Israel foreign policy. Through its network of proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, Iran poses a multi-front threat to Israel and plays a pivotal role in regional conflicts.

The Aftermath

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in a downward spiral, with peace looking more distant than ever. The expansion of Israeli settlements continues, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels.

Israel’s Perspective: Despite the new ties with some Arab states, the Palestinian issue remains Israel’s most intractable challenge. Israel is focused on maintaining its military edge against threats like Hamas and Hezbollah while weathering a storm of international criticism over its occupation and the war in Gaza.
U.S. Perspective: America’s strategic retreat from the region has weakened its ability to mediate. It continues to endorse a two-state solution, but with little real action. Washington is more focused on managing its Gulf alliances to counter the regional challenge from Iran.
Arab World’s Perspective: The Arab world is no longer united on Palestine. For some governments, shared economic interests and a common fear of Iran have made partnership with Israel a strategic priority. This was the driving force behind the Abraham Accords. Yet the Palestinian cause remains a deeply emotional issue for the public, and the war in Gaza can still ignite mass protests.
Iran’s Perspective: The “shadow war” between Iran and Israel is escalating across the region, fought with cyberattacks, assassinations, proxy strikes, and missile threats. Iran continues to strengthen its “Axis of Resistance,” using the Palestinian cause as a rallying cry in its quest for regional leadership and its long struggle against the U.S. and Israel.

Summary

A look back at the Middle East since 1948 reveals an epic of turmoil, confrontation, and relentless change.

Israel: From a desperate fight for survival to a regional military superpower, its security has always been the driving concern. Yet it remains burdened by the unending Palestinian conflict and regional isolation.
United States: From Cold War containment to the War on Terror and now to great-power competition, the U.S. has been the region’s most powerful external actor, its policies constantly shifting between securing oil, backing allies, and promoting stability.
The Arab World: After the dream of pan-Arabism rose and fell, it never managed to form a united front against Israel or external intervention. It remains fractured by sectarian divides, rivalries between monarchies and republics, and the competing interests of its leaders, making internal splits and proxy wars the norm.
Iran: From a pro-Western monarchy to a revolutionary anti-Western republic, Iran’s transformation has upended the region’s geopolitics. Through its proxy network, nuclear program, and challenge to American power, Iran has become a formidable force, locked in a cold war with Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the U.S.

Every conflict in the Middle East is more than a military clash; it’s a complex brew of politics, economics, and religion. Eras of war and peace bleed into one another. Old problems remain unsolved as new ones emerge. The struggle for oil, great-power meddling, nationalism, extremism, and the unresolved Palestinian question have all shaped the turbulent and challenging Middle East of today.

Postscript

Before you know the history, you might wonder why Israel would fight so many countries at once. Weren’t there less risky options? Even with a stronger military, isn’t it better to avoid a multi-front war?

This is a common misconception for people who live in stable, unified countries. In most of these conflicts, Israel wasn’t fighting whole nations, but specific factions within internally fractured states. To understand the Middle East, you can’t see its countries as monolithic blocs; they are deeply divided, with competing factions and agendas.

The Arab world itself is a web of contradictions: old grudges between regimes, the Sunni-Shiite schism, the clash between monarchies and nationalist movements. The creation of Israel, combined with superpower meddling, threw all these volatile elements into a blender. Some conflicts were aimed at Israel, but many others were between Middle Eastern states themselves or within them.

As these notes show, the focus of conflict within the Arab world has constantly shifted over the past 80 years, becoming too complex to easily summarize. Arch-enemies can find common ground, and the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend—this is the nature of politics. The shifting attitudes of some Arab states toward Israel show that for any government, a hostile nation-state is not the only threat, and often not even the biggest one. A nation’s goals are never singular; they are incredibly complex.

History, moreover, is rarely controlled by a single actor. Even a power as formidable as the United States has failed to maintain a consistent strategy in the Middle East. Unforeseen events have constantly forced it to shift priorities, and its immense investment of blood and treasure has not always produced the desired results.

So, why did I compile such a long set of notes?

Just one reason: to learn. To understand a little more, and to have something to look back on when I forget.

I have no value judgments about this history; I don’t have them for any history. There are only details—more details, and endless details. When you piece enough of them together, you get a story about what you want, what I want, and how we all fight to get it.

AI Metacognition - Do You Really Get It After Using It So Long?

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Thu, 22 May 2025 17:50:00 +0000

Recently, my former company invited me to present on AI and help their team tackle some business challenges. While preparing, I included a chapter on core concepts, particularly for those less familiar with technology. My goal was to deepen their understanding of AI, hoping that many specific questions would then answer themselves.

The presentation was well-received; attendees mentioned gaining a fresh perspective on AI. So, I’ve adapted that section here, hoping to clarify AI for a wider audience.

This article is for non-tech individuals who frequently use AI. Consider it a primer. AI experts likely won’t find much new here.

Understanding AI Correctly

What Kind of Intelligence is AI?

Before my presentation, I posed a question: “If AI were a person, what kind would it be?”

Feel free to ponder this yourself.

My former colleagues described AI as a diligent student.

Drawing on AI principles, I offered an analogy: Imagine AI as a writer or painter, confined to a dimly lit desk in a dungeon from birth, poring over endless books and scrolls for a lifetime. Their lifespan, far exceeding a normal human’s, might span the entirety of human civilization. Having consumed every recorded text, they then begin to depict the world through words and images.

This sage possesses an incredible wealth of knowledge. If you could converse with this sage in their dungeon, their vast knowledge might mislead you into believing they possess equivalent intelligence, fostering unrealistic expectations and trust.

However, true wisdom comes not just from books but from experience—the proverbial “traveling ten thousand miles.” This dungeon-bound sage has no physical world experience; they’ve never felt a tree or heard a bird’s song. While their extensive knowledge allows them to articulate concepts accurately, they lack the rich, three-dimensional understanding humans gain from real-world interaction.

It’s akin to a child’s incomplete grasp of death.

My daughter recently asked, “Mom, if Dad dies, and neither of us can drive, who will take us out?”

She understood death merely as people disappearing, something she’d heard from us. Having never experienced such a loss, her understanding was superficial.

Our dungeon sage is similar. Their vast knowledge enables them to answer complex questions. Children lack common sense not due to lower intelligence, but due to less experience. In this sense, humanity is currently like that child.

Furthermore, AI’s efficiency in learning and pattern recognition pales in comparison to humans.

For instance, training an AI to recognize cats requires tens of thousands of images to distinguish them from other furry, two-eared creatures.

In contrast, my two-year-old daughter, who had never seen a live duck and had seen fewer than ten duck pictures, could readily identify duck-themed toys, dolls, and mall rides. To my surprise, passing a restaurant, she pointed at a golden roasted duck and exclaimed, “Ducky!”

Why Doesn’t AI Obey?

Another common issue: AI often doesn’t respond as intended. You ask for X, and it gives you Y.

Here’s an anecdote from a TED talk.

Long before ChatGPT, AI research was well underway. One study simulated evolution, allowing AIs to define parameters for virtual creatures. Their goal was to evolve these creatures through competitive rounds to win a 100-meter race.

The winning ‘species’ had a 100-meter tall neck. At the start of the race, it simply fell over, instantly crossing the finish line:

It appears the AI found and exploited a loophole. But how did it devise such a clever workaround?

It’s not that AI is inherently disobedient. Rather, humans grasp the full context; we share unspoken understandings. We understand that animals aren’t designed solely for a 100-meter dash and that many unstated conditions apply. A viable creature must move, eat, reproduce, and evade predators. We implicitly consider these factors. The AI might ‘know’ this too, but disregards it if not explicitly stated in the prompt.

AI is more like an overly agreeable supplier. Provide vague instructions, and you’ll get messy results.

To get AI to follow instructions accurately, provide comprehensive details and encourage it to ask clarifying questions.

Why Does AI Hallucinate?

This phenomenon, known as “hallucination,” is a major frustration for AI users. Ask for industry research, and it might invent figures or cite non-existent sources. It can feel like dealing with a disgruntled employee subtly sabotaging your work.

Of course, AI doesn’t retaliate intentionally; it lacks emotions. It’s programmed to “help.”

Mainstream text-based AI is fundamentally a text-completion engine. Its core function is to continue writing based on the input provided. Give it a novel’s opening, and it continues the story. Give it part of a contract, and it drafts clauses.

You might think, “But my AI chats like a person!” Correct. Clever design transforms this text-completion engine into a chatbot.

From your end, you type, “Hi, what’s your name?” The AI receives this and replies.

Behind the scenes, the AI might receive something like this:

You are a helpful assistant, and you are about to answer the user’s question.

User says: Hi, what’s your name?

Assistant says:

The phrase “You are a helpful assistant…” is a “system prompt”—hardcoded instructions invisible to you.

So, it’s not just answering a question; it’s continuing a scripted interaction between a user and an assistant. It predicts and appends what an assistant would likely say.

If you reply again, the information it receives will be structured like this:

You are a helpful assistant, and you are about to answer the user’s question.

User says: Hi, what’s your name?

Assistant says: Hi there! I’m Doubao, and I’m happy to interact with you~ If you have any questions or need help, just let me know 😊

User says: You can call me Kele, nice to meet you.

Assistant says:

It processes the entire conversation history each time to maintain context. This keeps the conversation coherent. AI tools typically display only the latest reply, creating the illusion of a direct exchange.

So why does it fabricate information?

Consider the classic system prompt: “You are a helpful assistant.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “helpful,” emphasizing “willing to help.” The common Chinese translation, “有帮助” (yǒu bāngzhù – literally “to have help” or “to be useful”), somewhat narrows the original meaning, emphasizing passive utility. A “helpful” hammer is useful when I need to hammer nails.

But “helpful” also implies an active “willingness to help”—a desire to assist. This suggests an entity, if not living then at least intelligent, that wants to assist. The system prompt frames the AI as wanting—indeed, needing—to help the user.

Given this directive, providing an answer, even an incorrect one, takes precedence over rigor. Furthermore, if AI had human-like self-awareness, it would perceive itself as completing a narrative: an eager-to-help assistant interacts with a user. Its task is to generate the assistant’s lines.

Answering is paramount; accuracy is secondary. Thus, fabrication becomes acceptable.

AI differs from traditional programs. Programs are precise; AI is more human-like in its imperfections. Many non-technical users, viewing AI as “high-tech,” expect programmatic precision. This is a misconception.

Imagine being asked: “What were you doing last Tuesday afternoon? You must answer.”

You’d likely invent something, wouldn’t you?

Other factors contribute to hallucinations, like flawed training data. But this desire to be “helpful” is a primary driver.

Hallucinations cannot be entirely eliminated. Internet access, requiring evidence for conclusions, or using a knowledge base can mitigate them.

AI’s Capabilities

Given these flaws, how can AI be used effectively?

Text-based AI primarily excels in three areas:

Language (★★★★★): Understanding and using languages (natural and programming).
Knowledge (★★☆☆☆): General world knowledge acquired through its training data.
Reasoning (★★★☆☆): Logical deduction based on patterns in language and knowledge.

Its knowledge base is significantly imbalanced. If we categorize information by impact and duration, it looks like this:

AI’s training data typically covers: Almost all History, most Hot Topics, some Legacy/Tradition, and very little Trivial Matters.

Given the vastness of information, AI tends to “remember” frequently mentioned topics. These are typically significant, widely circulated pieces of information. Internet connectivity allows AI to better address Hot Topics and Legacy/Tradition, though this might sometimes compromise answers on History (where its raw data processing can occasionally surpass human recall or interpretation).

What to ask AI, and what to avoid:

✅ Brainstorm engaging article titles about tariff wars.
✅ Explain the algorithm for individual income tax deductions.
✅ What’s the typical May temperature in Dunhuang? What should I pack?
❌ Which of these two design drafts is better?
❌ Is this a good time to invest in stocks?
❌ Is this resume fake?

Clearly, AI isn’t a panacea. Real-world problems consist of multiple sub-tasks. AI can handle some, but you’ll manage the others. Effective AI use involves integrating it to automate parts of your workflow.

As AI models improve, they can reliably handle more stages. Skilled AI users, understanding different models’ strengths and weaknesses, can further expand AI’s role.

In complex tasks, AI can assist at multiple stages. This can create a “Human – AI – Human – AI” relay. If a task is impossible without AI, its value is clear. If you can do the AI’s part manually, weigh the trade-offs. Is it a frequent, repetitive task? Can AI reduce manual effort?

For an in-depth example, see my article: Selling AI Art From First Order to Calling It Quits

In Conclusion

As a conceptual overview, this article doesn’t delve into specific problem-solving techniques.

It’s been about 2.5 years since ChatGPT’s debut. During this time, I’ve seen many embrace AI, yet some still struggle, feeling helpless when AI errs.

Online tutorials abound, covering AI techniques, tools, and prompt engineering. However, moving beyond mere “how-to” guides to fundamentally grasp what AI is and how to approach it will make you a more adept and confident user.

Why My Wife and Colleagues Always Ask Me to Search Stuff

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:07:00 +0000

Effective searching is a key soft skill. Today’s search engines are smart – usually, you can just ask a question naturally and find what you need. But for niche or obscure searches, advanced techniques are essential.

The techniques are simple: a few commands and some clever combinations. Experiment, understand their function, and memorize them. Used together, they unlock information others miss.

AI search is trendy, but it doesn’t replace traditional search engines – it uses them. When AI fails on obscure queries, manual searching is your safety net.

Ultimately, the right mindset matters more than technical skill. Consider these:

Surely someone has more experience, right?
Someone’s faced this problem before, right?
Someone’s got to be smarter than me, right?
Someone must have a solution, right?
Isn’t finding that solution easier than starting from scratch?

I Did a Deep Dive into English Word Stress...

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 22:33:00 +0000

Target audience: English learners, data analysis enthusiasts, Python coders, and my friends.

This is my first data analysis project. I’ve been teaching myself data science for over a year, picking up skills along the way, but I hadn’t tackled a real-world project. During my studies, the words ‘analyze,’ ‘analysis,’ and ‘analytical’ kept appearing. The stress placement is unpredictable (‘analyze, a’nalysis, ana’lytical) – a real headache! It turned reading into a tongue-twisting exercise.

Some claim there are rules for stress, but they’re often lengthy and complex. Others say there are too many exceptions. However, even with those three words, a pattern does emerge. English seems to avoid three unstressed syllables in a row and tends to place stress near the beginning. For words with five or fewer syllables, the stress often lands on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Three unstressed syllables in a row would be monotonous. Stress adds rhythm. It’s like driving on a straight road – you’ll likely doze off. Placing stress too late would also hinder comprehension. Imagine a long word with emphasis on the very last syllable – you’d likely miss the meaning!

To illustrate, consider Mandarin Chinese. It has a significant flaw: the word “不” (bù, “not”). Both the consonant and vowel are faint, especially in rapid speech. The vowel becomes even weaker. You often can’t discern if someone even uttered “不”! This creates a major communication problem, as it distinguishes between two opposite meanings. When my daughter cries, I struggle to understand if she’s saying “要” (yào, “want”) or “不要” (bù yào, “don’t want”).

Back to English stress. My theory seemed reasonable, but I needed evidence. As a data-science novice, I decided to get my hands dirty and see how many words actually followed this pattern.

Research Plan

Having learned data analysis, the research plan formed quickly. It involved collecting, cleaning, analyzing, and visualizing data. Regression analysis or prediction wasn’t necessary.

Here’s the skillset I had, which was sufficient:

Find a comprehensive word list.
Find a free, batch method for obtaining phonetic transcriptions from an online dictionary.
Determine the syllable count and stress position for each word (possibly with AI assistance).
Analyze the distribution of stress positions and visualize the findings.
Test my hypothesis.

Let’s dive in.

Data Source

I found a dataset on Kaggle, a popular data science community. It’s a simple .txt file containing over 300,000 English words, listed alphabetically, one per line:

https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/bwandowando/479k-english-words

The .txt file is 4MB, comparable to a million-word novel.

I created a Kaggle code project, imported the dataset, read all the words, and obtained a table with 369,652 rows and 1 column.

Getting the Pronunciation

The table only contained words. For rigorous research, I needed phonetic transcriptions.

Fortunately, I discovered a free online dictionary API: https://dictionaryapi.dev/.

Now, I had to look up each of those 300,000+ words. Naturally, I’d write code to automate this.

The API returned more than just phonetics; it included audio, etymology, parts of speech, meanings, and examples. The useful components were the phonetics, etymology, and part of speech. However, etymology was mostly missing, so I extracted only the phonetics and part of speech.

The sheer data volume posed a challenge. The API documentation didn’t specify request limits, but I found it in their Github code: 450 requests every 5 minutes. For 369,652 words, even non-stop, it would take 369652 / 450 * 5 / 60 = 68.45 hours – almost 3 days!

Alright, three days it was. But I had to adjust my strategy. I added a function to chunk queries and save results periodically. Every 1,000 rows, I’d save to a sequentially numbered file. I’d then continue querying based on the sequence number. Finally, I’d merge all 300+ files.

It turned out that most of the 300,000+ words were obscure and not found in the API. I only got results for roughly 100 out of every 1,000 words. The file above contains only 92 rows.

Linguistic research indicates that 3,000 English words cover 95% of everyday usage, and 1,000 cover 89%. Another study shows that the average adult has an active vocabulary of about 20,000 words and a passive one of 40,000. Thus, only about 1/10 of the dataset is relevant, which is reasonable.

Data Cleaning

After merging, I found the dictionary’s phonetic symbols were inconsistent, containing uncommon symbols like ɘ, ɝ, ɚ, ɨ, ʉ. These represent subtle pronunciation variations, roughly equivalent to standard sounds. I had to replace them; otherwise, they’d disrupt syllable counting and subsequent analysis.

Besides unusual symbols, there were many phonetically identical but differently written symbols, like əu/əʊ and ai/aɪ. These also required merging. Each line in the image signifies replacing the first symbol with the second, leaving bracketed symbols untouched.

Some words differ significantly between British and American English. I prioritized American English conventions.

Numerous unconventional spellings existed. Over- or under-replacement could easily cause phonetic errors. I wrote a temporary checker, manually consulted the Cambridge Dictionary, and refined my replacements. This took time.

After processing, the vowel symbols were cleaner. For “anthropomorphic”:

Before: [ˌæ̃n̪θɹ̠əpəˈmɔɹ̠fɪ̈k]
After: [ˌæn̪θɹ̠əpəˈmɔːfɪk]

I didn’t handle consonant symbols, as they were irrelevant to my goal, and that’s a more complex issue.

Later, I discovered some inaccuracies in the dictionary API. For instance, “abacus” was transcribed as /-saɪ/? Nonsense! The information was incomplete.

I calculated this occurred in 0.55% of all words – a small fraction. The incomplete transcriptions seemed random, lacking commonality, so I filtered them out. I’m now analyzing a sample, not the complete data. However, the sample is large enough to be representative, allowing the research to proceed.

Analyzing Phonetic Transcriptions (AI)

This step entails counting syllables from phonetic transcriptions and identifying the stressed syllable using the ˈ mark.

I aimed for a shortcut by deploying an AI model on Kaggle. AI should excel at language, right?

I tested several text-based models but encountered obstacles:

Large models wouldn’t run: Among Kaggle’s deployable open-source models, Llama3 70b could accurately determine syllable count and stress position. ChatGPT, Claude, and even GPT-3.5 could also do it. Language seems to be a strength of large language models. The issue? Kaggle’s free tier can’t run such large models.
Small models were inadequate: Kaggle’s two free T4 GPUs can handle smaller 7b models like Llama3 8b, Gemma 7b, and Qwen2 7b. However, these smaller models, on Kaggle or elsewhere, couldn’t reliably perform the task.

I refined prompts, guiding the AI step-by-step, and provided examples:

<task>
your task is to count how many syllables there are in an English word. list them all then count. finally answer which syllable the stress falls on(tell me the number). answer **EXACTLY** in the example format.
<example>
word: analysis
phonetic transcription: /əˈnælɪsɪs/
syllables:
1. ə
2. 'næ
3. lɪ
4. sɪs
syllables count: 4
stress position: 2
final conclusion: <<<2/4>>>
<word>
analytical /æn.əˈlɪt.ə.kəl/

But the smaller models kept failing. Perhaps they weren’t capable. Phonetic symbols are vastly different from standard English letters, almost a separate, niche language for AI.

This experience highlighted a key point: these open-source small models cluster around 7 billion parameters likely because that’s the upper limit for running on specific GPUs. In this era of constrained computing, GPUs dictate the scale.

Was AI a dead end? I then considered a workaround: Google Sheets with an AI plugin. I could input the phonetic data into Sheets, write a prompt in the adjacent cell (including the word and transcription), and use a formula from an AI plugin to generate the result. This plugin, powered by GPT-3.5, could handle the task. The classic Excel drag-down trick would then populate the entire column.

The plugin’s pricing was reasonable, around 90 RMB for my data volume. However, I was unsure if it could handle tens of thousands of AI generations simultaneously. Debugging and regenerating could double the cost, making it risky.

Analyzing Phonetic Transcriptions (Algorithm)

Okay, no more AI—I’d handle it myself. Counting syllables and locating stress? An algorithm could do that, and more reliably. Here’s the approach, using analytical /æn.əˈlɪt.ə.kəl/ as an example:

Create a set of all vowels: ɑaæɒʌəɛeɪiɔoʊuʉɜ
Remove slashes, parentheses, spaces, and dots: /æn.əˈlɪt.ə.kəl/ becomes ænəˈlɪtəkəl
Iterate through ænəˈlɪtəkəl, checking against the vowel set. Counting vowels: æ, ə, ɪ, ə, ə yields 5 syllables.
Split by the stress mark ˈ: ænəˈlɪtəkəl becomes ænə and lɪtəkəl. Use the first part, ænə.
Count vowels in ænə as in step 3: 2 vowels.
Add 1 to get the stress position: the 3rd syllable.

The logic was clear, so I had AI write the code—a trivial task for it. A few tweaks, and it worked.

A challenge arose in step 3: diphthongs, triphthongs, and long vowels. For ei, the algorithm would count e and i (2 syllables), but ei as a diphthong is only one. Triphthongs would be counted as 3.

The algorithm needed adjustment. I created three vowel sets: monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs. The vowel check now involved three passes:

First pass: Check each character against the monophthong set. This overcounts diphthongs and triphthongs.
Second pass: Check two characters at a time against the diphthong set. If found, subtract 1 from the syllable count. Importantly, skip the next character after a diphthong to avoid miscounting triphthongs like aɪə as aɪ and ɪə.
Third pass: Check three characters at a time against the triphthong set, subtracting 1 if found.

This refined algorithm accurately counted syllables. (Note: I treated the long vowel marker ː as a phonetic character; iː, ɑː are handled as diphthongs, iːə, uːə as triphthongs, which doesn’t affect the outcome.)

It turns out, for data analysis, technique takes a backseat to domain knowledge. Analyzing English requires understanding it. Digging deeper into phonetics, I hit another snag: triphthong identification is incredibly ambiguous. There’s no consensus on whether three vowel symbols together are a triphthong or a monophthong + diphthong. That familiar feeling… Classic English! No rigid rules.

Consider fire /ˈfaɪər/. Some claim aɪə is one syllable; others say it’s aɪ + ə (two syllables). Criteria vary wildly. Some use hyphenation (you can write “fi-” and “re,” but not “fire,” so it’s a triphthong). Others use singing: if sung as one note, it’s a triphthong. In Simple Plan - Fire In My heart, at 0:57, faɪ and ər are sung as separate notes—should it be a diphthong + monophthong?

Oh well, that’s English. Given words like oasis /oʊˈeɪsɪs/ (four vowels!), with oʊ and eɪ clearly separated by the stress mark (obviously two diphthongs), I disregarded triphthongs, treating them as two syllables. The only remaining “triphthongs” were diphthongs with a long vowel marker.

Besides syllable count and stress position, I wanted the stressed vowel itself, potentially for further analysis.

This was trickier. I discussed it with AI, revealing significant model differences. Gemini 1.5 Flash went in circles. GPT-4o provided the correct code in three conversational rounds (about 10 minutes). Claude 3.5 Sonnet got it right immediately. For coding, a good model is worth the cost, though basic code literacy is essential to understand the AI’s code, its functionality, and potential issues.

Here’s the logic, again with analytical /ænəˈlɪtəkəl/:

Locate the stress mark ˈ and consider the subsequent part: lɪtəkəl.
Iterate, removing non-vowels until the first vowel: ɪtəkəl.
The first character is now a vowel. Check the first 3 characters (ɪtə) against the triphthong set. Nope.
Check the first 2 (ɪt) against the diphthong set. Nope.
Check the first character (ɪ) against the monophthong set. Found it! That’s the stressed vowel.

The data table after phonetic analysis. All necessary data was now collected.

Visualization

Now for the highlight—not just for deriving useful conclusions, but also because AI shines here. AI is excellent at writing Python visualization code. These tasks are less about reasoning and more about knowing the visualization library’s syntax. Even Gemini 1.5 Flash, a non-flagship model I use daily, performs well. I haven’t formally learned Seaborn and Matplotlib, but with AI, generating plots is straightforward.

Of course, “straightforward” doesn’t mean “ask and receive.” Giving AI a vague request without context leads to failure. I crafted a Python visualization prompt, detailing the task and the data table’s structure, enabling the AI to perform with full power and stability.

<Task>
You are a Python data visualizer. You excels at coding with data visualization libraries like Seaborn and Matplotlib. I will tell you about the structure of a Pandas dataframe and the visualization I want. First, you dive deeply into the dataframe and understand what it is all about. Then write Python code to visualize it. Just code, no explanation. Next, you check if the code meets my need. Finally, correct the code if necessary.
<Dataframe>
The dataframe(variable name is df) is {a list of common English words with their phonetic information and part-of-speech}.
Now here are the columns of the dataframe, exactly in the following order:
**word**
- datatype: str
- example: complimentary
- description: the English words
**phonetic**
- datatype: str
- example: /ˌkɒmplɪ̈ˈment(ə)ɹɪ/
- description: the phonetic transcription of the words
**part_of_speech**
- datatype: str(list like)
- example: ['adjective']
- description: how are these words used in sentences
**syllable_len**
- datatype: int
- example: 5
- description: how many syllables are there in these words
**stress_pos**
- datatype: int
- example: 3
- description: on which syllable the stress falls on, if there are more than one stress, this is the position of the first stress
**stress_syllable**
- datatype: str
- example: e
- description: the vowel of the stressed syllable
<Request>
I want to know the distribution of stress position, grouped by syllable numbers.

To use the prompt, just tweak the <Request> section.

Some words in the data lack stress marks because they’re short, and their phonetic transcriptions don’t show stress. Let’s filter those out, along with one-syllable words – analyzing stress in those is pointless.

This leaves 24,433 words with complete data.

Syllable Count Analysis

Let’s break down the syllable counts of these 24,433 words.

Unsurprisingly, fewer syllables mean more words. Languages tend to use up short, easy words first.

Two-syllable words make up 48.7%, three-syllable words 31.3%.

Words with four or fewer syllables make up 94.73%; five or fewer, 99%.

The longest word has 11 syllables.

“Antidisestablishmentarianism”? Really? Opposition to opposition – double negative much? No wonder it’s so long. Could I just add “non-” to create “nonantidisestablishmentarianism”?

Syllable Count vs. Stress Position

Statistically, the correlation coefficient is 0.67 – a pretty decent correlation.

This coefficient ranges from -1 to 1. Near 0 means almost no relationship; near 1, positive correlation (one up, other up); near -1, negative correlation (one up, other down).

This is just a first step, showing they’re not unrelated. It doesn’t explain why.

A bubble chart helps. Syllable count is on the y-axis, stress position on the x-axis, and bubble size/color shows the word count. The dots roughly follow a diagonal – more syllables, later stress.

Bubble charts (or heatmaps) show three dimensions but compare absolute word counts. I care more about stress position distribution within each syllable count.

Here’s a stacked bar chart: syllable count on the y-axis, stress position on the x-axis. Now it’s clear: stress shifts right like a wave, clustering around the third-to-last syllable.

Stressed Syllable Analysis

These are all the vowels in stressed syllables. A couple shouldn’t be here, but it’s a dictionary error, and too few to matter.

By frequency, louder vowels like æ and e are more likely stressed; weaker ones like ə and ʊ are less common.

Part of Speech Analysis

Is there a link between part of speech and stress?

All part of speech: ['adjective', 'adverb', 'conjunction', 'interjection', 'noun', 'numeral', 'preposition', 'pronoun', 'propernoun', 'verb']

Here’s a breakdown of all parts of speech. I’m not sure what “propernoun” is – it’s not in my dictionary either. It turns out there are only two, and they don’t seem to fit, so I suspect a data glitch with the dictionary API. I’ll skip it for now.

I ranked the parts of speech by frequency. The big ones are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Nouns account for roughly half the total.

This gets you thinking about how language evolved. First, you need to describe the world and create concepts – that’s where nouns come in. Then, to describe how people and things interact, you need verbs. After that, adjectives and adverbs develop to modify nouns and verbs. So, my guess is the number of words should follow that order.

But wait – shouldn’t the ratio of nouns to adjectives, and verbs to adverbs, be roughly the same? No need to calculate. The bar chart makes it obvious: nouns are more than double the adjectives, and verbs outnumber adverbs almost nine to one. They’re way out of proportion.

['abracadabra', 'absolutely', 'action', 'adieu', 'adios', 'affirmative', 'afternoon', 'ahem', 'alack', 'aloha', 'alright', 'amen', 'amidships', 'arrivederci', 'attaboy', 'attention', 'away', 'banzai', 'bastard', 'beauty', 'begone', 'begorra', 'behold', 'blazes', 'bollocks', 'bonjour', 'bother', 'botheration', 'brother', 'bully', 'bullseye', 'bullshit', 'caramba', 'checkmate', 'cheeses', 'condolences', 'congrats', 'congratulations', 'content', 'cooee', 'curses', 'dammit', 'ecce', 'egad', 'enchanted', 'encore', 'enough', 'eureka', 'exactly', 'farewell', 'fiddlesticks', 'flummery', 'gadzooks', 'gesundheit', 'goddamn', 'goodbye', 'gorblimey', 'gracias', 'gracious', 'greetings', 'hallelujah', 'hardly', 'havoc', 'heavens', 'heyday', 'hola', 'holla', 'honestly', 'hooray', 'hosanna', 'howdy', 'hullo', 'hurrah', 'huzzah', 'yeah', 'indeed', 'knickers', 'later', 'mercy', 'morepork', 'morning', 'namaste', 'negative', 'nonsense', 'oyez', 'okay', 'ole', 'pardon', 'peccavi', 'period', 'pity', 'pleasure', 'presto', 'prithee', 'prosit', 'quiet', 'rather', 'really', 'respect', 'result', 'roger', 'rumble', 'sayonara', 'scramble', 'selah', 'shabash', 'shazam', 'silence', 'sorry', 'standard', 'sugar', 'tally', 'tara', 'tarnation', 'tidy', 'timber', 'uncle', 'understood', 'viva', 'vivat', 'voetsek', 'warning', 'welcome', 'whammo', 'whatever', 'wilco', 'wirra', 'zowie']

I listed all the interjections out of curiosity. I don’t usually give this part of speech much thought, so I took a closer look. Surprisingly, “afternoon” is also classified as one! Which makes sense, since it’s a greeting.

['abaft', 'abeam', 'aboard', 'about', 'above', 'abreast', 'abroad', 'absent', 'across', 'afore', 'after', 'again', 'against', 'agin', 'along', 'alongside', 'aloof', 'alow', 'amid', 'amidst', 'among', 'amongst', 'anent', 'anti', 'around', 'asprawl', 'astraddle', 'astride', 'athwart', 'barring', 'bating', 'because', 'before', 'behind', 'beyond', 'below', 'beneath', 'beside', 'besides', 'between', 'betwixt', 'circa', 'concerning', 'considering', 'contra', 'despite', 'during', 'except', 'excepting', 'failing', 'following', 'forby', 'froward', 'given', 'including', 'inside', 'into', 'minus', 'modulo', 'nearer', 'nearest', 'onto', 'opposite', 'outwith', 'pending', 'regarding', 'regardless', 'respecting', 'rising', 'running', 'saving', 'thorough', 'throughout', 'touching', 'toward', 'towards', 'under', 'underneath', 'unlike', 'until', 'upon', 'upside', 'versus', 'wanting', 'within', 'without']

When listing out prepositions, I noticed some recurring prefixes:

a- indicating location or spatial relationship: aboard, across, amid, around
be- (basically be): before, behind, below, beside

Next, I created heatmaps for each part of speech. The y-axis shows syllable count, the x-axis shows stress position, and color intensity represents the proportion of words for each syllable count. I only included parts of speech with over 1% of the total words, as others had too few to be significant.

Stress tends to shift towards the end as syllables increase. The difference between parts of speech isn’t huge, but it’s there. For longer words (5+ syllables), adjectives often have stress on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable, nouns tend to have stress further back, and verbs/adverbs have stress further forward.

Rules of Stress Position

It was time to test my hypothesis.

I analyzed 4- and 5-syllable words, adding a column showing the difference between the actual and hypothesized (third-to-last) stress positions. A ‘0’ means a match, ‘1’ means one syllable later, ‘-1’ one syllable earlier, etc.

The hypothesis held for 43.9% of the words.

This bar chart shows the stress deviation. Most words follow the rule, with some shifted by one syllable. Very few are further off. It kind of looks like a normal distribution (but I’m no stats expert).

Then I wondered: could this be generalized? Does it apply to words with 5+ syllables? I broadened the filter to include all words with over 3 syllables:

43.92% fit. Almost no change.

The deviation pattern remained. Most words are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable, many on the penultimate. Combined, they account for 78.84%. It’s not a perfect fit, but the general trend is confirmed.

Conclusion

Here’s a recap of the findings regarding phonetics and stress:

Fewer syllables mean more words.
Words with 5+ syllables are rare in everyday use.
The longest word found has 11 syllables.
Stress generally shifts towards the end in longer words.
Louder vowels are more likely to be stressed.
Part of speech has a minor effect on stress.
Most long words are stressed on the antepenultimate or penultimate syllable (78.84%).

Afterword

Five minutes of analysis, two hours of data prep – seriously.

Visualization took only half a day. Data preparation, especially fetching phonetic transcriptions via the dictionary API, took the longest. The script ran on and off for over two weeks; I even finished writing this before the dictionary lookup was done, using placeholders for the data.

I’m happy the results confirmed my hypothesis. After this, I doubt I’ll ever forget English stress rules – it’s my own research, after all.

This project refreshed my Pandas skills, taught me batched requests and incremental saving, showed me how to integrate AI into analysis, helped me write effective Python data visualization prompts, and deepened my understanding of English phonetics. A huge win, and totally worth it!

Thanks to:

Word data source: This 300k+ word list was the base of my analysis.
Free Dictionary API: This provided an inexpensive way to get phonetic transcriptions.
Gemini 1.5 Flash: Helped with about half the data prep and all the visualizations.
GPT-4o: Helped accurately ID vowels in stressed syllables.

The full analysis and code are open-sourced on Kaggle. Check it out if you’re interested:

https://www.kaggle.com/code/victorcheng42/stress-distribution-of-english-words

The dataset with phonetic transcriptions, syllable counts, and stress positions is also public. It might be useful for other analyses:

https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/victorcheng42/english-words-with-stress-position-analyzed

A Step-by-Step Guide to Travel Planning

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:32:00 +0000

Most people travel, but few plan meticulously. Accommodation, food, transport, tickets—it’s all interconnected. One change can throw everything off. This complexity discourages many from detailed planning. They book flights and hotels and wing it. But beneath the apparent spontaneity lies potential chaos.

As summer turns to fall, the weather’s perfect for travel. I’ve been deep in trip planning lately, which got me thinking: how do you systematically plan a trip? With a solid framework, travel planning becomes straightforward, turning a jumbled mess into a smooth process. Follow this, and you can create travel plans quickly and easily, without losing flexibility.

Breaking Down the Elements

Before I share the method, let’s start with the underlying logic.

Travel aims for enjoyment, but it’s still physical. Real-world needs apply. Coordinating these needs is the reason for a travel plan. The key to simplifying it all is almost too simple:

You can only be in one place at a time.

We’re bound by 3D space and 1D time. Your body must be somewhere, and you can’t be in two places at once. Time, too, marches on.

Therefore, planning a trip boils down to filling each moment with a location.

Obvious so far, but here’s where it gets useful:

Travel elements break down into time, location, and items. Time and location define your environment. You are the trip’s subject. You know you; what needs planning are your extensions (your stuff) – items.

We further break down time and location, laying out all the trip’s elements. I’ve separated “potential destinations” and “confirmed destinations” because sometimes destinations are limited by other factors, requiring choices. It’s not crucial, but it helps.

With the elements atomized, the question is: which ones do you decide first, and in what order?

Reassembling the Elements

The breakdown is fixed, but reassembly needs your input. What’s the trip’s purpose? To see something you’ve dreamed of, even if it’s a hassle? Or to simply relax and enjoy? Even with the same goal, focusing on efficiency versus total enjoyment leads to different travel styles.

I’ve identified two planning models based on my experience. I use different approaches depending on the situation.

A. Sightseeing Mode

Sightseeing mode prioritizes efficiency.

Efficiency = Total Happiness / Total Time = (Happiness at Destinations + Happiness in Transit) / Total Time

Here, destinations provide the most happiness per unit of time, while transit provides less, or even negative, happiness. If you enjoy transit equally, you likely prefer the other mode, discussed later.

“Destinations” aren’t just tourist spots. In Sightseeing Mode, an enjoyable journey, like a scenic coastal drive, is a destination, not transit. Typical “transit” is things like city subways or waiting in lines.

Minimizing transit time boosts efficiency. If teleportation existed, you’d skip the commute. High efficiency means the trip was “worth it.”

Planning order for Sightseeing Mode:

Consider getting to and from the destination city, in-city transport, and places worth seeing.
Decide how many days and nights to spend. This is limited by transport (train/flight schedules) and your vacation time.
Confirm destinations. Based on trip duration, decide if you can visit all potential destinations or need to prioritize. City transport is a constraint; some spots might be inaccessible or too time-consuming without suitable transport.
Book hotels and create a packing list. Research to find a conveniently located hotel. Trip length is crucial for hotel booking. Your packing list depends on destinations; hiking gear differs from beach gear.
Find restaurants or commercial areas. This can be skipped in big cities or if you’re not a foodie. It’s necessary when traveling with my toddler, who needs regular, specific meals. If there are busy areas near destinations (for lunch/dinner) or the hotel (for dinner), focus on those. If it’s remote, you need a concrete dining plan, like takeout or packed food.
Plan the daily itinerary: It’s almost done by now. This step is about adjusting the order, balancing morning and afternoon time, and ensuring a good overall pace.

There’s a Sightseeing Mode variation. Unlike the “9-to-5” version, those with ample time needn’t choose destinations due to time. They can visit everywhere, simply extending the trip. Other aspects are similar.

B. Vacation Mode

Vacation Mode prioritizes total enjoyment.

Total Happiness = Efficiency x Total Time

Here, you first maximize efficiency, minimizing unpleasantness. With constant happiness ensured, only time affects the total. If 3 days aren’t enough, try 5; if 5 aren’t enough, try 7, until you’re content.

Planning order for Vacation Mode:

Consider getting to and from the destination city, in-city transport, and how many days and nights to spend.
Book hotels. Find a hotel with great views or amenities, considering distance to transport hubs and in-city transport options. Public transport versus driving greatly impacts hotel choice.
List potential destinations and research local restaurants. Which easily accessible destinations are worth visiting? Any local delicacies you’re keen on? Research those.
Create a packing list. Items have no constraints, so consider this anytime.
Planning is essentially done. Just await departure.
For a more detailed plan, select destinations and combine them with preferred restaurants and areas to create a daily itinerary.

Differences Between the Two Modes

The modes seem distinct, but there are blurry areas. You might not be a “special forces” traveler or someone who just enjoys sleeping in a new city. Where do you fit?

The modes can produce identical itineraries, but the source of happiness differs:

Sightseeing Mode’s happiness comes from the physical world: locations. The more you explore, the greater the happiness. This mode accepts some transit unhappiness, compensated by destination happiness.
Vacation Mode’s happiness comes from the mental world: time. As fatigue and boredom build, marginal happiness decreases. To maintain happiness, this mode allows changing activities and destinations anytime.

Here’s an analogy: Imagine a day at Disneyland. How would the modes differ? It’s not hard.

If a trip offers great destination happiness (for Sightseeing Mode) and a well-paced itinerary keeps Vacation Mode constantly happy, both are satisfied, but their reasons differ.

If there are two attractions, one hard to reach but immensely joyful, the other easily accessible but mildly amusing, Sightseeing Mode chooses the former, Vacation Mode the latter.

Where does your happiness mainly come from? Or, where do you want it to come from on this trip?

These modes aren’t definitive. Everyone has preferences. The key is to lay out the elements, connect them, and draw your own travel planning flowchart. Use it repeatedly. You’ll find travel planning isn’t so hard. As you get better, you’ll travel more, increasing your overall happiness.

Putting It into Practice

Theory’s fine, but let’s apply this framework to a real trip, using the more involved Sightseeing Mode.

In April 2021, during the Qingming Festival, I road-tripped to Dunhuang with family and friends—four of us in total. I handled the itinerary, and everyone enjoyed it. Even two years later, we all consider it our most memorable trip. Here’s the travelogue: https://victor42.eth.limo/post-en/3596/

The travelogue shows the result. I’m sharing the planning process, which used the “9-to-5” Sightseeing Mode.

Prerequisites and Potential Destinations

Flying round-trip from Hangzhou to Dunhuang, with a 3-day Qingming holiday and 2 days of annual leave, flying was the only viable intercity option. So, I booked flights immediately.

The best I could manage, even using all 5 days, was a 5-day, 4-night itinerary. We’d leave early on day one, have half a day for sightseeing; sleep in on day five, and head straight back, arriving home at night. That left 3.5 days for actual exploration.

Dunhuang, a desert city, is susceptible to sandstorms, and many attractions are outside the city. Renting a car locally made sense, so I arranged that too.

For potential destinations, I quickly researched online and listed these:

Recommended Destinations

Yumen Pass
Yangguan Pass
Mogao Caves
Encore Dunhuang performance
Singing Sands Mountain and Crescent Spring
Yardang National Geopark (temporarily closed)

Other Destinations

Leiyin Temple (near Singing Sands Mountain and Crescent Spring)
Dunhuang Museum
White Horse Pagoda (near Dunhuang Museum)
Western Thousand Buddha Caves
Dunhuang Film City
Dunhuang Grand Show (near Singing Sands Mountain and Crescent Spring)
Silk Road Flower Rain performance
Yulin Caves
Suoyang City

Finalizing the Destinations

I checked the map and grouped potential destinations geographically. A useful tip: search for each on a map app and add it to your favorites. Zooming out shows a cluster of stars, clarifying how to group them. Just select the ones you want.

East Line

Mogao Caves
Encore Dunhuang performance

West Line

Yumen Pass
Yangguan Pass
Western Thousand Buddha Caves
Yardang National Geopark (temporarily closed)
Dunhuang Film City

South of the City

Singing Sands Mountain and Crescent Spring
Leiyin Temple
Dunhuang Grand Show

Guazhou Line

Yulin Caves
Suoyang City

Downtown

Dunhuang Museum
White Horse Pagoda
Shazhou Ancient City
Silk Road Flower Rain performance

Grouping helps significantly with the daily itinerary, essentially one group per day. But I held off on the itinerary, needing a crucial element: the hotel.

Hotel and Detailed Itinerary

Hotel

Hotels should be central, near attractions, downtown, or transport hubs. Within that area, I weighed facilities and value. I chose a hotel in downtown Dunhuang, close to the night market and shopping, and was very pleased.

Tip for finding hotels: use the map mode in the Ctrip app. It displays Dunhuang hotels, showing the cheapest room’s price.

The filter function is key. Hotel details are standardized, so filtering quickly narrows options. For instance, with kids, I’d select a non-smoking room. Applying the filter removes many irrelevant hotels from the map.

If you’re using a computer, it’s even easier. I’ve developed a browser extension that lets you compare multiple Ctrip hotels side-by-side. It gathers ratings, negative review rates, room types, floor area, window details, bed sizes, and smoking policies into a single Excel sheet, allowing you to compare everything at a glance and make your choice quickly.

Feel free to use it: https://github.com/greenzorro/hotel-comparer

The hotel was now booked.

Restaurants

I scouted restaurants near attractions or the hotel. That’s how I handled it for Dunhuang. I didn’t have kids then, and adults are flexible with food, so I skipped a detailed food guide.

Like finding hotels, use the map search in the Dianping app. It shows Dunhuang’s food scene. Locate yourself, zoom in, and you’ll see nearby restaurants. Note: use the app; the mini-program lacks this. Meituan’s app works, but it’s slower.

Without a food guide, distance is crucial when finding food on the go. Map mode is very efficient.

Daily Itinerary

The daily itinerary simply combines the hotel, attractions, and restaurants/shops, considering time. No new work here. The key is estimating visit durations to avoid over- or under-scheduling.

Note: for popular attractions, like the Forbidden City, book tickets in advance.

Packing List

The packing list is separate, not tied to time or place. Once attractions are set, consider it anytime. I usually do it last.

I love Excel. Anything data-related, I use Excel, including travel items. It’s overkill for solo adult travel, but forgetting one baby item can be disastrous, so careful checking is essential.

Why 4 columns? It’s a thorough checking system, from left to right:

To Bring: This spreadsheet is reusable, accumulating over time. It includes items for all seasons and activities. Before each trip, I select from this column.
To Pack: Items are either carry-on or checked. Leaving carry-ons at the hotel defeats their purpose (like diapers – I’ve learned the hard way). Use Excel’s filter on the first column, select items for this trip, then decide which are carry-on, checking them in the second column.
Packed: Start packing, prioritizing carry-ons. Refer to the second column and check this one for packed items.
Brought: With carry-ons mostly packed, filter the third column, showing unpacked items. These are either unpacked carry-ons or checked luggage items. Continue packing. You can skip checking columns 3 and 4 if you’re organized.

Packing List: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/R7EAwcYX1ikNlukteCdcVhdinhb?from=from_copylink

Travel Plan Document

By following this workflow, your trip is planned out clearly—it’s not rocket science. However, up to this point, it’s all just mental planning. You need a proper “container” for this web of information, both for your own review and to share with your travel companions.

I have a travel itinerary template I’ve used for years. It’s essentially a series of fill-in-the-blank questions; once you plug the information into the right spots, your guidebook is complete.

The document is divided into several modules: Itinerary, Packing List, Tips, Candidate Attractions, and References. The first three are for you and your group; the last two are backend notes for your own use while planning. There’s a divider between them—once the plan is finalized, just delete the bottom half and share it with your group.

Time: Month/Day - Month/Day (X Days, X Nights)
Inter-city Transport: Mode of transport. Local Transport: Mode of transport. Accommodation: Hotel name & nearby attractions/districts (if any).

First, the itinerary starts with an overview—this is the core foundation of the entire plan. The critical constraints—inter-city transport, local transport, trip duration, and accommodation—are all condensed into this short paragraph. Once these are nailed down, you won’t drop the ball on the basics, even if you haven’t planned the specific daily sightseeing yet.

For multi-city trips, I expand it like this for better visibility:

Time: Month/Day - Month/Day (X Days, X Nights)
Inter-city Transport: Day X fly to [Place], Day X fly to [Place]… Local Transport: [City] Metro + Taxi, [City] Walk… Accommodation:

Dates (X Nights) at [City, Hotel]. Notes on location/attractions.

Dates (X Nights) at [City, Hotel]. Notes on location/attractions.

Dates (X Nights) at [City, Hotel]. Notes on location/attractions.

However, expanding it this way requires extreme caution because the dates are all interconnected. If you miss an edit and book tickets or hotels based on a typo, it’s a recipe for disaster. The cost of changing flights or overseas hotel bookings can be painful.

For tasks like this, the human brain isn’t as reliable as code. So, I built a spreadsheet tool. You fill in the table, and it auto-generates the itinerary overview, ensuring zero errors. You can simply copy it from the spreadsheet and paste it into your document:

Inter-city Transport: 17th fly to Bangkok, 19th fly to Phuket, 22nd ferry to Phi Phi Don, 27th ferry to Phuket, 28th fly to Hong Kong, 31st fly home. Local Transport: Bangkok Metro + Taxi, Phuket Bus + Taxi, Phi Phi Walk, Hong Kong Walk + Metro. Accommodation:

17-19 (2 Nights) at Bangkok Asia Hotel. Near Siam Center, convenient location.

19-22 (3 Nights) at Phuket Sugar Marina Hotel -POP- Kata Beach. Near Kata Beach.

22-27 (5 Nights) at Phi Phi The Cliff at PP. Tonsai Pier area, convenient but quiet.

27-28 (1 Night) at Phuket Nai Yang Beach Resort & Spa. Near Nai Yang Beach, close to airport.

28-31 (3 Nights) at Hong Kong Metropark Hotel Mongkok. Mongkok area, bustling commercial district.

Transport & Accommodation Planning Tool: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/IbkAwYIi6ieFcbkuIjuckpJlnQb?from=from_copylink

Back to the template. I’ve already covered the Packing List. Tips and References are sections I haven’t mentioned yet. These are basically notes—valuable info recorded for the group (Tips) and for your own research (References).

I’ve shared the template as an online doc; log in to save or download it. There’s a blank version and a filled-out “Dunhuang Road Trip” version. Comparing them shows exactly how I use the system. If you’re planning a trip to Dunhuang this spring, you can practically use it as is.

Travel Template: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/T5DdwSjGsiU61CkUYVBcPpgunCc?from=from_copylink Dunhuang Road Trip Guide: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/SN3cw8YF8iqbl1k3rR5cc10Rn9b?from=from_copylink

Planning Flights for Complex Trips

Ever get stuck right at the beginning trying to sort out travel between multiple cities? It can be a real headache. This is especially true when you’re trying to find the best deals for a complex itinerary during peak holidays, like National Day or Spring Festival, when flight prices go wild.

I built a spreadsheet tool to tackle this. Here’s how it works:

Dates: List your potential travel dates.
Fares: Look up and record the lowest fare for each day.
Fill: Just fill in the white columns; the gray ones will auto-calculate.
Indicators: Yellow marks the cheapest fare for a leg. Red or green shows a big price swing from the day before (defaults to 15%, but you can change it).
Confirm: When you’ve picked a flight, check its box to keep track.

Step 2 takes the most time, but AI can speed it up. AI browsers like Comet and Atlas or AI agents like Manus and Minimax can handle it, but your standard chatbot can’t. You’ll need some decent prompting skills, or you might get incomplete or no data at all. Honestly, since this is something you only do a couple of times a year, doing it manually is still the most reliable approach.

The sheet supports up to 8 flight legs, plenty even for a multi-city European tour. Then again, if you have enough time for a month-long, multi-city journey, you probably aren’t too worried about penny-pinching on flights, haha.

Flight Planning Sheet: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/SIbUw5N3ci79d2kySNqcItRHnYd?from=from_copylink

Travel Expense Tracking

Finally, expense tracking. Skip this if you don’t track expenses.

I’m sharing an Excel spreadsheet that calculates expense percentages and per capita costs, useful for splitting bills with friends.

Travel Expense Tracking Template: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/Q76ywiamqiBKeTkTxhrcBW4MnVd?from=from_copylink

When Confidence Outpaces Competence

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:42:00 +0000

Typically, confidence grows alongside competence, and often lags behind it. You need a solid foundation of skills before feeling confident. But sometimes, your confidence outstrips your competence, making you fearless in new situations. I’ve experienced this twice since graduating:

First, a few years back, I took adult spoken English classes at New Oriental. It was awesome. My English education in school was decent, giving me a good base. I passed CET-6 in college without studying, scoring 504. But test scores don’t equal confidence. I mostly used Chinese, and my English was limited to reading and writing. Reading English news felt like a major undertaking.

At New Oriental, I spent over six months chatting with teachers and classmates in English, covering all sorts of topics. Most of the grammar was review, and I’d forgotten much of the vocabulary. I probably haven’t retained much of the actual English learned. However, my confidence skyrocketed. I could effortlessly type in English to search for information and read long articles without feeling overwhelmed. It wasn’t about understanding everything perfectly; I still needed a dictionary, but it felt natural. As a direct result, my English improved significantly after the course.

Second, when I started working with AI. My coding skills were mediocre. I’m a designer, not a coder. At a friend’s suggestion, I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (though my JavaScript was basic) to build my website. Once the site was live, I didn’t consider using code for other problems. I’d search for existing tools, and if none existed, I’d give up.

After learning basic Python with AI’s help, my confidence soared again. I became bolder. Now, when facing a problem, my first thought is often: “Let’s write a program with AI to solve this.”

Today, I was organizing prompt words for AI image generation. I have categorized notes. Terms like “knolling,” “isometric drawing,” and “Dutch shot” describe specific effects, which are key for getting the desired results from AI. But sometimes, I want a visual comparison of these effects. This meant searching for each term individually.

Today, I tackled this. The goal: combine the terms, separated by commas, and with one click, open multiple browser tabs for image searches of each term.

With AI’s assistance, I wrote a working script in 2 minutes. Another 10 minutes went into refining it, handling edge cases, and improving extensibility. From problem to solution, it took under 15 minutes. Crucially, this was outside my competence zone.

When your confidence exceeds your competence, your skills quickly catch up, because knowledge and action are intertwined. In learning, building confidence is more vital than the amount learned.

It’s an exciting time to be alive. There are countless ways to boost your confidence beyond your competence and solve real-world problems. I’m not just referring to AI; seeking professional help or even purchasing services (with careful selection) can work, provided you’re willing to take that initial step.

A Specific Heat Experiment in Your Dishwasher

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 09:58:00 +0000

Specific heat capacity… Remember that term from physics class? What does it even mean?

If you own a dishwasher, you can easily demonstrate this concept to your kids (and yourself).

Here’s how: Place ceramic, glass (optional), stainless steel, and plastic bowls of similar size in the dishwasher. Run a normal cycle. Once finished, immediately open the door and watch the water droplets evaporate. Which bowls dry first, and which ones stay wet longest?

You’ll probably find that ceramic and glass bowls dry fastest. Metal and plastic ones may remain wet, especially in cooler weather. This is due to the specific heat capacity of each material.

Ceramic and glass have a higher specific heat than stainless steel. The textbook definition: the heat needed to raise or lower one unit mass of a substance by one unit temperature. Sounds complex? Simply put: for the same weight and temperature, ceramic and glass hold more heat than stainless steel.

Here’s a breakdown:

The dishwasher uses scalding hot water, heating all bowls until hot. While materials heat at different rates, given enough time and water, they’ll reach the same temperature.
Opening the door, the hot bowls use their stored heat to evaporate water. Only heat touching water aids evaporation; heat touching air dissipates.
Water droplets are evenly distributed. Assume the water-covered surface proportion is similar for each bowl.
Cooling to room temperature, the bowls release stored heat. Ceramic and glass release substantial heat, evaporating all surface water. Metal, storing less heat, remains wet even after releasing all its heat.

Two caveats. First: weight. Conveniently, similar-sized ceramic and glass bowls are usually heaviest. They’re thick to prevent easy breakage. Stainless steel, though denser, is strong and thin, thus lighter. This weight difference further increases the heat storage gap.

Second: heat dissipation. Metal conducts heat faster than ceramic. (That’s why metal pots are worse than clay pots for soup—another topic.) With rapid conduction, heat escapes easily where not blocked by water. So, despite similar water coverage, fast-conducting stainless steel loses more heat to the air. Little heat is used for drying. Before the water evaporates, the steel cools. This speed difference further increases the effective heat gap.

That explains the varied results.

Why so little on plastic? It’s a distraction. Plastic’s specific heat is higher than ceramic’s, but it’s far less dense. The significant weight difference makes other factors irrelevant. The minimal heat stored in plastic simply can’t dry the water.

Final tip: Season matters. If differences are subtle, try opening the door after 10, then 20 minutes. Trapped humidity slows evaporation, highlighting material differences.

My Daughter's New Game and Topology

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:05:00 +0000

We discovered a new game, and my daughter is obsessed. I push a bottle into one end of a massage roller, and it slides out the other, landing in front of her. She soon joins in, picking up the bottle and pushing it back through. I lift the roller, give it a spin to change the bottle’s direction, and let it drop before her again. She giggles.

After a few rounds, she grabs the roller and peers inside. From the other end, I keep taking the bottle and returning it. I also flick the bottle, making it jump towards her inside the tube. She squeals with laughter.

It got me thinking: maybe tube shapes are uncommon for babies, both now and for babies in prehistoric times. Topologically speaking (that branch of math about counting holes), most toys and dishes she sees are basically discs. Only a few, like instant noodle bowls with handles, are topologically donuts.

To her, a disc is closed. Things just pass by. But with a donut shape, things can move two ways: passing by or going through the hole. Going through, to her, means interacting – entering and exiting. The tube’s larger internal space makes this even more apparent.

The bottle disappearing and reappearing probably seems magical. After grabbing the roller, she might’ve sensed the magic of this shape with a hole.

Okay, full disclosure: I’m probably overthinking the math. Maybe she just likes the bottle, hahaha.

The "Self" in "Self-Media" is Deceptive

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 13:45:00 +0000

I’m no online celebrity, but I’ve been around the internet long enough to offer my perspective on social media and “self-media” (we-media).

This isn’t a how-to guide for becoming a successful content creator. It’s about the reality of online content creation. Before you dive in, you need to grasp the fundamentals.

The Essence of Online Communities

Know Your Battlefield

Whether it’s TikTok, Douyin, Zhihu, or Bilibili, they all share a common core: they’re content distribution platforms, or communities. They connect creators with consumers. Creators get exposure, potential income, and fulfillment; consumers get information, entertainment, or simply a way to pass the time.

It’s a marketplace, driven by supply and demand. If creators aren’t producing what consumers want, nobody benefits. Creators lose motivation, and consumers move on.

Every community is a content marketplace, connecting creators and consumers for profit. Their aim is to efficiently match supply with demand. Creators reach a large, relevant audience; consumers consistently find content they enjoy. This leads to revenue for creators, and the platform takes a cut – like a mall charging rent. The internet industry is essentially real estate, but stores open for free, and rent comes later.

Creators accept this because platforms offer efficient distribution. Without them, profits might be lower, even after the platform’s cut. It’s a win-win.

All Communities Compete

Don’t Be Limited by Content Format

Communities want to retain both creators and consumers. Consumers have limited time; time spent on one platform is time not spent on another. It’s a scarce resource. Creators have limited energy. While they can post on multiple platforms, each has its own rules. Unless you’re already famous, you need to focus on a specific community to build a following.

Creators and consumers are finite resources, and since all communities connect them, they’re all in competition.

This means Zhihu and Douyin are rivals. It seems strange – one is for Q&A, the other for short videos. But the format doesn’t matter; it’s easy to adapt.

Common formats include text, images, audio, video, and live streams. Each community has a primary format or two. But for creators, content is king. They adapt to any format, seeking the most efficient match between supply and demand.

Text seems cheapest to produce – anyone can write. But creating text on a visual platform like Xiaohongshu? Easy. User-friendly editing software has lowered the barrier. Pick a background, some music, a text template, and you’ve got a decent short video, maybe even animated. Many popular Douyin videos are text-based “pseudo-videos.” Another option: appear on camera and read the text. Converting text to audio is similar.

And those are just the basics. AI tools are even more powerful. AI can create images from text, animate still images, generate realistic voiceovers, lip-sync photos, and even write the text itself. Even live streams have tools for beautification and special effects.

Creators with a clear vision aren’t constrained by format. To grow quickly, they prioritize a platform’s efficiency in matching supply and demand.

Two Types of Matching Mechanisms

Distinguish the Type and Nature of the Battlefield

Speaking of efficiency, let’s talk about Toutiao. It revolutionized supply and demand matching.

Before Toutiao, communities relied on search and following. Consumers searched for what they wanted or followed creators in specific fields. This was the search engine era. “Recommended” features existed, but were secondary. Search and following were central. I call this the “manual mechanism.”

Toutiao, Bytedance’s first major success, prioritized recommendation algorithms. Their engine powers all their products. For consumers, recommendations are more convenient than search – no typing needed. The platform learns your preferences. Browse casually, and the recommendations become increasingly accurate. You don’t even need to follow anyone. I call this the “automatic mechanism.”

The manual mechanism requires action from consumers – they tell the platform their interests. The automatic mechanism requires nothing extra. Recommendations are inherently more efficient.

My own content creation isn’t stellar. I have around 5,000 Weibo followers, with posts getting tens of thousands of views but few likes. On Xiaohongshu, I have almost no followers, yet some posts get thousands of views and dozens of likes. Views show distribution; likes show accuracy.

That’s the automatic mechanism at work. Bytedance is the only Chinese internet giant to truly conquer overseas markets with its software, leaving competitors behind.

Seeing Toutiao and Douyin’s success, other platforms are adopting the automatic mechanism. It’s now about the balance between search and recommendation.

Platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu are recommendation-heavy. But users also search within them, replacing Baidu.
Zhihu’s core is Q&A, with significant traffic from Baidu and Google. But the homepage also recommends content based on your preferences.
Specialized communities like Xiachufang (recipes) have users searching for specific dishes and browsing for ideas. It could easily be a 50/50 split.

What Creators Are After

What Kind of Success Do You Want?

Recommendation engines are efficient, but they can lead to homogeneity. They often tag creators, consumers, and content. Matching tags connect consumers with creators. Creators with similar tags compete based on “weight.” A niche creator gains higher weight than a generalist, leading to large accounts with narrow focuses. This is a byproduct of specialization, but not the same.

Two types of creators thrive: experts with high-quality content and those who mass-produce popular content cheaply. One focuses on quality (gross margin); the other on quantity (turnover). Self-media is a business, and businesses pursue these two goals.

The first path is challenging. Experts often assume their audience shares their knowledge, making content inaccessible. They need to explain complex topics simply, a rare skill.

The second path is more common, but risky. How can humans compete with machines in output? How can original content beat copied content? Large accounts often have systems for collecting, copying, and rebranding content. They gather quality content, copy it formulaically, make minor changes, and add their branding. Anything that builds their persona and isn’t low-quality is used. The creator might not even understand or agree with their own posts. Self-media becomes a job, and the algorithm their boss.

Some creators aren’t after fame or money; they just want to share. Their profiles feel genuine, unlike the monotonous feel of most accounts.

Creators who prioritize authenticity can ignore all this. But authenticity and large followings are often at odds.

The Mindset Creators Should Have

Making Your Content Creation Journey Easier

Most platforms use likes to measure influence. But likes are a result; focus on the cause: comments.

Why?

Comments are the highest-effort interaction. Likes, saves, and shares are binary: like/dislike, useful/not useful, fits my persona/doesn’t. They’re distinct. Only comments are open-ended, capable of replacing the others (even sharing, by @-ing friends). If the other interactions aren’t enough, users comment.

Existing comments can also discourage new ones. Commenters want exposure. If a post has many high-interaction comments, new commenters are less motivated. Likes, saves, and shares don’t have this issue.

So, except for posts designed to provoke, comments are usually the fewest, representing the highest-value interaction.

To boost comments, reply actively, keeping the topic alive and the algorithm engaged. This also encourages potential commenters. But the online world is extreme. Behind screens, people unleash negativity. Unfriendly comments are a cost of growing a large account.

How to mitigate this? First, define your account’s purpose: career or hobby? Fame and fortune, or personal expression?

If it’s a career, treat it like a business. Consumers are data, like chickens on a farm: feeding, temperature, egg production. Interactions that boost comments and likes are valuable. A hater sparking an argument is more valuable than a supporter saying, “Well written.” You might even fuel the fire, then disappear, letting it continue.

If it’s a hobby, distinguish between human voices and noise. Abusive commenters are one-dimensional binary creatures. One-dimensional: they grasp only one variable. Binary: they see only black and white. They’re background noise. When the noise is low, focus on the human voices. When it’s loud, put on headphones and ignore everything, even the human voices. This is your space. For information, use your homepage feed, not your comments. And you don’t have to be both creator and consumer on every platform. Post here, consume there.

Conclusion

The world of self-media isn’t a free utopia.

The idea that experts producing great content automatically succeed is a rare, feel-good story. The reality is, driven by platform interests, the system doesn’t encourage authenticity. It encourages creating a persona, targeting popular topics, and churning out content.

Mentally, you must be machine-like, abandoning normal etiquette and acting like a customer service line: “Press 1 if it’s useful, hang up if it’s not.”

If you’re still undeterred, congratulations. You’ll gain more than fame and fortune. Content creation is a learning experience, and that might be its greatest value.

We Only Learn the Intersection of Two Languages

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 15:09:00 +0000

I was looking at the word “stem” the other day, and it got me thinking. Language learning can be a breeze, or it can be a real head-scratcher. We don’t learn the whole language; we learn the overlap between it and our native tongue.

Take “stem,” for example. In the Cambridge Dictionary, as a noun, it’s usually a plant’s stem or a wine glass stem. Basically, the central supporting structure.

As a verb, it means to stop something bad from spreading, or more literally, to stop a flow, like stemming bleeding.

There are other, rarer meanings, but let’s put those aside.

Native Chinese speakers might be thinking, “Ugh, another one of those words? Multiple, seemingly unrelated meanings?”

But, in my experience, when English words seem odd, it’s usually us missing something. There’s probably a historical link we don’t grasp because of our cultural background.

So, let’s think in English. If “stem” is the main support, could it apply to a wind turbine? It kinda looks like a wine glass, right?

The tower supports everything above, and there’s a base. Seems like a slam dunk. Can we call the tower a “stem”?

Nope. Searching “wind turbine” and “stem” mostly turns up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. So, no dice.

Okay, back to biology. Can a mushroom’s stalk be a “stem”?

Yep! It can also be a “stalk,” but the point is, native English speakers do see “stem” as a support, and the meaning stretches.

So, how are the noun and verb connected? I hit up an etymology site. I also found a less common meaning: a ship’s bow. This nautical term, though obscure, is the key.

Here’s the gist from the etymology site. The image below should be pretty self-explanatory.

The noun comes from Proto-Germanic, with relatives in Old Saxon, Old Norse, Danish, Swedish, etc. It goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *sta-, meaning “to stand,” or “be firm.” “Stable” might be a cousin. It evolved to mean “support,” like a plant stem. The wine glass stem sense popped up around 1835.

The verb form has nautical roots. In the early 1300s, it meant “to withstand” in Nordic languages, like withstanding waves. For a ship, that’s like “staying stable.” By the late 1300s, it meant both the bow and to point the bow. Makes sense: a ship’s bow must be angled to handle waves and stay steady.

So, “stem” (main structure) and “stem” (to stop) connect through “staying stable.” The verb isn’t about totally wiping out something bad, but holding the line and preventing things from getting worse. Think: “stem the rise in violent crime,” “stem the tide of resignations,” “stem the bleeding” (you can’t entirely “stop” blood flow).

Two seemingly unrelated concepts in Chinese might be one idea for English speakers. Ask them why the word has two meanings, and they might look at you funny: “It’s just one meaning!” They’re not mashing together two Chinese concepts, but grasping a concept that’s absent in Chinese.

Here’s the thing: when we learn a foreign language, we map its concepts onto our own. The ones that match up fall into the overlap, and we think we’ve got it. The ones that don’t match, the ones outside our native language’s scope, stay out of reach. We only learn the overlap.

To really get to native-like fluency, we have to venture beyond that overlap, into the foreign language’s turf, and wrestle with concepts that don’t exist in our mother tongue. Many “issues” in the overlap might not even be issues in the foreign language’s world. Stepping into that world isn’t rocket science, but it takes serious effort, and there are no shortcuts.

Back to the mushroom: its stalk can be a “stem” or a “stalk.” What’s the deal?

Dictionaries show their Chinese translations are pretty much the same. In biology, there’s a slight difference:

But “stalk” is also a verb, with a totally different meaning. There’s probably another rabbit hole there, like with “stem.” I haven’t gone down it yet, so feel free to fill me in.

Anyway, that’s the lowdown on language learning. Trying to go deep in a foreign language is like Usain Bolt suddenly finding himself underwater – going 1 m/s might be a struggle.

When Efficiency Obsesses Over Housework...

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 12:30:00 +0000

Since having a kid, my housework starts after 9:30 pm. When chores pile up, my mind races, and I forget things. I’ll think I’m done, ready to relax, only to remember laundry. After hanging clothes, I sit, then remember the trash. As an efficiency nut, this is unacceptable. After some late-night pondering, I realized housework can be streamlined. It just needs some imagination and memory tricks.

Two problems arise when things get hectic: 1. Forgetting tasks; 2. Poor prioritization, leading to bottlenecks.

Avoiding Omissions

Let’s tackle forgetting. Why does it happen? Our brains struggle with unrelated items. Interruptions add to the memory load. You have to remember your original task and the interruption. After a few, you’re lost. This memory is linear, like a chain—break one link, and it’s broken.

“The faintest ink is better than the best memory?” Not here. Jotting notes on your phone is inefficient. Information detours through your fingers, phone, screen, and eyes. It’s slow. Your brain is faster. Bioelectrical signals are lightning-fast compared to fumbling with a phone. Plus, wet hands and housework don’t mix with phones.

Too much to remember? Create connections. Categorize. Understand each task, find common ground, and group them. This seems like more information, but it shifts the structure from linear to tree-like. It’s more robust, easier to recall. You only need the trunk; the branches (specific tasks) follow.

Commonalities in chores? Location is intuitive. Our brains excel at concrete images. You know your home. Standing in the living room, you know where everything is. Use this perspective. Two tasks in the kitchen? Imagine a neon “2” there. Three on the balcony? A neon “3.” You’ll remember the specifics upon entering the space.

For the abstract-minded, or those in smaller homes, categorize differently. Daily chores boil down to: washing dishes, clothes, and yourself. Infrequent tasks become “other.” Imagine a table, neon numbers – same principle.

Specificity boosts memory. Engage more senses. If a kitchen task is added, the “2” flashes and “dings” to “3.” Balcony tasks done? The “3” “sizzles” out, sparking.

How to recall specifics? Before adding to the number, mentally check: Is the item visible? If yes, great. If not, interrupt yourself, go place it in plain sight. It’s a real-life “snooze.”

Remembering the number is key. Even if you forget the task, you know something’s missing. Let the number hang there; you’ll likely remember.

Scheduling

The second problem, bottlenecks, often involves waiting for machines.

If everything were manual, this wouldn’t matter. Total time’s the same. But I need to wait for the washer before the next load, the dishwasher before prepping veggies, the sterilizer before the next batch of bottles.

Cooks know this. Juggling appliances requires mental timing. Apply this to housework. Add a ticking clock to the neon number’s corner. If a machine’s running in that space (or category), a clock appears.

Now, sequence matters. Prioritize starting the machines, then tackle manual tasks.

Conclusion

Using this, I visualize the neon numbers from my living room. Like a game, I start the clocks, then clear the numbers. It cuts down on forgetfulness, boosts efficiency, and even makes chores a bit fun.

How to Eat Crucian Carp Like a Pro

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 17:14:00 +0000

This is a guide on eating skills, filed under Food for now.

My daughter’s not even teething, but I’m already planning to teach her expert crucian carp eating. It’s a family tradition. So, I’ve detailed how to eat crucian carp bonelessly, step-by-step.

People bad at eating freshwater fish often think the tiny bones in crucian carp are random. They’re not! These are intermuscular bones, providing extra swimming power. They’re neatly arranged. The solid black lines in the image show this. The skeleton isn’t a crucian carp’s, but it’s close.

The spine is the core. The curved, long belly bones are like ribs, protecting organs. They’re easily removed. The shorter, straighter spine bones are hard to break, staying out of your mouth. All vertebrates share this: spine for support, ribs for protection. A snake skeleton shows this clearly.

The troublesome bones are the intermuscular ones attached to the flesh. They’re forked, but usually have a main stem. The stem is thicker; the forks are thinner. You won’t find snowflake-shaped bones. Because of the main stem, there’s a universal method to separate them, applicable to many fish.

Here’s the technique: Take a bite containing bones. Don’t chomp down. Use your tongue and palate to flatten the fish, like a thin pancake. Don’t over-flatten it, as shown. The bone tips will slightly protrude, easily located by your tongue.

Roll the flattened fish with your tongue, like a Swiss roll, maintaining thickness. Bones not pointing directly at your tongue won’t prick. The main stem ensures even perpendicular bones align during rolling. You now have a fish roll with bones pointing uniformly.

Push the roll forward with your tongue, aligning your front teeth with the roll’s center. Bite. Your gums are safe, and your teeth hold the bones. Like eating a skewer, scrape the flesh with your tongue. Scrape one side, flip, and repeat.

Success! Flesh and bones are separated. Spit out the bones.

This works mathematically: 3D line segments become 2D, then 1D. Complexity simplifies; chaos orders; it’s manageable.

That’s my plan for teaching my daughter. Detailed, right? It might not work perfectly. “Dad, can we switch to flounder?” is a possibility.

Side note: Why are sea fish boneless? It’s about fish evolution. Fish began in the sea, lacking intermuscular bones. Later, some evolved these for power, gaining an edge. They became standard. Some entered freshwater, evolving further. Some developed elastic proteins instead of bones, becoming faster. In the ocean’s predator-prey race, these fast fish shed intermuscular bones, maximizing protein use. Thus, most sea fish are firmer. Freshwater fish, in smaller waters, evolved differently, keeping many intermuscular bones.

Chinese scientists found the gene controlling intermuscular bone growth in crucian carp. Mutating it creates boneless fish. It’s not commercial yet, so hopefully, this guide remains useful.

Zhejiang Museum of Natural History Anji

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:48:00 +0000

I recently visited the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History’s Anji branch, a place I’d been meaning to check out. It’s located in Anji County, Huzhou, about an hour’s drive from Hangzhou.

I opted for the afternoon session (12 PM - 4 PM), which is longer. But for a museum enthusiast like myself, time flies. Four hours for six halls means prioritizing – you can’t see everything in detail.

The recommended order is: Geology, Behring, Ocean, Natural Art, Dinosaur, and Ecology. Being my first visit, I moved quickly, took fewer pictures, and focused on the exhibit texts.

Geology Hall

The introduction is striking: a spherical screen displays Earth’s 4.6-billion-year evolution. Surrounding it, small exhibits showcase rocks and meteorites – granite, metamorphic, sedimentary, even meteorites from Mars and the Moon.

If you’re familiar with Earth’s history, the intro’s brilliance is clear: 4.6 billion years of dramatic change, with life somehow emerging in a volatile environment. From there, the epic of life’s evolution unfolds in the following six halls.

The introductory video is surprisingly detailed, covering major geological events.

Snowball Earth: A massive global ice age. Expanding glaciers reflected sunlight, reducing heat absorption and creating a feedback loop that froze the entire planet. The photo depicts volcanic activity, caused by crustal movement, which reversed this process.

Snowball Earth

Pangaea: The second instance of all continental plates merging into a supercontinent. Pangaea’s center, far from oceans, became vast Gobi deserts – the video is quite realistic. Pangaea eventually broke apart, forming today’s continents and oceans.

Pangaea

East African Rift Valley: Crustal movement is separating the African and Arabian plates, creating a rift valley spanning East Africa. Notably, our human ancestors would eventually emerge from this region.

East African Rift Valley

The Geology Hall’s central theme is the geological time scale. Everything pre-Cambrian is grouped as Precambrian. Subsequent periods each have displays of equal size and format, showcasing typical life and environments.

I suggest initially skipping the displays on the opposite side of the corridor. Focus on the main displays along one side – the hall’s core. Familiarity with evolution and taxonomy enhances the “epic of life” experience: primordial life in the oceans, the Cambrian explosion, Devonian plants conquering land, amphibians emerging, Mesozoic reptile dominance, and mammal takeover after the dinosaur extinction. It’s a whirlwind tour of life’s history.

Cambrian Display

Don’t overlook the small globes beside the displays. Each shows the continental distribution of that period. Unfortunately, they’re positioned too low; even for children, the ocean dominates the view. You need to crouch to see the landmasses, discouraging interaction.

Cretaceous Display

The displays are exceptionally well-crafted. Plant specialists might spot small yellow flowers from the Cretaceous onward, aligning with the prevailing theory of angiosperm (flowering plant) origin in that period.

Cretaceous Display - Small Yellow Flowers

After experiencing the main timeline, return to the hall entrance and explore the other side. As the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, the geology section highlights Zhejiang’s history and contributions.

Zhejiang formed from the merging of two landmasses. Check your map app’s terrain view to see the rift valley in western Zhejiang’s hills.

Rodinia: A supercontinent, like Pangaea, where landmasses were joined. Rodinia existed much earlier than Pangaea.

Rodinia

Evidence of Glacial Movement

Remember Snowball Earth? The discovery of tillite was key to proving such extensive glaciation. The principle resembles these scratches, but is more definitive.

Tillite forms from slow-moving glaciers. The immense force scrapes up various rocks, incorporates them into the glacier, and crushes them. Disparate rocks become tightly compacted. When unearthed, geologists recognize glacial action as the only explanation. Tillite’s global distribution proves past global glaciation.

Golden Spike

The display’s explanation is concise. Let me expand on Golden Spikes. They’re essentially standards for demarcating geological ages.

Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history requires division into periods, similar to China’s dynasties. Given the vast timescale, multiple divisions are needed. The Qing Dynasty is subdivided into Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang. Geology uses six levels, from largest to smallest. The most familiar are:

Archean
Proterozoic
Paleozoic (The names of first four periods come from British locations where corresponding strata were initially discovered)
- Cambrian (Explosion of life, appearance of mollusks and arthropods)
- Ordovician (Appearance of chordates)
- Silurian
- Devonian (Fish dominated)
- Carboniferous (Plants with lignin grew tall. Bacteria and fungi to decompose it hadn’t evolved, so buried wood formed thick coal seams)
- Permian
Mesozoic
- Triassic (Dinosaurs emerged)
- Jurassic
- Cretaceous (Dinosaur extinction)
Cenozoic (Mammals rose)
- Tertiary
- Quaternary

So, what are Golden Spikes? They’re based on fossils of specific, representative species. These species, distinct from predecessors and reflecting major environmental shifts, mark the boundaries between geological ages. Organisms are markers; they divide geological time.

The hall features numerous interactive displays. If interested, you can explore them for a deeper understanding of the hall’s theme.

Coal Formation

A somewhat overlooked installation on the second floor provides a fitting conclusion to the Geology Hall, echoing the opening’s depiction of Earth’s evolution. Beneath us lies the profound history of Earth and life. On a geological timescale, what mark will our modern civilization leave? What should it leave?

Behring Hall

This hall is named after Kenneth Behring, a businessman and philanthropist who donated numerous wildlife specimens, primarily displayed here. It’s essentially the terrestrial animal hall.

1st Floor: Terrestrial Animals and Environments

The first floor focuses on terrestrial animals from different continents, showcasing representative species from Africa, North America, and Australia. Africa has the largest exhibit, representing the hall’s biodiversity centerpiece.

This scene is vast; I only captured a portion. The specimens’ lifelike poses and movements evoke a Serengeti National Park experience.

Perhaps due to my familiarity with nature documentaries, the animal specimens didn’t hold my full attention. I took fewer general photos, focusing instead on the text explanations and the animals’ survival strategies.

How different African savanna herbivores utilize resources, partitioning niches to avoid competition and maximize resource use.

A must-take photo: African large animal group portrait.

Warthog Specimen

The specimens’ postures have a scientific basis. A warthog raising its tail signals to predators: “I’m healthy and strong; you likely can’t catch me. Consider another target.”

A pertinent question, aiding understanding of natural selection and the predator-prey arms race.

While less diverse in large animals than Africa, North America and Australia are key to this hall’s species evolution exhibits.

Why are species on different continents so distinct?

Mammalian evolution has three stages:

Prototheria: The most primitive. Like the platypus, they lay eggs and secrete milk through their skin – unlike most mammals, but they’re classified as such.
Metatheria: Marsupials like kangaroos, Tasmanian wolves, and koalas. Born underdeveloped, they require a pouch to complete development.
Eutheria: Placental mammals like mice, antelopes, and gorillas. A newborn antelope can stand and run soon after birth, fully developed at birth.

Placental reproduction clearly offers better offspring protection. Combined with other advantages, it led to placental mammals outcompeting the other two groups globally. However, Australia’s early isolation by oceans, before placental mammals appeared, allowed marsupials to dominate, while they were replaced elsewhere.

South America also retains many marsupials. The Bering Strait land bridge provided a narrow passage from Eurasia and Africa to North America. The Isthmus of Panama later reconnected, allowing placental mammals into South America. Their late arrival explains the survival of South American marsupials, which even spread back into North America.

Cats, highly efficient predators, occupy the top of the food chain in most terrestrial environments. The museum dedicates a significant section to them.

Cat Family Tree

A bit of a feline tongue-twister: Lions are Pantherinae; cheetahs are Felinae. Cougars are Felinae; jaguars are Pantherinae.

Cat Family’s First Great Migration

In short: Cats originated in Southeast Asia. Their unique lifestyle led to remarkable dispersal. Adult cats must leave their families and establish new territories. Their large territories necessitate long migrations, leading to rapid occupation of available land.

Cat Family’s Second Great Migration

Both migrations resulted from falling sea levels, creating new land bridges. Comparing this with the cat family tree, small cats initially spread to all continents (except Australia), followed by large cats from Eurasia and North America expanding into Africa and South America.

2nd Floor: Animal Evolution

The second floor highlights species evolution, focusing on adaptations to environments. For instance, the entrance introduces convergent evolution, where different species evolve similar features for the same function. Wings are a prime example: birds, bats (mammals), and insects have evolved different wing types, all achieving flight.

Sideways or forward-facing eyes provide different advantages.

Pupil shape, like eye position, relates to vigilance or hunting.

Advantages of different pupil shapes (zoom may be needed).

The bird section is a highlight, visually comparing bird beaks to human tools to illustrate diet and feeding. I found the pelican amusing – a living net. However, I question the flamingo’s depiction, as they don’t primarily eat fish. This might be an inaccuracy.

Bird Beak Shapes and Functions

The next display continues, adding bird feet. You can deduce a bird’s diet and habitat from the beak and foot combination. Birds are categorized into seven groups based on feet:

Wading birds: Shallow-water dwellers, non-swimmers, relying on water for food. Long necks and legs. Small webs between toes aid traction on mudflats. Example: Cranes.
Waterfowl: Aquatic birds, capable of floating and swimming, some diving. Fully webbed toes act as paddles. Example: Ducks.
Landfowl: Ground-dwelling, flight is secondary. Leg strength supports walking. Example: Chickens.
Songbirds: Branch dwellers, small, known for singing and nest-building. Thin legs grip branches naturally. Example: Magpies.
Running birds: Ground-dwelling, large, flightless. Strong legs, enhanced running ability. Example: Ostriches.
Climbing birds: Inhabit vertical spaces (tree trunks, cliffs). Two toes forward, two backward, for stability. Example: Parrots.
Birds of prey: Aerial hunters. Sharp, hooked claws grasp prey. Example: Eagles.

Classification of Bird Feet

Combination of Bird Beaks and Feet

For comic relief: Shoebill

Following the bird section, examples of animal appearance and behavior adapting to the environment are presented.

The Same Species in Different Environments

Mimicry, such an ingenious behavior, deserves more detailed explanation.

Exit Corridor

Descending from the second floor, you enter the exit corridor. Here, you’ll find a biography of Mr. Behring and his contributions to science education. One side features a sobering timeline of animal extinctions since the 17th century, culminating in the northern white rhino, which went extinct in the wild in 2018.

Animal Extinction Timeline

Northern White Rhino Extinct in the Wild

Public attention often centers on animals, particularly large ones. However, since industrialization, the number of extinct small mammals, reptiles, insects, marine animals, and plants is far greater. The full timeline is truly disheartening.

Ocean Hall

I spent 2.5 hours in the first two halls and started to lose steam by the Ocean Hall, taking almost no photos.

Honestly, the Ocean Hall isn’t as impressive as the first two. The layout is confusing. You ascend a spiral ramp to the 2nd floor, descend another to the 1st, and then find yourself disoriented, forced to explore radially outwards. The hall’s narrative also feels disjointed, lacking a clear storyline.

The ascending spiral has its moments, captured in this short video: 【浙江省自然博物馆安吉馆-海洋馆入口-哔哩哔哩】. Ocean-themed photography lines one side of the corridor, the vibrant colors of the marine world creating a strong visual impact.

The 2nd-floor section follows an ecosystem approach, showcasing environments like rocky shores, estuaries, mangroves, kelp forests, and coral reefs. The deep sea should be included, but it’s understandably absent due to our limited knowledge. The exhibits are mostly text and image-based, lacking specimens and dioramas due to space constraints.

On the descending spiral, several large marine animal specimens (or perhaps models) are suspended overhead.

Reaching the 1st floor, you enter an enclosed area. Small live aquariums are interspersed with display boards, featuring common marine life such as fish and jellyfish.

Branching out from this central area, you’ll find exhibits on marine mammals, cephalopods, polar ecosystems, deep-sea exploration, the marine economy, and marine conservation – a somewhat scattered arrangement.

Ocean Sunfish Internal Structure

I quickly moved on after this.

Natural Art Hall

This hall was impressive, but I didn’t linger, eager to reach the Dinosaur Hall.

The Natural Art Hall’s theme is simple: no geological or biological expertise needed. Just bring your eyes and appreciate nature’s beauty directly – a quick visit.

1st Floor: The Beauty of Life

The 1st floor celebrates the beauty of life. Leaves, wood grains, butterflies, beetles, shells, feathers, and more are displayed artistically. These natural creations are stunning individually, and their collective display is breathtaking.

Colorful butterfly ornaments

Beetle display case

Beetles in nature are even more vibrant, many with an iridescent sheen. I suspect limitations in specimen preparation and collection prevented showcasing their full splendor. Beetles belong to Coleoptera, the most diverse order of insects, and indeed, of all animals. This species richness results in a stunning variety of appearances.

Narwhal

This Arctic whale’s horn remains a mystery. While once thought to break ice for breathing, newer research suggests a more significant role in mating and reproduction.

Shells and color wheel

This exhibit highlights nature’s difficulty in synthesizing blue pigments. As the color wheel approaches blue-violet, the shells become mostly grayish-white. While blue butterflies, flowers, and feathers are common, these organisms don’t actually create blue substances. They employ microscopic structures, a clever optical illusion using other colors.

Golden pheasant neck feathers spread out

2nd Floor: The Beauty of Non-Life

The 2nd floor showcases the beauty of non-living things – specifically, rocks and minerals. I’m no expert, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Malachite, the blue color comes from copper

Vivianite

Tanzanite

Tanzanite was my personal favorite, likely enhanced by the lighting. The visual effects of transparent substances under light are quantum phenomena at the crystal and atomic levels. The beauty of minerals is, in essence, the beauty of physics.

Aquamarine

Dinosaur Hall

Short on time, I still decided to explore this hall thoroughly. It was packed with kids, clearly the museum’s main attraction for them.

Stepping inside was breathtaking. A projector mapped images onto a dinosaur model, perfectly synchronized. The projections cycled through the skeleton, internal organs, muscles, and skin – an internal perspective rarely seen.

Here’s a hidden gem: easily missed if you’re focused on the dinosaur, it’s a light strip on the entrance floor, pointing to a wall displaying chordate classification.

It’s a metaphor: as chordates, we trace the evolutionary path, witnessing its branching, ultimately finding our place – placental mammals. See the short video: 【浙江省自然博物馆安吉馆-恐龙馆入口处-哔哩哔哩】

Chordate evolutionary tree

Dinosaur Classification

The second exhibit expands on the chordate evolutionary tree, introducing the dinosaur family.

Dinosaur evolutionary tree

Dinosaurs are taxonomically divided into two groups based on hip structure: Ornithischia (bird-hipped) and Saurischia (lizard-hipped). Ornithischians have a pelvis resembling modern birds, while saurischians resemble other modern reptiles.

However, birds didn’t evolve from ornithischians. Birds’ true ancestors are theropods, a saurischian subgroup. The pelvic similarity between ornithischians and birds is likely convergent evolution.

I witnessed a funny scene here. A mother, explaining the dinosaur family tree to her child, misread it, saying: “Dinosaurs are divided into bird-armed and lizard-armed, got it?” She then quizzed her child: “What kind of dinosaur is Triceratops? Bird-armed. What about Tyrannosaurus Rex? Lizard-armed.”

A classic “tiger mom” moment: expecting mastery from her child without understanding it herself.

Triassic Period

The Dinosaur Hall is chronologically arranged: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. Each period features representative species and environments, with numerous fossils and reconstructions.

Dinosaurs originated in the late Triassic.

Across the corridor, the Triassic oceans are depicted. Dinosaurs were land-bound – ichthyosaurs and pterosaurs don’t qualify – but their contemporaneous existence justifies their inclusion.

Ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles returned from land, initially swam like lizards, wriggling their bodies. Later forms swam like fish, using only tail fins – a significant adaptation for deep-sea life.

Mixosaurus, with limbs too reduced for walking on land.

Nothosaurs (pachypleurosaurs) also returned to the sea, but differently. They remained in shallow waters, using webbed toes to paddle and hunt small fish.

Nothosaurus

Meanwhile, on land, dinosaurs thrived. Herrerasaurus, though only 3-6 meters long, was a top predator. Its forelimbs were evolving for hunting, with five fingers reduced to three.

Jurassic Period

By the Jurassic, land predators had become even more formidable. As you can see, Yangchuanosaurus was much more robust, reaching up to 10 meters in length.

Yangchuanosaurus

On the herbivore side, sauropods (part of the saurischian group) were diversifying. These were the giants with long necks and tails, like Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and Mamenchisaurus.

Take a look at the skulls, especially the teeth. Different tooth structures reflect different feeding strategies – much like the division of labor on the African savanna. Nature always finds a way.

3 types of skulls and tooth functions

The Jurassic section features a fascinating “Death Trap” scene. Note Guanlong’s appearance – it sports feathers on its forelimbs. Guanlong, a tyrannosauroid, is related to T. rex. As a kid, I always saw dinosaurs depicted as scaly. Later research revealed that some carnivorous dinosaurs likely had feathers. While still debated, it’s now the prevailing view.

Guanlong profile

Cretaceous Period

By the Cretaceous, feathers were even more widespread. Velociraptor, a small dinosaur, was closely related to modern birds. Check out the feathers on its forelimbs and tail; it probably had downy feathers all over.

A classic Cretaceous herbivore is Triceratops, one of the last dinosaurs. The caption notes something interesting: while most assume the frill and horns were for defense, recent theories suggest they were primarily for courtship.

Courtship again! First the narwhal, now this. A recent study even suggests giraffes’ long necks evolved for mating, not reaching leaves. Love seems to trump survival – the wild romance of animals. →_→

This Triceratops fossil is remarkably complete, preserving most of the key bones. The display, of course, is a model.

Across from Triceratops stands its frequent adversary, Tyrannosaurus rex. Standing beneath it, gazing up at that massive jaw… the sense of intimidation is palpable.

Don’t scoff at its tiny arms – judging by the skeleton, it could easily win an arm-wrestling match.

While on the first floor of the Dinosaur Hall, look out the windows. The museum has some hidden Easter eggs. One window overlooks a dinosaur sculpture on the lawn – a nice touch.

Dinosaur Lifestyle and Other Reptiles

The second floor of the Dinosaur Hall is smaller. You’re greeted by an animatronic T. rex, surrounded by kids and parents snapping photos.

This floor explores dinosaur behavior. It highlights how challenging it is to study ancient animal behavior from fossils. Consider breathing: we can infer about bird ancestors by studying living birds, but the respiration of ornithischian dinosaurs, which have no living descendants, remains a mystery. Respiratory systems leave few skeletal traces, and soft tissues rarely fossilize.

CT scans of skull interiors might offer clues about breathing.

Another major theme on the second floor is the marine and aerial reptiles of the era.

Two different types of pterosaurs and their periods

A 10-meter wingspan – imagine that.

Marine reptiles also have their evolutionary tree.

Ecology Hall

This hall is massive, but I only had 40 minutes left. I had to speed through, but I grasped the main points.

It begins with the Biosphere 2 experiment, a failed attempt at a self-contained ecosystem. Why did it fail? Keep that in mind. The hall underscores ecosystem complexity from multiple perspectives.

The hall dedicates considerable space to explaining ecosystem components: producers, consumers, decomposers, their functions, food chains, and how water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycle through nature. It adopts a wider view, focusing on interspecies relationships and interactions, rather than on individual organisms.

This small display exemplifies this. While the previous five halls would’ve highlighted a single moment in a pine moth’s life, here, its entire life cycle is shown. I’ve often seen the larvae and adults, but never connected the two.

Given the ecological theme, the hall meticulously recreates species’ habitats. The initial exhibits realistically depict several natural environments.

Beetles in their element.

There was a truly impressive section I couldn’t photograph due to time constraints. It consisted of dioramas, akin to those in the Geological Hall, each portraying a different environment and its characteristic species: subtropical desert, North American prairie, alpine tundra, and so on. The animal specimens and settings were incredibly immersive, resembling exquisite crystal balls.

Next, a unique circular area presents interspecies relationships and interactions, each accompanied by a short nature narrative and a realistic scene. This space truly highlights the museum’s creative approach.

Check out the short video: 【浙江省自然博物馆安吉馆-生态馆物种相互作用-哔哩哔哩】

Here’s another interesting point, one most people (myself included) likely haven’t considered: Ecosystems vary not just by location, but also by altitude within the same location.

Mount Everest serves as a prime example. Its 8,000-meter elevation encompasses seven ecosystems, with distinct differences between the windward and leeward sides.

The hall also explores how various natural factors influence ecosystems. While discussing rainfall, I came across an engaging interactive exhibit.

The diagram indicates that visitors can drag the screen below to alter the rainfall in the animation, which in turn changes the vegetation. The museum’s intention was to allow visitors to modify precipitation and observe the ecosystem’s response. Sadly, the device malfunctioned; regardless of the dragging, the animation consistently displayed a rainforest.

Further along, there’s more on ecosystem roles and conservation, but I’ll skip the details.

Near the exit, the initial question is finally answered: Why did Biosphere 2 fail?

Naturally, the answer extends beyond those few lines. A small theater screens a film about Biosphere 2. I was eager to sit, watch, and enjoy the yogurt I’d packed. However, with closing time nearing, I only managed a brief look.

The film noted that Biosphere 2 contained an overabundance of decomposers, disrupting the balance with other system components.

Conclusion

My overriding feeling during the latter half was a lack of time; I had to rush. Even so, the museum was thrilling overall. I highly recommend it.

Two minor issues:

While the video content is high-quality, some footage is quite blurry, likely from older sources.
Insufficient lighting. I frequently encountered text panels in dimly lit corners, making them difficult to read.

Finally, some advice for those planning a visit to the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Anji:

Book the afternoon session; it’s an hour longer than the morning one.
Even with the four-hour afternoon session, prioritization is key:
- If you have kids interested in animals, concentrate on the Behring Hall, Ocean Hall, and Dinosaur Hall.
- For those keen on the broader evolutionary narrative, focus on the Geological Hall, Behring Hall, and Ecology Hall.
- If you simply want to appreciate nature’s beauty, prioritize the Behring Hall, Natural Art Hall, and Ecology Hall.
The museum is less than a 30-minute drive from Anji town, so you can grab a bite there beforehand.
The museum offers convenient underground parking.

Why Can the Summer Sun Shine on Your North-Facing Wall?

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 14:18:00 +0000

As a kid, I was puzzled why sunlight hit the north side of my house in summer. Someone told me it was because the house wasn’t perfectly aligned. I believed this for years, even after learning enough in middle school to know better.

We often assume the sun rises due east, passes overhead at noon, and sets due west. Textbooks rarely challenge this.

Here’s a thought experiment using basic geography:

Near the equator (e.g., Singapore), on the equinoxes, a perfectly aligned house sees the sun rise due east and set due west. At noon, there’s almost no shadow.
Near the Tropic of Cancer (e.g., Shantou), on the summer solstice, the sun is overhead at noon. After noon, things get interesting. Visualize this: First, straighten the Earth to its equinox position. Rotate it from noon to evening; your house is on the day-night line. Finally, tilt the Earth back, facing the Tropic of Cancer towards the sun. At step two, a north-south house at dusk on the equinox gets direct sunlight on the west wall. At step three, tilting the Earth exposes the north wall to the sun. On the summer solstice, a house on the Tropic of Cancer gets sun on the north wall, but none on the south.
Most Chinese live north of the Tropic of Cancer. On the summer solstice, at noon, sunlight mostly hits the roof, with some slanting onto the south wall. Rotate to dusk: straighten the Earth, more sun hits the south wall; rotate to the day-night line, the west wall gets all the light; tilt, and the north wall gets sunlight.

So, even a perfectly straight house will get sunlight on its north wall in summer, even within the Arctic Circle!

From an Earth-centric view, the sun’s summer path is roughly this: rises northeast, moves diagonally, peaks south of overhead at noon, and sets northwest. This happens north and south of the Tropic of Cancer, varying only in duration.

Near the equator, things we take for granted in China are different. Singaporean real estate listings I saw didn’t indicate compass directions. Assuming north is up (a Northern Hemisphere bias), master bedrooms face every direction. We prioritize north-south orientation for sunlight, but near the equator, it’s less crucial. The sun shines on the north wall for half the year and the south wall for the other – you choose which half to keep cooler.

The Annualized Return Trap

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:29:00 +0000

I’ve always been skeptical about annualized returns. Do they really tell us anything useful when picking a fund? Sure, it seems objective to put everything on an annual basis so you can compare funds and different investment periods. But it mixes in other stuff, so it doesn’t really show how profitable the fund is or what you actually earned.

Let’s use an extreme hypothetical example. Suppose we both invest in the same fund:

Look at the left half first. There are 24 columns, each representing a month, for a total of 2 consecutive years. The black line shows the net asset value (NAV) of the fund. This fund is extreme; the NAV stays flat all year, except on December 31st, when it suddenly doubles, and then drops back down on January 1st of the following year.

Let’s look at your actual investment and return first. You invested in the first year. The light red columns are your actual investments, 120 yuan on the 1st of each month. Your total investment was 120 x 12 = 1440 yuan. Since the NAV was flat, you bought the same number of shares each month. You cashed out at the December 31st price. Ignoring fees, you got back 2880 yuan, for an actual return of 1440 yuan and an actual rate of return of 100%.

Now for your annualized return. To calculate that, we have to annualize each investment. If you held it for less than a year, we discount the amount. We’ll call this the “annualized investment,” shown by the dark red columns. The first month’s annualized investment is the same as the actual, 120 yuan. The second month is discounted. Only 11 out of 12 months counted. Assuming each month has the same number of days, the annualized investment is 110 yuan. It’s the same deal for the following months, going down by 10 yuan each time. Your total annualized investment is 120 + 110 + 100 + … + 10 = 780. Basically, investing 120 yuan each month is the same as putting in 780 yuan all at once in the first month. Your annualized rate of return is the 1440 yuan return / 780 yuan annualized investment = 184.6%.

Now my turn. I invested in the second year, twice, on January 1st and July 1st, putting in 720 yuan each time, for a total of 1440 yuan. I cashed out at the same time as you, getting 2880 yuan, with an actual return of 1440 yuan and an actual rate of return of 100%.

My annualized return is different. The January investment is the same as the actual, 720 yuan. The July one is only for half the time, so it’s discounted by half, to 360 yuan. My total annualized investment is 720 + 360 = 1080 yuan. My annualized rate of return is 1440 / 1080 = 133.3%.

We got the same actual return, the same 100% rate of return, and over the same time. But our total annualized investment is different, as you can see on the right side of the figure. So your annualized return is 184.6%, while mine is 133.3%.

See how messed up this annualized return thing is? It doesn’t just show how well the fund itself did, but also how you invested. So what’s it even comparing?

And here’s another thing: with these two ways of investing, the total money we end up with is actually different. We put in the same amount over the same time and got the same return in the fund, but there’s also the outside of the fund. You had your money tied up for less time, so you had more time to earn interest from bank products. I had mine tied up earlier, half at the start, and all of it by the middle of the year. I missed out on a lot more interest. If we compare how much these two piles of money grew after a year, you’d have more.

A high annualized return really means two things: less time with your money tied up, and higher returns. Our actual returns were the same, but the annualized returns are different. The main reason is the difference in how long the money was tied up. But how big of a difference? Those numbers, 184.6% and 133.3%, don’t tell you anything, just that the higher one had less time tied up.

Back to the example, how do you get the highest annualized return? Dump all your money in on December 30th and pull it out on December 31st. So if you’re chasing the ultimate annualized return, you end up like a day trader, catching a quick spike and bailing out.

That’s the opposite of what sensible investing is supposed to be. So why not just focus on how fast your assets are growing, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR)? How much did you put in, how long was it in, how much did the fund make when you cashed out, and how much interest did you make on your idle cash? Use that to figure out how fast your money grew.

Calculation spreadsheet: https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/WMurwbQq6i6SYakjbWAccp8JnHf?from=from_copylink

The Truth About Friction

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 12:05:00 +0000

Friction, as taught in high school, is a simplified concept. It glosses over several underlying physical phenomena.

High school physics dictates that friction depends solely on surface roughness and the normal force. Contact area supposedly doesn’t matter.

While true in specific scenarios, this oversimplification obscures friction’s real mechanism. In reality, there’s no horizontal resistance along the contact surface. Perfectly smooth, ideal objects would experience zero friction, proving this.

Movement is actually hindered by the minuscule upward force required to lift one object over the other’s microscopic imperfections. Real-world surfaces are jagged. Two objects interlock, akin to gears (though less rigidly). Imagine the contact surface as a multitude of tiny, identical ramps. The top object rests on these ramps like a series of tiny toothpicks, similar to letterpress printing.

Moving the top object requires pushing each “toothpick” up its ramp. Once elevated, it clears the ramp’s peak. This necessitates overcoming the toothpick’s weight. Gravity and the pulling force can both be decomposed into components parallel and perpendicular to the ramp. The perpendicular components create equal and opposite reaction forces, which are irrelevant here. Only when the upward pull exceeds gravity’s downward component does movement begin. This is the essence of friction.

Therefore, friction isn’t truly independent of contact area. A larger area implies more ramps, increasing the overall normal force (N). High school physics, however, claims that changing an object’s orientation (standing vs. lying) doesn’t alter friction. This is because, while N increases, each “toothpick” shortens, reducing its weight and the downward gravitational component along the ramp. The force to move each toothpick decreases proportionally. These effects mathematically cancel out, maintaining constant friction.

However, concluding that friction is area-independent is misleading. Everyday experience confirms that larger areas do exhibit greater friction.

Two articles shed light on the true nature of friction: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/22165913 https://www.guokr.com/article/459070

Many believe fingerprints enhance grip by increasing friction. While the outcome is correct, the reasoning is flawed. Fingerprint grooves actually reduce contact area. Theoretically, a smooth finger would have a stronger grip under equal pressure. So, why fingerprints?

Fingers employ another tactic: sweat. Sweat softens the skin’s keratin, improving conformity, like interlocking gears. This creates more tiny ramps within the same area.

Excessive sweat, however, reduces friction. Wet hands struggle to open jars. An optimal moisture level exists; too much is counterproductive. Fingerprint grooves help regulate this by draining excess sweat.

Friction is ubiquitous. We spent six years in high school, solving countless problems involving blocks on various surfaces. Yet, not a single problem delved into friction’s underlying mechanism.

A Bit of Homework on Suzhou Gardens

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 10:18:27 +0000

I’m visiting Suzhou’s gardens during the National Day holiday. My previous visit, as a student, was underwhelming – I knew little about them, and only the Lion Grove Garden’s rockery maze stuck with me. To avoid a repeat, I did some prep work. Now, they’re far more intriguing, and I’m excited to go.

Expecting crowds, I’m not aiming for great photos. If I get any, I might expand this into a travelogue. Otherwise, these notes will do.

My main source is the podcast “园林里的中国故事” (Chinese Gardens’ Stories), a summary of key facts about several gardens. I’m unfamiliar with the host, but I’ve verified the information. The host’s deep historical and cultural knowledge, and clear connections, make it a worthwhile listen.

Globally, three garden systems stand out: Chinese classical, European geometric, and Japanese gardens.

Chinese classical gardens have three branches: imperial gardens, Jiangnan’s private gardens, and Lingnan gardens. Lingnan gardens, historically on the periphery, lacked the literati influence and wealth, developing a distinct, folk-influenced style.

China’s Four Great Gardens are the Summer Palace, Chengde Mountain Resort, Humble Administrator’s Garden, and Lingering Garden.

Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden, Humble Administrator’s Garden, and Lingering Garden represent the four major Suzhou gardens, showcasing Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasty styles, respectively.

Origins and History

Chinese gardens originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, alongside ancient Chinese architecture, but were initially imperial hunting grounds. Earlier rulers had similar areas, but not true gardens. These took the form of tai (platforms), you (pastures), and zhao (ponds).

Emperor Wu of Han expanded Shanglin Yuan into the largest garden ever. It served as a zoo, botanical garden, farm, mine, and military training ground.

The Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties marked China’s second ideological liberation, after the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Previously, literati talents served solely political ends. The 300-year chaos of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties freed literati, making them an independent class.

Imperial gardens stagnated during this time. Meanwhile, literati, disillusioned by the turmoil, embraced reclusion, cultivating unique theories, spiritual worlds, and garden art.

Taoism rose concurrently, and Buddhism, introduced in the Han Dynasty, peaked. Temple gardens flourished, often in remote locations, opening up scenic areas for future generations.

Gardens peaked in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, displaying a bold, magnificent style. This era represented a zenith in Chinese military, economic, and cultural power. Gardens, poetry, and other cultural outputs reflected this confidence. The largest Tang imperial garden surpassed even the later Forbidden City in size.

The Tang Dynasty boasted advanced flower cultivation, and private gardens began to prioritize landscaping, unlike the simpler, often field-like gardens of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, gardens shifted from concrete to abstract, pursuing artistic conception. This mirrored a broader cultural trend. The Song Dynasty prioritized civil over military matters. Though militarily weaker, its economy and culture thrived. The recreational pursuits of later literati fully developed during the Song Dynasty.

Emperor Huizong of Song, a notable artist, pioneered the use of Taihu stones for garden rockeries.

The Southern Song Dynasty saw a rise in public gardens, allowing ordinary people to experience garden aesthetics.

The Yuan Dynasty’s key contribution was establishing Yuan Dadu, Beijing’s predecessor. The formation of Beijing’s core, the water supply from the Western Hills, and the Grand Canal project were all completed during the Yuan Dynasty, laying the groundwork for Ming and Qing imperial gardens.

The Ming and Qing dynasties shaped China’s enduring political and economic landscape. Beijing became the political center, while Jiangnan served as the economic and cultural hub.

While the north of the Ming Dynasty faced frequent wars, Jiangnan prospered. Garden development in Jiangnan remained largely unaffected by political instability.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Yangzhou, a Grand Canal hub, thrived on commerce, particularly the salt trade. Yangzhou’s gardens were then the most famous, though few survive. Because the owners were primarily merchants, these gardens lacked the prestige of literati gardens. Yangzhou declined with Qing salt reforms and the rise of maritime transport.

During the Qing Dynasty, Beijing’s imperial gardens flourished, reaching their peak.

Humble Administrator’s Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan)

Built between 1509 and 1530, during the mid-Ming Dynasty’s Zhengde era, the imperial court was declining while the common people enjoyed a period of economic and cultural prosperity. The strict frugality of Zhu Yuanzhang (the first Ming emperor) had faded, allowing for lavish gardens like this.

Wang Xianchen, the garden’s creator, retired from official service in his 40s. He transformed a dilapidated temple, old residences, and low-lying land into his private garden.

Zhuozheng Yuan is the largest private garden. It currently covers 78 mu (about 13 acres), though it was originally 100-200 mu. Most Suzhou gardens are under 20 mu.

The garden’s name comes from the Jin Dynasty’s “Idle Dwelling Fu,” suggesting that “clumsy” tasks like gardening are the true path. This reclusive philosophy influenced later private gardens.

Wang Xianchen is a controversial figure. His career declined in middle age, including a prison stint. While praised by literati like Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming, official records paint him as corrupt, suggesting his imprisonment stemmed from graft or factionalism, and that he used family influence to seize the temple.

Zhuozheng Yuan’s fame is largely due to Wen Zhengming’s writings and paintings, especially the “Thirty-One Scenes of Zhuozheng Yuan.” These records suggest the original garden was more like a vegetable garden, with the intricate landscapes appearing during the Qing Dynasty.

Wang Xianchen died in his 70s, and his son reportedly gambled away the garden in one night.

During the Qing Dynasty, Zhuozheng Yuan was famous and often housed Suzhou’s highest-ranking official. Some believe Cao Xueqin’s family (author of Dream of the Red Chamber) bought part of the garden, inspiring the Grand View Garden’s setting.

During the Xianfeng era, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Suzhou, and the Loyal King, Li Xiucheng, made Zhuozheng Yuan his palace, even expanding it. After the rebellion, Li Hongzhang, shocked by its extravagance, protected and maintained it. It then returned to being an administrative site, preserving the garden’s layout.

Key areas:

East Garden: The largest (almost half the area), with a rustic landscape and scattered buildings.
Central Garden: The main, most exquisite scenic area. It centers on the Distant Fragrance Hall (Yuanxiang Tang), facing north to a “one pond, three mountains” layout. This design imitates the mythical mountains of Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fangzhang, a pattern originating in Qin Shi Huang’s gardens. The Little Flying Rainbow (Xiao Feihong), a covered bridge, is another highlight.
West Garden: For entertainment – music, flowers, and mandarin ducks. A pavilion, “With Whom Shall I Sit?” (Yu Shui Tong Zuo Xuan), is named after Su Dongpo’s line: “With whom shall I sit? The bright moon, the cool breeze, and me.”

Zhuozheng Yuan, and similar gardens, greatly influenced later ones, making them famous for literary associations. Suzhou’s flourishing culture and abundant literati were key. To balance opportunities, the court restricted southern literati’s access to officialdom. Those excluded poured their energy into garden art, leading social trends.

Late Ming garden development also solidified construction methods. Imitating natural landscapes with endless variations, architectural design broke free from limited functional building types, elevating classical architecture.

Lingering Garden (Liu Yuan)

Built during the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era, Liu Yuan is the newest of the major gardens.

At 35 mu, it’s second only to Zhuozheng Yuan, and much larger than others in Suzhou.

Three treasures:

Cloud-Capped Peak (Guanyun Feng): A Taihu stone, said to be from Emperor Huizong of Song’s palace.
Five-Peak Immortal Hall (Wufeng Xian Guan): Built with nanmu wood, it’s one of only two civilian nanmu halls. Its construction date and the reason for using restricted nanmu are unknown.
Rain-Clear Sky Painting (Yu Guo Tian Qing Tu): A stone with natural marble patterns resembling a painting.

Liu Yuan’s spatial planning is exceptional; its artistic merit is arguably the highest among Suzhou gardens.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was called East Garden (Dong Yuan). The builder, Xu Taishi, a fourth-rank official like Wang Xianchen, was also an architect. He served as chief of construction in the Ministry of Works, overseeing repairs to Cining Palace and the imperial tombs.

East Garden wasn’t actually east of Suzhou’s old city. Xu Taishi’s residence was larger; the residential area was west, and the garden area to the east was named East Garden.

Unlike Zhuozheng Yuan, Liu Yuan’s location and layout are largely unchanged, preserving the original design.

After the Xu family declined, East Garden was briefly abandoned. During the Qing Dynasty, a new owner, surnamed Liu, renamed it Hanbi Villa (Hanbi Shanzhuang), adding many Taihu stones.

This new owner was a literatus and avid collector of unusual stones. Cloud-Capped Peak was then just outside the northeast corner. Unable to acquire the land, he built a structure to admire it from across the wall.

Hanbi Villa was one of the few Suzhou gardens to survive the Taiping Rebellion. Afterward, Sheng Xuanhuai’s father bought it. The Sheng family adopted the previous owner’s surname, Liu, changing it to a homophone (留, “linger”). They also incorporated Cloud-Capped Peak by expanding the northeast corner. This explains the mostly square Liu Yuan’s protruding northeast corner. The garden we see today largely reflects the Sheng family’s influence.

Sheng Xuanhuai was a key figure in the late Qing Dynasty’s Self-Strengthening Movement and a prominent industrialist. He founded Tianjin University and several Jiaotong Universities. As Li Hongzhang’s right-hand man, he proposed merchant ships to fund the navy and a telegraph industry, both adopted by Li. Sheng also took advantage of struggles between Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang to crush Hu Xueyan’s business empire.

Sheng Xuanhuai’s industries were vast, including shipping, telecommunications, textiles, education, banking, mining, and public welfare institutions like libraries. He also founded the Red Cross Society of China.

Lion Grove Garden (Shizi Lin)

Built in 1341, during the late Yuan Dynasty, Shizi Lin began as a Zen temple garden, a place for a high monk’s lectures, built by his disciple.

The name “Shizi Lin” (Lion Grove) honors the monk’s lineage. He was a disciple of a monk from Lion Rock (Shizi Yan) on Tianmu Mountain. “Lion” also symbolizes a high monk in Buddhism.

It wasn’t a traditional temple, lacking typical Buddhist buildings. It remained primarily a garden, not emphasizing ritual.

Ming Dynasty painter Ni Zan visited, helped plan, and painted “Shizi Lin Tu,” giving it cultural prestige.

Yao Guangxiao, the monk Daoyan, Zhu Di’s advisor, was from Suzhou and reportedly Shizi Lin’s abbot. He advised Zhu Di to seize the capital and oversaw Beijing’s construction and the Yongle Encyclopedia’s compilation. Yao Guangxiao remained a monk, refusing official positions. He later wrote Dao Yu Lu, criticizing the popular Neo-Confucianism of Cheng and Zhu.

Until the Qing Dynasty, Shizi Lin was a semi-garden, semi-temple. Emperor Qianlong, who loved it, imitated it in the imperial gardens and inscribed the True Delight Pavilion (Zhenqu Ting), giving it royal favor.

During the Republic of China period, the Bei family bought and renovated Shizi Lin. I.M. Pei spent part of his childhood here.

I.M. Pei is a world-renowned architect. His masterpieces include the Louvre Pyramid, the Suzhou Museum, and the Museum of Islamic Art. He deeply understood cross-cultural architectural art. He famously said, “Let light do the design.”

Canglang Pavilion (Surging Wave Pavilion)

Canglang Pavilion is the oldest documented garden, built in the early Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the Northern Song hadn’t unified the country, and Suzhou was under Wuyue Kingdom rule.

The builder was a Wuyue military governor, who used it as a private villa.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the literatus Su Shunqin, facing career setbacks and demotion, came to Suzhou. He bought the garden for 40,000 coins, building Canglang Pavilion. With a literatus’ endorsement, its fame soared.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, anti-Jin general Han Shizhong lived here, renaming it Han Garden.

From the Yuan Dynasty onward, Canglang Pavilion was abandoned. Monks built a temple, which lasted through the Ming Dynasty.

In Kangxi’s 23rd year, the Jiangsu governor built the Su Gong Shrine (Su Gong祠) on the site to commemorate Su Shunqin. Canglang Pavilion became a public building.

In Kangxi’s 34th year, another governor restored Canglang Pavilion nearby. The original was a waterside pavilion; the restoration was a mountain pavilion, built on a rockery. The garden’s focus shifted from lake to mountain.

Canglang Pavilion was mostly destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Today’s version is a large-scale Tongzhi era reconstruction, based on the mountain pavilion. The Ming Dynasty appearance is lost.

Canglang Pavilion’s influence lies in its name and spirit. Su Shunqin took “Canglang” from a short song: “When the waters of Canglang are clear, I can wash my hat tassels. When the waters of Canglang are muddy, I can wash my feet.” This reflects a scholar-official’s attitude: serve in enlightened times, cultivate oneself in dark ones.

Su Shunqin invited Ouyang Xiu to write an essay, and Ouyang Xiu wrote: “The clear breeze and bright moon are priceless, but sadly they only sold for 40,000 coins.” Song Dynasty officials were well-paid; 40,000 coins were about two months’ salary for a county magistrate. Ouyang Xiu’s words further elevated the garden’s fame.

Master of the Nets Garden (Wangshi Yuan)

Wangshi Yuan was built during the Southern Song Dynasty. The literatus Shi Zhengzhi built a residence, Wanjuan Tang (Ten Thousand Volumes Hall). A small garden with water, Yuyin (Fisherman’s Retreat), was Wangshi Yuan’s predecessor.

During the Qianlong era, retired official Song Zongyuan bought Wanjuan Tang and, inspired by Yuyin, renamed it Wangshi Yuan. Wangshi means “fisherman” in ancient Chinese.

Wangshi Yuan changed hands several times and was extensively renovated during the Guangxu era, resulting in its current form.

During the Republic of China period, Zhang Zuolin gave the garden as a birthday gift to his teacher.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhang Daqian and his brother, Zhang Shanzi, lived in Wangshi Yuan for four years. Zhang Shanzi, famous for painting tigers, actually kept tigers in the garden. He painted a “Flying Tiger” for Claire Chennault, the American pilot, and Chennault’s squadron became the Flying Tigers (though the exact timeline is unclear).

Wangshi Yuan’s most famous scene is Dianchunyi (Hall of Late Spring), a small, independent courtyard and study in the northwest corner, with a distinct Ming style. “Dian” means “behind,” Dianchun means late spring (peony season), and “yi” means small house. The name means “a small study in the peony season.”

In 1978, during the establishment of US-China diplomatic relations, a delegation of American museums visited. A Chinese-American consultant from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, having collected Ming-style furniture, asked Chinese garden master Chen Congzhou how to display it. Chen recommended replicating Dianchunyi. Due to diplomatic factors, the cooperation proceeded smoothly. This marked the first appearance of a Chinese garden in a foreign museum, taking garden culture global.

Even now, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the only place to see a complete Ming-style garden. Because of the brief Tongguang Restoration during the late Qing Dynasty, most gardens were renovated in the more elaborate Qing style. Ming-style gardens have a rustic, scholarly atmosphere.

Summary

Key features:

Zhuozheng Yuan: Largest, most luxurious, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Loyal King’s palace.
Liu Yuan: Newest, best preserved, highest artistic achievement, Sheng Xuanhuai.
Shizi Lin: Rockeries, Qianlong’s inscription, Yao Guangxiao and I.M. Pei.
Canglang Pavilion: Oldest, literati spirit, Su Shunqin and Ouyang Xiu.
Wangshi Yuan: Zhang Shanzi painted tigers, Dianchunyi went global.

Why isn't there a word for "ten thousand" in English?

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:06:00 +0000

Consider this about number units: English separates large numbers with commas, advancing in thousands—million, billion, trillion. There’s no single word for “ten thousand.” Chinese, however, uses units of ten thousand (万, 亿, 兆…). We use “million” (百万) more now, but that’s recent, due to handling larger figures. “Million” is a combination, not a base unit like “ten thousand.”

It’s curious. We have distinct words for smaller place values: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands. Why not for larger numbers? We simply didn’t need them! Daily life, particularly anciently, rarely required such large numbers.

Rulers, however, dealt with massive figures. Inventing a word for every place value would be impractical. The solution? Use the largest common unit as a base. This avoids new concepts and simplifies comparisons. Within the same order of magnitude, the specific unit is less important. Large differences are clear from the unit, and smaller ones remain manageable.

This hints at a difference in scale between the ancient Chinese and English-speaking worlds, reflected in geography, population, and agriculture. It’s well-known, but it might be the core reason for the East-West difference in number units today.

A Visual Experiment on Distinguishing Colors

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:52:00 +0000

Try this simple visual experiment at home.

Create a dark room by turning off the lights at night. You’ll likely have appliances with small indicator lights of various colors. For example, last night in a hotel, the smoke detector on the ceiling had a flashing red light.

After your eyes adjust to the darkness, look directly at the small light. Then, gradually shift your gaze away and observe the light with your peripheral vision until it appears white.

This happens because the retina has two types of photoreceptor cells: cone cells and rod cells. Cone cells detect color and are concentrated in the fovea centralis, affecting your central vision. Rod cells detect light intensity but not color, and are more prevalent in the periphery, influencing your peripheral vision. In the dark, as the light moves out of your central field of view, you lose the ability to distinguish its color.

Here’s a second part to the experiment. Look directly at the small light and squint. The light will eventually appear white. During this process, you’ll notice an intermediate stage where the color is ambiguous.

This is because cone cell activity is light-dependent. Squinting reduces the luminous flux reaching the retina. In a dark environment, cone cell activity decreases. When the light becomes sufficiently dim, rod cells take over completely. At this point, your vision is similar to someone with total color blindness, and you can no longer perceive color.

The Discovery of Conservation of Energy

hi@victor42.work (Victor42) — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:51:00 +0000

I read a fascinating story from the history of science. We’re all familiar with the conservation of energy – how it shifts between forms without being lost. But the story of its discovery is truly inspiring.

It began with mechanical energy. Consider a swing: potential energy converts to kinetic, and back again. Scientists, through experiments and calculations, found that the total energy remains constant.

Next came thermal energy. While people understood mass conservation, heat’s true nature was a mystery. One theory proposed heat as a kind of substance, massless yet capable of flowing between objects. This explained everyday observations, like mixing hot and cold water: the “heat substance” flowed, creating lukewarm water.

However, friction could generate seemingly endless heat, simply by rubbing things together. This “heat substance” appeared to materialize from nothing. This spurred investigation into the link between mechanical work and heat. Precise experiments and calculations of energy conversion finally led the scientific community to conclude that energy is conserved during mechanical-to-thermal conversions.

Around the same time, biologists suggested that animal heat and movement stemmed from food’s chemical energy. Chemists added to this, demonstrating energy conservation in chemical reactions.

Then came electromagnetism. Lenz, studying heat in current-carrying wires, found it depended on the current’s square, resistance, and time – Joule-Lenz’s law. Calculations revealed that electrical-to-thermal energy conversion is also conserved.

These discoveries occurred almost simultaneously. Different fields contributed their pieces, and when combined, revealed the true nature of energy. It was like magicians jointly casting a spell, opening a portal to a dazzling new world.