Friday, February 25, 2011

A Change Of Seasons


Today was my ee exam. It's the third last exam we are giving. Till now, in the classroom, we had been sitting in a particular order. Today, however, we were asked to change our places. The result? Total chaos. I had to get up from my place 5 times, and others, even more. The point being, a sudden change introduced in our daily lives brought about great confusion.

So, like a good student, I wondered about this throughout the exam. Then I understood that our lives our in dynamic equilibrium, a sort of stasis that keeps on changing, but then we get used to the change remarkably soon. We are so used to getting up early-> getting ready for school, or whatever our routine may be. But whenever a change in our lifestyle occurs, it might be anything, from an earthquake, to shifting to a new house, we soon get used to it.
Guess why? Something nifty called Le Chatelier's principle. Now, I am talking chemical kinetics, something we have learned this past year, so I am gonna write it down. Though it is an principle we learnt in ISC chemistry, it works remarkably in this context. The General form of the principle is 

"Any change in status-quo prompts an opposing reaction in the responding system."

Geddit? Life is like a huge reversible reaction, with infinitely many reactants and with infinitely many products. This reaction is in equilibrium, as people die, people are born. As we breath out carbon dioxide and take oxygen, the plants do the opposite. It is like energy, neither created, nor destroyed. The status quo remains the same. However drastic an event is, no matter how it affects us, we adapt. And this is not because we are great or anything, Its just Le Chartelier's principle. 

Shelly, of course, gets to end this.
" Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
  Nought may endure but Mutability."

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