Today when I select Light as a subject, I can see many eyebrows raised. What is so special about light that this man is trying to tell us. We all know about light. We see light; sunlight, moonlight and artificial lights. We switch “ON’ light, we switch ‘OFF’ light. Although it appears to be a simple common item, that almost everybody considers that he/ she knows everything about it, it is still an interesting subject to discuss. In my opinion 99% of the people around us know so little about the mysteries associated with light. It is interesting to note that it took almost 400 years for the scientists to fully unlock the mysteries of light. Light has baffled scientists for so long; is it wave or particle, its speed is measurable or instant (infinite), how rainbows are formed. However now that scientists like Thomas Young, James Clerk Maxwell, Max Planck, Albert Einstein have unlocked the mysteries of light, it is an interesting subject to study.

First of all, British scientist Thomas Young, through a double slit experiment in the year 1801, proved that light is a wave. Light waves when passed through two very narrow slits, at some distance from each other, later mixed up and due to construction and destruction properties of the waves, made a pattern of bright and dark patches on the screen. Bright patches were observed even where it was impossible for the light to reach if it did not mix up after crossing the slits; a typical characteristic of wave.

Fig. 1

Later famous Scot scientist James Clerk Maxwell clarified the following;

• Light is a form of electromagnetic wave. Two waves propagating perpendicular to each other and moving in one direction.
• Electromagnetic waves full spectrum is as follows in terms of wavelength.
  
  Gamma rays 1 fm – 10 pm (f stands for femto 10-15, p stands for pico 10-12)
  X rays 10 pm – 10 nm (n stands for nano 10-9)
  Ultraviolet 10nm – 380 nm
  Visible light 380 nm – 740 nm
  Infrared light 740nm – 100 µ m (µ stands for micro 10-6)
  Microwave 100 µm – 10 cm
  Radio wave 10 cm – 100 Km

Visible light spectrum in terms of wave length is as follows.

Violet 380 nm – 435 nm (Bandwidth 55 nm)
Blue 435 nm – 500 nm (Bandwidth 65 nm)
Green 500 nm – 565 nm (Bandwidth 65 nm)
Yellow 565 nm – 590 nm (Bandwidth 25 nm)
Orange 590 nm – 625 nm (Bandwidth 35 nm)
Red 625 nm – 740 nm (Bandwidth 115 nm)

Full spectrum of electromagnetic waves is shown in Fig. 2 below. Part of Electromagnetic waves inclusive of ultraviolet, visible lights and infra-red are generally called light.

Figure 2

Electro- magnetic spectrum

It can be observed from the spectrum that waves, gamma rays, X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, microwave and radio wave are invisible.

In early 20^th century, two clarifications came about light. Light was found to have the capacity of releasing electrons when thrown on some elements; hence light is not only wave but also particle. Scientist Albert Einstein was awarded Nobel prize based on this theory (electro-luminance. Solar voltaic cells work on this principle). Light behaves like wave but also it travels in multiple balls of particles, extremely small, massless but pack of energy. They are called photons. They are numerous, extremely small and travel with tremendous velocity. In a normally illuminated room, photons of the order of 10¹⁶ hit our retina in one second.

Note: it is interesting to note that each photon is a separate entity and their energies don’t sum up, hence our retina/ optic nerves are not damaged. It is LASER where coherent photons combine their energy and become so powerful as to even melt the metals.

In early 20^th century German scientist Max Planck described through an experience (double gold leaf experiment), that light exists in discrete quanta of energy and that the energy of each photon depends upon its frequency and not its brightness.

Energy of each photon is equal to

E = ħ*f
= ħ*C/ʎ

Where, ħ is Planck’s constant and is equal to 6.626 * 10^-34 joule second
C is the speed of light; 299792458m/s (rounded as 3*10⁸ m/s)
f is the frequency of the light in Hz or cycle/second (c/s)
ʎ is the bandwidth of wave; C/f in meters.

Thus energy of each photons is directly proportional to the frequency of the photon or inversely proportional to the wavelength of the photon.

Hence in full electromagnetic spectrum, gamma rays have the maximum energy so much so that these rays can penetrate even few inches of lead and few meters of concrete (depending upon their frequency ranging from 10 pm to 1 fm). Radio wave have the least energy.

Similarly, in visible light spectrum, the red light has the lowest energy and violet/ blue lights have the highest energy. Hence some lights of low energy (like red and orange) are unable to release any electron even if the intensity is increased from 10W to 1000W. Whereas lights of higher energy like blue and green can release electrons even if their intensity is low.

Each element has an energy barrier, called Work function.

Work function of an element is the minimum energy required to release one electron from the surface of the element. Hence depending upon the formula of Energy E = ħ*f, there are elements where light of low energy such as red or orange are unable to release an electron even if the intensity (brightness) is greatly increased, whereas lights of higher energy such as blue or green can release electrons even with low intensity (brightness).

The second specialty of light is that, unlike all other waves viz. sound, heat, the electromagnetic waves (inclusive of light) do not require any medium for propagation. They can travel even in vacuum and that’s why we receive light from sun and stars where there is no medium for the propagation.

Speed of Light

The most mysterious thing about light is its speed. It has tremendous speed that early scientists including Rene Descartes believed that speed of light is instantaneous or infinite; means not measurable. Some later scientists including Galileo Galilei believed that speed of light is finite and measurable. However, his method of measuring the speed of light was not adequate as he used human reflexes to measure the speed of light. It is obvious that human reflexes are too slow compared to the speed of light. He came to a conclusion that speed of light is 10 times that of speed of sound. However, with new technics and especially with the inception of LASER (Iranian American physicist Ali Jawan discovered the first continuous LASER in Dec. 1960), speed of light was correctly measured as 299792458 m/s which has been rounded as 3 * 10⁸ m/s.

Note: Although Theodore Maimon of Hugues laboratory is credited for developing the first LASER, in May 1960, Maimon’s Ruby LASER after consuming thousands of watt of energy was able to produce only bursts of red LASER. Because of its shortcomings, Rubi LASER could never be used in industry. Whereas Ali Jawan’s Helium – Neon LASER, consuming 25 – 50 W of power was producing continuous and extremely compact (bandwidth .0002 nm, 10,000 times narrower than that of LED) LASER beams. Within days of its inception, Ali Jawan’s Helium – Neon LASER was successfully used by Bell Laboratory to transmit audio (telephone) signal on a fiber optic cable.

Speed of light is the cosmic speed limit. Nothing can reach the speed of light. If a particle has reached close to the speed of light like 95% of speed of light and further energy is applied to it, instead of increasing the speed of the particle, the applied energy will be converted into mass, and mass of the particle will increase. Einstein formula E = m* C²

But the real mystery of light is not its speed but its relativity.

Scientists learned from their experience that every speed is relative to a reference frame. Reference frame is the position, speed and direction of the observer,

For example, if I am sitting on a chair and claim that I am static i.e. my speed is zero. Everybody near me will agree with me that while I am sitting on a chair, my speed is zero. Now consider somebody watching me from outer space. He will simply laugh on my claim. Because I am on earth and am subject to the following speeds.

1. The earth is rotating on its axis with a speed of 1650 Km/ hour. (this speed of earth rotation is on the equator, and Pakistan being away from equator, my actual speed will be of the order of 1000 Km/hour). This is not a small speed to be ignored.
2. Earth orbits around the sun with a speed of 104000 Km/hour. I being sitting on the earth, am also moving with the same speed.
3. Entire solar system is rotating around its galactic centre (a supermassive black hole) with a speed of 800000 Km/hour. I am subject to that speed also.

But everybody around me will agree with me that I, sitting on a chair am static (zero speed). It is all because everything and everybody around me is also subject to all three speeds. Hence relatively I am static.

Albert Einstein observed that Maxwell’s formulae about the speed of electromagnetic waves, do not mention about any such relativity. His further work on the speed of light based upon Maxwell’s formulae resulted in the famous publication of Theory of Special Relativity in Einstein’s miracle year 1905. Einstein asserted that every speed is relative to a reference frame, except light. Speed of light is independent of any reference frame and is same for all observers.

In order to clearly understand this phenomenon, let us consider a simple example.

A train is moving with a fixed speed of 100 Km/hour. A man standing on the ground measures the speed of the train as 100 Km/hour.

Parallel to the train track is a road and a car is moving in the same direction with a fixed speed of 80 Km/hour. The man in the car will measure the speed of the train as 20 Km/hour. Similarly, if the car is moving in opposite direction with a speed of 80 KM/hour, speed of the train w.r.t this car will be 180 KM/hour. Relative speed of the train is different for the three observers because of their own speed, direction and location (reference frames).

For a man sitting inside the train, the speed of the train is zero. Instead, it is the trees, houses which are moving in the opposite direction. Only because we know for sure that the trees and houses cannot move, we imply that the train is moving.

However according to Maxwell’s formulae of electromagnetic waves, the speed of light (entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves) is the same for all observers. It is not relative to any reference frame. To understand this phenomenon more clearly, let us consider a man firing a laser beam parallel to a railway track. A man standing on the platform will measure the speed of photons as 300000 Km/second. Now let us consider a train moving on the track parallel to the laser beam with a speed ‘C’ i.e. 300000 Km/second in the same direction as the laser beam. Now if we ask the man sitting on the train, what is the speed of the photons? Surprisingly the man on the train will also see the photons moving with a speed of 300,000 Km/second, because according to Maxwell, speed of light is the same for all observers; meaning it is independent of the reference frame; speed and direction of the man sitting in the fast moving train.

Moreover, light cannot travel with any other speed other than ‘C” (C stands for celeritas which is swiftness in Greek and represents the speed of light 300,000 Km/second). There is no initial or starting speed for light. When we switch ‘ON’ a light bulb, the light emanates from the bulb with an initial speed ‘C’.

Surprising but true. This phenomenon led to the famous ‘Theory of Special Relativity’ by Albert Einstein. This also led to famous theory of Speed Time Dilation. Meaning that when an object moves with speed, the time itself on the moving platform slows down according to the following formula. (reference Einstein’s clock)

T = T´ (1 – v²/ C²)^½

Where T is the time consumed on the moving object; airplane, rocket etc.

T’ is the time consumed on earth (stationary or slow moving platform).

C stands for celiretas (swiftness in Greek); speed of light

V is the speed of moving platform; train, plane, rocket.

This implies that clock on a moving object ticks slower than the one on stationary platform like earth.

Let us consider that a rocket is fired towards a star 4.5 light year afar. Moving at a fixed speed 90% of the speed of light, it will take 5 years to reach the star and again 5 years to come back. For the man inside the rocket when he comes back to earth, his brother on earth is 10 years older. But the man on the rocket will be older by

10{1- (0.9 C/C)²}^1/2
=10* (1- 0.81)^1/2 = 10 * 0.19^1/2
= 10 * 0.43 = 4.3 years

This means the person on the earth will be 10 years older but his brother in the rocket will be only 4.3 years older.

Since Albert Einstein floated this theory, it was impossible to verify it, because the maximum speed we can contemplate is the scape velocity of earth i.e. 11 Km/second. This speed is too small compared to the speed of light. Even with scape velocity, v² /C² is so small that T and T’ will be the same. The speed time dilation remained a paradox until 1955, when Cesium clock was invented. Cesium (atomic no. 55 and first element in 6^th row of the periodic table)) has a resonance frequency of 9,192,641,770 Hz. When a microwave of wavelength 3.26 cm is fired on Cesium, it starts vibrating releasing 9,192,641,770 pulses in one second.

Note: Prior to atomic clock, the most accurate time measuring device was quartz clock. Quartz can vibrate with a frequency of close to quarter million times per second. Great scientific achievement but still very slow compared to the cesium clock.

Cesium clock had few construction shortcomings. Cesium’s melting point is 28.44 ^OC. It starts melting on room temperature. Moreover, it requires very sensitive electronic digital device to register;

• 9 pulses to advance the clock by 1 nano (10^-9) seconds.
• 9,192 pulses to advance the clock by 1 micro second
• 9,192,641 pulses to advance the clock by 1 ms.

With the development of Cesium clock (also called atomic clock), it was possible to measure time differences of the order of microseconds. Two synchronized cesium clocks, one in the laboratory on earth, and another on a plane making 3 rounds around the earth were studied. Since it was not possible to increase the speed of the moving platform, it was considered to increase time considerably so that the effect on the clock on moving platform could be measured. The Cesium clock on the plane was found to tick few microseconds slower than the synchronized clock on the ground, a value exactly as computed by Albert Einstein’s formula. Hence it is no longer a paradox, but a proved theory.

For a common man it is difficult to contemplate that time itself slows down on a moving objects. However, on slow speed and with normal clocks, it is too small to be noticed.

Now instead of going further on speed time dilation, we move to another paradox pertaining to the speed of light. There is a term optical density. Density is a relation between mass and volume of an object. Optical density is a factor by which the speed of light slows down in a transparent material; which is as follows.

Glass 1.5 – 1.6 depending upon the quality of glass
Diamond 2.4
Gallium Phosphate 3.5

The phenomenon of light slowing down in transparent medium contradicts with the discussion we made earlier that light can and will travel with one speed only i.e. ‘C’. And we also agree that speed of light slows down in a transparent material. The two theories look contradicting each other and need scientific clarifications. The clarification of this contradiction does not lie in the laws of classical physics (Newtonian Physics) which we notice and apply in our daily life. The answer lies in the laws of Quantum Physics; the physics of the very small, or laws of sub-atomic world (the world inside an atom), where particles behave in a weird manner and don’t follow the laws of the classical physics.

Before we discuss quantum physics, let us take one simple example.

Fig. 3

Let us look at Fig. 3. A laser beam has been fired on a block of glass. Speed of light hitting the block is 300,000 Km/ second. Due to optical density the speed of light within the glass block is reduced to 190,000 Km/second. However, the moment the laser beam exits the glass block, it takes its normal speed ‘C’ (300,000 Km/second). According to the laws of classical physics, speed cannot jump from 190,000 Km/second to 300,000 Km/second without an accelerating force on the edge of the glass block. We know there is no such accelerating force there. Hence it can be inferred that the speed of light within the glass block appears to have been reduced but not actually reduced. In order to know the reason of apparent reduction of speed, let us study the structure of an atom and study the laws of motion inside the atom. In Fig 4 we study how atoms/ electrons behave within an atom.

Fig.4

Δ E2 – E1 = 3.5 eV. Δ E3 – E2 = 2.4 eV.

The above diagram is of an imaginary atom with 3 shells or energy levels. The electron on the first shell (energy level) belongs to the first shell and is considered to be on ground state (it is where it belongs to in equilibrium state; i.e. at 0 Kelvin). If the atom is subject to some external energy such as light, heat, the electron will tend to jump to the next energy level. However, the sub-atomic world follows a different and more complex physical laws which is called quantum physics or quantum mechanics. Let us consider that energy difference between the first and second shell i.e. Δ E2 –E1 is 3.5 eV.

Note: The atoms are extremely small in size; the largest atom, cesium, atomic no. 55 has a size of 600 pm; p stands for pico; 10^-12). Hence the energy within an atom is so small that they are referred to in a much smaller unit, eV (electron volt). 1 electron volt is equal to 1.6 * 10^-16 joule.

When the atom is pumped with external energy, the electron on ground state absorbs that energy. However, it will not move from its place unless the pumping energy reaches equal to or exceeds the difference in the two energy levels. That means if you pump 3 eV of energy, the electron will not move. Increase the pumping energy to 3.49 eV. The electron still does not move. The moment the pumping energy reaches or exceeds 3.5 eV, the electron will disappear from first energy level and re-appear on the second energy level. Not even for an extremely brief period of time, electron will be in between two energy shells.

Note: The electron after receiving the required pumping energy and having jumped to a higher energy level, is called to be on stimulated state. The electron is unstable on its stimulated state and tends to return back to its ground state. An electron does not stay on stimulated state for more than 100 µ seconds and decays back to its ground state; the orbit it belongs to normally. In this process of decay, it releases a photon having energy equal to the difference in the two energy levels. This is called instantaneous emission of radiation, and this is how artificial lights are produced; incandescent, gas discharge, LED and all.

Now let us consider the lattice of atoms in a block of diamond. I am not selecting glass or gallium phosphide because the lattice is slightly complicated because both comprise of two elements; glass comprising of silicone and oxygen and gallium phosphide comprising of gallium and phosphorus. Hence for the ease of understanding I am taking example of diamond block which comprises of atoms of one element, carbon. Let us observe the lattice of carbon atoms in a diamond block, shown in Fig. 5.

Note: Carbon atom has only two energy levels.

Fig.5 Lattice of Diamond atoms

A laser beam has been fired on a block of diamond. Before the beam hits the first atom, it is travelling with its normal i.e. ‘C’ (300,000 Km/second). The moment the light hits the atom, its energy is absorbed by the electron, but the electron keeps on judging, whether the energy it has absorbed is equal to or exceeds Δ E2 – E1 (assuming 3.5 eV in Fig. 4) meaning is it adequate for the electron to jump to next energy level. In case of transparent materials, the pumping energy is generally smaller than, but close to the required energy e.g. 3.45 or 3.48 electron volts. When after considerable time the electron/ atoms determines that the absorbed energy is not equal to or exceeding the required energy to jump to another shell, it releases the energy in the form of photon of same frequency (energy is directly proportional to the frequency of the photon). Later the photon will move with speed ‘C’ until it hits another atom. In figure 5, the photon will cover the spaces, A, B, C, D & E with speed ‘C’ but waste considerable time whenever it hits an atom. Subsequently when the photon will exit the diamond block, it will attain its natural speed ‘C’. So the total time taken by the photon between entering and exiting the diamond block will be larger than, it should normally take to cover that distance. Hence the apparent speed of light within the block will appear to have slowed down compared to ‘C’ depending upon its optical density.

Having said that a question appears in the mind of a common man, do electrons think like human? How can they think and take decision to jump or not to jump to another level? Strangely the answer is ‘Yes. Electrons think like human being. However, this is not my statement. This is the statement of great physicist, Nobel laureate and one of the specialists in Quantum Physics, Dr. Friedrich Hund. This he has explained in his Hund’s rule of electrons occupying the space in orbitals, and his famous Empty Bus Seats theory. However, we do not want to deviate from the main subject and let us conclude our discussion about light, its speed viz. a viz. optical density.

• Light will always travel with only one speed, ‘C’. There is no initial speed or slower speed.
• Speed of light is the cosmic speed limit. Nothing, having a mass, can reach the speed of light.
• Photons are particles but have zero mass.
• Speed of light is independent of any reference frame. It is same for all observers, even if the observer himself is travelling with speed ‘C’.
• Because the speed of light is independent of a reference frame (same for all observers), it is the time which slows down on a moving platform. A clock on a moving platform will tick slower than another synchronized clock on a stationary (or slower moving) platform.
• Light appears to have slowed down in a transparent matter due to the time wasted by the electrons to judge whether the pumping energy is equal to or exceeds the difference in the energy levels of two shells.

Since Corona was declared a pandemic, ordinary people like me have been bombarded with mind-blowing discussions, analytical articles and research papers as to how it started, who are responsible, when it will be over and most prominently whether it is a pandemic or just a hoax. As a layman, I used to read these articles with curiosity, and made frequent discussions with my brother Zafar, in Sheffield UK, a retired surgeon (FRCS). I will be honest to say that very soon I realized that nobody, including the researchers, knew much about the pandemic, except that it is virus and spreads through human contact.

Initially, we were made to believe that this has started in China (natural or laboratory-made is yet to be ascertained), and it will be contained not before China’s business is devastated (an opportunity for the production houses of the western world). People outside China were least concerned and watched with much indifference how and when (if at all) China will contain it.

Next came the virus spread in Iran and subsequently, Pakistan, India and the Middle East saw a sudden, unprecedented spread through the pilgrims returning from Iran. These countries were taken by surprise and were least prepared to cope with the fast and uncontrolled spread of the virus, a golden opportunity for the prophets of doom in Pakistani media, who instead of helping the government by cautioning and informing the people, opted to open their malicious arsenal against the government. It was very wise of them, because the government, taken by surprise, was in a semi-paralyzed state. The social and health facilities of these countries, especially India and Pakistan, were in a total mess. The West was watching with a sense of ease that this is a problem of under or undeveloped countries lacking sanitary and health facilities. So much so that when the pandemic hit Italy, people of Rome publicly defied it by jamming the streets of Rome. To a great surprise of the western world, the spread of the virus was much faster in Europe and the US. As a first reaction West exerted all energy in blaming China for the virus.

Then came the state of denial not only in Asia but the USA as well. In Pakistan, propaganda was rife that there is nothing like this virus, and the government is spreading wrong news with false data to secure maximum forein aid. There were videos showing from New York that news of cases of Corona infected people being treated is false, spread by the government; otherwise, the hospitals are empty. A common man like me who had never seen a coronal patient with high fever coughing and sneezing and who did not know a known person dying of Corona was confused, believing and disbelieving both versions.

West was still of the view that fast spread of the virus and deaths thereafter is the destiny of underdeveloped nations with minimum hygienic conditions and lack of medical facilities. West, on the contrary, will not be affected so much by the virus. They even gave a date for the end of the virus, April 15 2020. We in the East tend to believe in the western doctrine like the Quran and the Bible. So came the relief and complacence waiting for April 15, 2020, when we can start our business as usual. After all, this date had come from the masters of the world who control the destiny of mankind.

Suddenly the West realized that spread of the virus is real and need some corrective measures to contain it. They gave the bright idea of total lockdown. We in the East have been made to believe that to imitate the West is the only panacea for all evils. Demand grew in Pakistan to follow suit. However, fortunately, we have in Imran Khan a brave and visionary person as the Prime Minister who, by nature, is not a slave of the West. He took actions suited to the ground realities in Pakistan bracing the brutal attack by our mainstream media and frustrated politicians. On the other hand, India followed the Western version of total lockdown with only four hours of notice, oblivious of the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who as a result were forced to move on foot 1000 miles to their native towns and villages.

Today we see in Pakistan Corona is almost under control and India has the highest rate of Corona spread. I am neither giving credit of Corona control to Imran Khan nor blaming Indian administration for its fastest spread. Through my contacts in India, I can tell with conviction that after initial shock chaos and confusion, the Indian public, as well as the Indian government, are doing their best against the Corona spread and treatment of those infected keeping the fatality rate much below the world average.

All I want to say that it is not wise to contemplate that researchers and analysts know everything and their analysis should be blindly followed.

In order to discuss the effectiveness of the research and analyses regarding Corona, let me first discuss the biggest pandemic of this century.

It is about the Spanish flue of 1918, which infected 500 million people (a third of the total world population) and 50 million fatalities (10% of total infected). A research paper published in 1970s gave the following analysis.

• It was the end of long war 1914-1918 and soldiers returning home were sick and exhausted, having little resistance to infection.
• The fatality was higher in
• Younger than 5 years
• 20-40 years old
• 65 years and older
• Autopsy of the dead revealed that the infected persons had lost the elasticity of their lungs and the lungs had turned as hard non spongy rubber.

A layman like me is at a loss to comprehend the information we receive from this analysis, except than some people can get their PhD. But a common man does not learn the Dos and Don’ts during the spread of pandemic.

However unlike 1918, today the data collection in real-time are correct and detailed.

Present day Corona is still not abated and scenario world-wide are changing every day. But we are flooded with researches and analyses, which are keen to see their study published as soon as possible, without realizing how much confusion and panic their analyses are causing. We see lots of flaws in their analyses, so much so that now we are becoming indifferent to the suggesions and prophesies of our researchers and analysts. It appears that they are becoming impatient to get their research paper published, oblivious of its negative impact on the third world citizens, who take their advice seriously.

Here are some analyses, which the researchers and analysts need to study and look within and talk sense or keep quite.

• A reserch paper originated from Imperial College of UK warned and professed that Pakistan would see more than two millions fatalitiesin in June and July. It was based upon the un-hygienic conditions, lack of medical facilities and impossibility of social distancing due to crammed living conditions. I do agree that these factors may be responsible for the fast spread of virus. However they could not realize, how much chaos such analysis can cause in a third world country like Pakistan. Nevertheless I have failed to undersatnad why they missed out India in their prophecy where conditions are worse than Pakistan.
• In the back of researchers’ mind, it was a abelief that, western nations; the USA and Europe with their wealth, excellent researth & medical facities and educated/ disciplined population need not worry. It was patially true because when the pandemic started to spread, the third world realized that they did not have test kits, ventilators, space to quarantine the infected patients. The West on the contrary had all these and what they did not have, could be bought by their wealth.

Now I am printing a small chart of corona cases in countries, sampled on the basis on their wealth, resources and locations, based upon August 31 figures (figures change everyday)

I have deliberately not mentioned figures of African nations who also defied the analyses and research of the West and managed to control Corona cases faster and better than anticipated.

Now I request the researchers and analysts to give us an analysis of the Corona spread, Corona control and containment of deaths based upon the nation’s wealth, hygienic conditions, research and medical facilities, strategy and political will.

I know that the more you analyze, the more you will be confused because, in all your analysis, you will forget one essential factor— God’s will.

I know, many eyebrows will be raised even in my country. But if somebody can analyze the figures in the chart for the entire world and give us a plausible analysis, I will be grateful. But, I forget, the world is busy trying to produce a vaccine for the virus, not necessarily to help the humanity but to make money. After all, disasters bring opportunities and naïve persons like me falsely dream that the best brains of the world are busy in contemplating ideas for mitigating the misery of mankind. Unfortunately they are busy synthetically creating diseases or viruses to make medicines or vaccines, or busy in making war machines to frighten and kill mankind.

The Corona spread has also revealed one more dangerous but dark reality of the present day world.

When Corona infections were first detected in Wuhan (China), the Chinese government were quick to blame the spread of Corona deliberately carried out by the USA through US soldiers visiting Wuhan and then disappearing. The West ridiculed this allegation and Third World also did not pay much heed to it.

Later, when the virus spread in Europe and later in the USA and looked dangerous and uncontrollable, the US administration openly blamed China for deliberately orchestrating the export of virus to Europe and the USA. They even named it China virus.

I am not here to judge who is right and who is wrong. But it is obvious that biological wars, by creating and spreading laboratory made viruses are available as option for the world powers, who can not only execute but later justify their action. I am only trying to tell the common and peace-loving people of the world to realize the stark danger of the future world where the countries, we expect to devise the panacea for deceases, famine, and pandemics will not hesitate to create all these to destroy humanity whenever they wish.

Are we not proceeding towards our doomsday.

Needless to recall what Winston Churchill stated after WW2, that the Second World War could have been avoided without firing a bullet. Yet 85 million people died, and many more were devastated economically. Any regret?

M. Fakhar Mahmood
Pakistan

In the recent past Pakistan had been through a serious political crisis in the form of shortage of wheat flour which Pakistan’s overambitious media nicknamed “Atta Buhran”. Our brave media anchors who are these days, passing through difficult times, dropped from the status of darling of government high ups to almost obscurity considered this an opportunity of showing their muscles against the government and hoping to ignite a national crisis which would ultimately culminate in the toppling of the government. I can understand their agony because this naïve prime minister has stopped taking these anchors on foreign visits and giving them extra times and money and most prominently stopped cajoling them publicly. I fully agree with these frustrated anchors for trying to cash every opportunity of government’s failures or even government’s embarrassment like Maulana Fazl’s caricature as Azadi March. However, I must agree they did not play their game smartly. Not only they failed to focus on their targets so diligently, they were far less persevering in their efforts. Having full sympathy for our anchors (I have sympathy for all who fall from grace), I have some valuable advice for them.

I remind my anchors to learn from a similar atta buhran of year 1789 which successfully culminated in toppling of the French monarchy. Let us compare the role of the great journalist John Paul Marat (Marat as he is commonly known) with our drawing room anchors.

Unlike our anchors Marat was seriously focused on his goal; toppling the monarchy. Through his newspaper, “L’ami du peuple”(Friend of the people) and posters on streets (which can be compared with today’s talk shows) he was gradually poisoning the minds of general public. He maintained close contact with the masses who were suffering. Our anchors are basically drawing room journalists. I did not see any of them ever mixing or talking to common people who were suffering because of Atta buran. That’s why they could not make themselves as messiah of the common man. On the contrary Marat was in close contact with common and down- trodden masses. It is the masses and not the white collared journalists who trigger the revolutions. Marat had been in close contact with the people of lowest order, like Antoine Simon, the cobbler who played a prominent role in the toppling the French monarchy.

The crucial atta buhran of France was in fact initiated by Marat. On 4^th October 1789, when Marat was convinced that he has succeeded in poisoning peoples mind against monarchy, he played a calculated game. Through Simon and other low- class members of the Jacobine Club, threatened the bakers of Paris not to bake any bread for tomorrow. On 5^th October 1789 the mothers of Paris did not get any bread to feed their children. Members of the Jacobine club started telling them that there is no bread because flour has been locked by Queen Maria Antoinette. This was another clever move by Marat. He knew that in spited of his toxic propaganda, it was not possible to grow hatred against the King. Whenever the king appeared people raised the slogan “vive Le Roi” (Long Live the King). So, he directed the hatred towards Queen Maria Antoinette. When huge no of women, 80% of the crowd on Paris streets massed on the streets, somebody raised the slogan, let us march to Versailles palace where Maria Antoinette had locked all the flour. All those on the street majority of them women, started marching on foot towards Versailles palace. Hunger of their children has so much ignited the hatred that Maria Antoinette who was called so far as Madame Deficite (blaming her for all the financial problems of France) became Chieene Austric (Austrian bitch) in their slogan. The move was so clever that when General Lefayette (The army chief) requested for action, Louis XVI refused saying “how can I order firing on women). That day was the beginning of the fall of French monarchy.

Our subject is not French revolution but to tell our anchors that although the ambition of Hamid Mir, Mohammad Malick, Fahad Hussain was the same as that of Marat, they cannot succeed even in a decade because they anchors are filled of false pride, overwhelmed by the praises showered by Nawaz Sharif and Zardari but they cannot motivate the public because they are completely disconnected from the masses. I will mention a few salient points for their own perusal.

Our journalist are completely disconnected from mases. Their ambition is to rub their shoulders with prime ministers and presidents.

They will keep on praising the corrupt politicians so long their pockets are filled. They think that they can make and control public opinion just by talk shows.

They are completely disconnected from the masses. We will not find a single show discussing the real problems of the masses. They will either praise some politicians or oppose some. It did not take much time for the public to know that they are puppets of some and opposing some for personal reasons.

When the people see that they criticize Imran Khan even on his Ehsas programme or his successfully presenting Pakistan’s case internationally, then people will not trust them even they are correct in their criticism.

They think people are so naïve when compare Imran Khan with a leader who required a paper slip to say the simple things like “Mr. President, Pakistan welcomes you and Mrs. Obama.

There was a time when there was only one channel PTV. Government had all the opportunities to broadcast their lies with impunity. The came multiple new channels and smart anchors started exposing the lies of the government. These were the golden time of journalism in Pakistan.

But soon the corrupt politicians started purchasing the media houses and the journalists consent. We saw journalists becoming extremely rich in a vert short time. One burning example is that of a journalist given a petrol pump in Lahore on monthly rent of Rs. 15000. On its first public auction the petrol pump was rented for Rs. 4000000 per month. Even after their lies, and dubious behavior are exposed I did not see any remorse on their attitude.

They are still busy praising their mentors and giving date after date of the end of Imran Khan’s government.

Recently the fortune gave them another opportunity in the form of corona. They were so vocal criticizing every move proposed by Imran Khan. So much so that they did not hesitate praising Narendre Modi for his stupid total lockdown resulting in Indian workers marching on foot to their homes more than 1000 KM away.

Then came their lifetime opportunity when a report from Imperial College UK and later endorsed by WHO that Pakistan will be global hot spot of corona resulting in about 30000 casualties per day. What a relief for our opposition leaders and armchair anchors. Unfortunately, their dreams fell flat and Imran Khan emerged as triumphant with his policies.

Now our anchors will wait for any other catastrophe like flood or earth quake and started preparing their venominous talk shows in anticipation.

(View Primary Article: Birth of the Universe)

Some of my friends complained that my article ‘Birth of the Universe’ has some unexplained mathematics. When I read the article myself, I agree that I have used mathematics to explain the phenomenon, however some of the mathematics, I have used need to be explained before the article could be properly understood. Hence I am clarifying the basis of some of the mathematical formula.

1. Gravity

Before I clarify gravity, let me explain that Newtonian theory of gravity has been proved wrong by Albert Einstein’s ‘Theory of general relativity’ which was physically verified by Sir Eddington, the famous astronomer of England. Theory of General Relativity stated that gravity is not due to force of attraction between two masses. In fact gravity is the curvature of space – time due to big mass distorting the elasticity of the space. However the mathematics of the geometry of curvature is so complicated (Even Albert Einstein had to take some lessons on the geometry of the curvature from his class fellow and great mathematician Marcel Grossmann) that we are allowed to use Newtonian formula for gravity and gravitational force. Scientists believe that the ultimate value remains close to the correct one.

Now talking of gravity of the earth, let us consider Mr. X having a mass of m, standing on the face of the earth.

Mass of Earth = M Kg

Mass of Mr. X = m Kg

Radius of earth = r m

Now using the Newtonian formula for force between two masses

Force F = F1 = F2 = G x M x m/r2 Newton (where G is the gravitational constant equal to

6.67 x 10-11 m3/Kg/Sec-2), M and m are the mass of the two objects and r is the distance between them.

Also F = mass x acceleration. Here acceleration is the gravity. Hence

m x g = G x M x m/r2 Newton

Cancelling m from either side of the equation, we have

g = G x M x m/r2 Newton (which is independent of the mass of Mr. X)

Now applying the parameters of earth in this formula;

Mass of Earth = 6 x 1024 Kg (rounded figure)

Diameter of Earth = 12800 KM = 12.8 x 106 m (rounded figure)

Radius of the earth = 6.4 x 106 m (rounded figure)

gearth = 6.67 x 10-11 * 6 x 1024 / (6.4 x 106)2 = 0.977 x 10 = 9.77 m/sec/sec

If we apply the actual figure for the mass and radius of the earth, instead of rounded one, the result will be 9.81 m/sec/sec

Similarly we can calculate the gravity of the Sun, applying mass and radius of the sun.

2. Scape Velocity

Now let us calculate the scape velocity of the earth. This is the velocity with which if an object is thrown away from the earth, the object never returns.

Let us consider Mr. X standing on the face of the earth is throwing away a ball with a speed that the ball never returns back to the earth.

Again using the Newtonian formula for gravity, the Potential Energy working on the ball which tends to pull the ball back to the earth due to gravity is;

P.E. = G x M x m/ r

Where G is the gravitational constant = 6.67 x 10-11 m3/Kg/Sec2

M is the mass of the earth = 6 x 1024 Kg

m is the mass of the ball

r is the distance for the ball to reach so as never to return

There is another energy working on the ball which tends the ball to move away from the earth. It is the Kinetic energy due to the speed of the ball = ½ m V2 . This energy varies throughout the journey of the ball depending upon the speed.

In order to achieve a speed that the ball never returns back to the earth, the Potential Energy (PE) of the ball must be zero. However in the formula of PE, none of the values in the numerator viz G, M or m can be zero. Hence the ball must travel to infinity in order to reduce the PE to zero.

Also when the ball stops at infinity, the Kinetic Energy (KE) which is a factor of speed will also become zero.

That means PE equals KE. Since energy is neither created nor destroyed, PE and KE will always be equal throughout the journey of the ball, working in opposite directions.

Hence in order to achieve a speed for the projectile never returns back to earth, the condition is that KE should be equal to PE at each stage of the travel. Since we are interested in the speed with which the ball left the earth, we consider the values at the earth in order to compute the scape velocity of the earth.

Hence ½ m V2 = G x M x m/ r

Cancelling m from both sides of the equation, we have

½ V2 = G x M / r

Applying the parameters of earth

This is how we calculate the scape velocity of any large mass. In case we want to calculate as to how much a star of certain mass should be squeezed (due to gravitational collapse) to become a black hole, all we need to know is the mass of the star. The scape velocity is ‘C’ (speed of light) for a black hole. C stands for celeritas, which means swiftness in Greek. The scape velocity for a black hole is the speed of light i.e. 3 x 108 m/sec

3. Electromagnetic radiation

Above is the full spectrum of the electromagnetic waves starting from the highest frequency on the left (Gamma rays) to the lowest frequency on the right which is radio waves.

It is quite cumbersome to refer to the electromagnetic waves in terms of their frequency. Instead they are referred to with respect to their wave lengths. The relation is as follows

f = C/ʎ where

f is the frequency of the EM wave in Hz or cycles per second

C is the speed of light 3 x 108 m/s

ʎ is the wavelength in m

Hence the properties of a wave can be referred in terms of f (frequency) or ʎ (wavelength). They are normally referred in terms of wavelength.

The spectrum is as follows.

Gamma rays 1 fm – 10 pm f stands for femto which is 10-15 , p stands for pico which is 10-12

X rays 1 pm – 10 nm n stands for nano which is 10-9
Ultraviolet 10 nm – 380 nm
Visible lights 380 nm – 740 nm
Infrared 740 nm – 100 µm
Microwave 100 µm – 10 cm
Radio waves 10 cm – 100 Km

Energy of the photons of each wave is directly proportional to its frequency. The relation is

E = ħ*f where

E is the energy of the photon

ħ is the Planck constant and the value is 6.626 x 10-36 Joules second. However for photons the energy is so low that they are expressed in terms of eV (electron volt). 1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 Joules

ʎ is the wavelength

Hence Energy can be expressed in terms of wavelength

E = ħ x C/ ʎ = 6.626 x 10-36x 3 x 108/ ʎ ≈ 20 x 10-28/ ʎ Joules

Equals = 12.5 x 10-9/ ʎ eV

Now it could be understood that the gamma rays photons when they emanate from the core of a star and rush towards the edge of the star, they collide with hydrogen and helium atoms, get sucked in and release themselves. In this process by the time they reach the edge of the star, they have lost most of their energy and subsequently their frequency is lowered.. That means they move towards the right hand of the spectrum. Ultimately what emanates from the edge of the star is not gamma rays but photons of lesser energy (reduced frequency and increased wavelengths) and what we receive from the sun and the stars is , ultraviolet, visible lights and infra-red.

Big Bang Theory Real or Imagination

(View Related Article: Birth of the Universe – The Mathematics of It)

Recently some of my young relatives asked me with some concern, what they should believe about the birth of the universe. Should they believe in Big bang theory. To them the big bang theory is mere imagination devoid of any mathematical or scientific observations.

They looked confused but curious. They stated that in the absence of concrete scientific observation, why not simply believe that Almighty created the universe with an order and it happened.

I am a firm believer in Quran and I believe my religion does not encourage dogma; instead insists upon us to contemplate the universe to better understand the creator. However this must be noted that the universe is so huge that the more we learn about it, the more we admit that how limited our knowledge it.

I would like to quote Albert Einstein here. “ As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” The more we advance with our research and observations, the more complex the universe looks. Today the observable universe is 92 billion light years wide and it is still expanding. We are still in total darkness as to what is the limit of the universe.

The famous 17^th century scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei, whose contribution towards the study of universe is commendable, especially in spite of such strong resistance from the church, once stated quote “I believe bible is the words of God. But it is not a book of science and astronomy. You cannot understand the universe, without the knowledge of mathematics” unquote.

I endorse the same view. To understand the universe with the help of mathematics, you don’t have to compromise on your faith in Quran, Bible or any holy book.

Now I will try to explain the birth of the universe with the observable scientific information and mathematical interpretation. We all know that the scientists believe that the universe came into being with a big bang or a command by almighty out of nothing. With one bang the matters and energy which remained squeezed to a singularity (a dimensionless entity) were released 13.7 billion years ago and gradually formed into this universe what we observe today. To understand this phenomenon I will explain in steps so that a common man can understand the scientific principle behind these theories.

To accept this theory we have to first accept that such a huge mass can be squeezed to zero dimension and all mass has been converted into energy.

Mass Energy Equivalence

The students of science or otherwise are aware of Albert Einstein’s famous formula E=mc². In fact Albert Einstein did not write this formula in this format. In one of his scientific publication of his miracle year 1905 he wrote a sentence.

If an unstable matter releases energy “L” in the form of radiation, then its mass must be reduced by a value L/V². Where V is the speed of light.

Using the present day abbreviation for Mass, Energy and Speed of Light. The formula will be written as m = E/C². Or more commonly accepted E = m * C². This means that mass can be converted into energy and energy can be converted into mass. Before I go for the more complex explanation of this phenomenon, I will explain one of the simplest example of this mass energy equivalence.

We know that smallest and simplest of all atoms is Hydrogen (The first element on the periodic table). It has one proton and one electron.

Mass of one proton is 1.6727 x 10^-27 Kg

Mass of one electron is 9.11 x 10^-31 Kg

According to the laws of classical physics (Newtonian physics) mass of one hydrogen atom should be equal to mass of one proton and mass of one electron. However the mass of one hydrogen atom is 1.6 x 10^-27Kg which is even less than the mass of one proton. Where did the excess mass disappear? That mass has in fact been converted into energy because the protons and electrons are in continuous vibration. Vibration requires energy and energy is neither manufactured nor destroyed. Hence the required energy has been extracted from the mass itself.

Let me clarify why I am using the unit of mass in Kg and not in gram of milligram. For figures which are to be used in mathematical calculations, we have to first select a unit system. In electrical engineering and physics we use MKS system of measurement. Where

Unit of length is meters          m

Unit of mass is Kilograms      Kg

Unit of time is seconds          s

Now coming back to the main subject of how the universe was borne from singularity it is imperative that we first understand how a star thousands or million times more massive than the sun ultimately gets squeezed into a black hole and then into a singularity. This is easy to understand because this theory is bases upon credible scientific observations.

Life and Death of a Star

We know that stars are made of extremely hot gases. Gravity of the sun is some 27 times that of the earth (using the formula g=GM/r²) . Let us consider the same gravity for a massive star (it is not possible to compute the gravity of the star in the absence of figures pertaining to mass and diameter).Gravity of the sun by putting the parameters of the sun (in MKS system) will be;

G_sun =6.67*10^-11 x 2*10³⁰ /(0.7*10⁹)² = 6.67*2/(0.7)² x 10^-11-18+30

Hence G_sun = 27.224 x 10 = 272.24 m/sec/sec

Earth gravity has no significant effect on the size of the earth because earth is made of rocks and metals. Gravity of 8.91 m/sec/sec cannot squeeze the earth. On the contrary the stars are made of hot gases. Hence a gravity 27 times or larger than that of the earth tends to squeeze and collapse the star. This collapse increases the temperature of the inner core of the star (25 -30 % of the external diameter). When the temperature of the inner core reaches in excess of 14 million Kelvin, this imparts enough energy in hydrogen atoms and start the fusion of hydrogen atoms. They fuse together to create a larger atom which is helium. 4 hydrogen atoms fuse together to form one atom of helium plus some energy.

This is interesting to note that the mass of one helium atom is less than that of 4 hydrogen atoms combined by a value 0.048 x 10^-27 Kg. This is this mass which has been converted into energy (E = mc²). The energy is released in the form of gamma rays which race towards the outer edge of the star. These gamma rays counter the inner collapse of the star by gravity, and thus maintain the size of the star.

Gamma rays due to extremely high kinetic energy emanate from the core and rush towards the edge of the star. In the course of this travel, collides with hydrogen and helium atoms, get sucked into the atoms, then release themselves and ultimately reach the edge of the star in about a million years (it takes about 100,000 years for a single gamma ray photon to reach the edge of the sun after releasing from the core). In this process they lose most of the energy and the gamma rays turn into light waves of lesser energy i.e. ultraviolet, visible lights and infrared. These are the lights (UV, visible and infra-red) what we on earth receive from the sun. Also 14 million Kelvin of temperature is reduced to 5800 Kelvin at the surface of the sun and the star.

In due course, which may go for a billion years, all hydrogen atoms are consumed and turned into Helium. Sun consumes about 620 million tons of hydrogen each second. Massive stars will consume more. At the end of this process, almost all hydrogen atoms are consumed. Hydrogen will remain on the extreme edge of the star and remaining volume including the core will be full of helium. The temperature of the core may reach 70 million Kelvin. However this temperature is not adequate to trigger fusion of helium atoms. The core stops producing gamma rays and there is no longer any force to counter the gravitational collapse. The star gets squeezed, thus further increasing the temperature of the core until the temperature of the core exceeds 100 million Kelvin. At this temperature helium atoms get sufficient energy to start fusion and the process of gamma rays release restarts and the star regains its size due to balance between gravitational force and the gamma rays.

This process continues in the following sequence producing heavier atoms after each step.

Hydrogen (H) – Helium (He)                   70 million K

Helium (He) – Carbon (C)                        200 million K

Carbon (C) – Oxygen (O)                         800 million K

Oxygen (O) – Neon (Ne)                           1200 million K

Neon (Ne)– Silicon (Si)                            1800 million K

Silicone (Si) – Iron (Fe)                          2500 million K

The star will produce all the elements from atomic no. 1 (hydrogen) to atomic no. 26 (Iron)

The star will appear like this after the core is full of iron atoms.

When the core is full of iron (heavy element) in gaseous state, an interesting phenomenon takes place. Fusion of iron is not an exothermic event, rather it is endothermic. That means at extremely high temperature iron atoms may be subject to fusion but will not release any energy. Hence the release of gamma rays which was so far countering the gravitational collapse of the star, will cease forever. The star will start collapsing under its own gravity so as to hugely increase the temperature of the star and it will become a supernova or a red star. The supernova is so bright that in a week’s time the supernova will release so much energy as much it has released in its entire life span. Because of its extreme brightness supernovas are observed from the earth and recorded. If you hear a reference SN1964, this represents a supernova which was observed in the year 1964.

The supernova or the red star will become so hot that it cannot remain stable. Ultimately it will explode and throw all the heavy elements away from it with a speed of 30000 Km per second. This is how planets are formed. The extremely high temperature of the supernova creates the heavier elements from Cobalt to Uranium which are thrown out. In this process the elements from atomic no 1 (hydrogen) to atomic no. 92 (uranium) are produced. That’s why the stars are also called element factory.

However even after throwing the heavy elements, the process of the gravitational collapse will continue and cause the electrons which were present on the orbits surrounding the nucleus, to be pulled tightly with the nucleus. The electrons having one negative charge and protons having one positive charge, will neutralize each other’s charges and convert into a zero charge entity i.e. neutrons. The star will become a neutron star. The size will be drastically reduced.

An atom comprises of 99.999999999999% space because the electrons orbit far away from the nucleus. When this space is squeezed to zero, the size of the star will be reduced to a diameter of 70 – 80 KM but containing all the mass of the original star. Neutron star will be so dense and its gravity so immense (of the order of 4 x 10¹² m/s/s) that one table spoon of neutron star dust will weigh about 5 billion tons.

You may ponder that the star has been losing mass through fusion which was converted into energy. Also it has thrown out the heavy element out of it, then how the mass remains the same. In fact the total mass, the star will lose through fusion process as well as the mass thrown out by the supernova, amounts to not more than 0.7% of its original mass. Hence it is considered negligible for the purpose of calculations and case study.

Here it is worth noting why I am not giving the example of our sun, and talking about an imaginary star more massive than the sun. In fact sun is a small star and due to its limited mass, it will not decay into a neutron star or to a black hole.

According to Chandrasekhar limit (Dr. Chandrasekhar Subramanian was one of the greatest Astro-physics scientist of the 20^th Century.), a star must be at least 1.4 times more massive than the sun to become a neutron star and must be at least 5 times more massive than the sun to become a black hole.

If the star is massive enough the process of collapse will not stop after decaying to a neutron star. Consider the formula of the force one Kg load on the star in its original condition and after becoming a neutron star.

The force applied on the star due to a weight of 1 kg

Force applied F = G x M x m/r² where G is the gravitational constant (6.67 x 10^-11), M is the mass of the star, r is radius of the star which is reduced to 50 Km (from the original value of millions of KM) when it is reduced to a neutron star and m is 1 Kg.

G and M remain constant ‘r’ has been drastically reduced for a neutron star, the force applied on the neutron star will be millions of time larger. There are cosmic pressures, there are meteors hitting the neutron star, hence the star continues to shrink so that at one stage the star is reduced to black hole.

Black hole is where the scape velocity is equal to or larger than the speed of light. For a star 10 times massive more massive than the sun, let us calculate the diameter of a black hole.

In order to compute the scape velocity of a planet or the star, the kinetic energy of the projectile due to speed should be equal to the potential energy due to gravity, both working in the opposite directions.

Hence ½ m V² = G*M*m/ r.

G is the gravitational constant (6.67 x 10^-11), M is mass of the star (2 x 10³¹ Kg for a star 10 times more massive than the sun), m is the mass of the projectile whose value is not important because ‘m’ on either sides of the equation will neutralize each other, V is the escape velocity which in case of a black hole is equal to the speed of light ‘C’ (3 x 10⁸m/s). Applying these values in the formula

r = 2 G*M/ V² = 2* 6.67 *10^-11 * 2*10³¹/ (3 x 10⁸)² = 29.6 Km

This means that when the star(10 times more massive than the sun) is squeezed to a diameter of 60 Km it becomes a black hole meaning thereby that anything, matter or even light approaching the border of this diameter cannot escape and will be sucked in. The gravity of the black hole is infinity and due to gravity time dilation, time will freeze.

The boundary of the black hole is called event horizon and the radius is called Schwarzschild radius. Thus the star has been squeezed to a black hole. However the squeezing of the massive star does not stop there. It is further squeezed due to cosmic pressures and ultimately turns into a singularity which is a dimensionless entity. Entire mass of the star which was had a mass 2 x 10³¹ Kg and having a diameter in millions of KM, has been squeezed to zero dimension (singularity). Now the question is “where, this entire mass, disappear? In reality the mass did not disappear, rather the entire mass has been converted into energy.

According to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, mass and energy have the same effect on gravity as well as on the curvature of space time.

So the mass and energy remain in that singularity, the 60 Km diameter will remain recognized as the black hole or the event horizon from where nothing including light can escape.

This is interesting to note that when black holes don’t allow light to escape, then it will look dark similar to an empty space between the stars. How do we know that the dark space we are looking at is really a dark space or a black hole. Let us consider a black hole which was once a massive star. When it was a star, there were planets or even small stars encircling it due to the gravitational force between the massive star and the planet or smaller star.

The force between them is F = G* M* m /r²

Where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the massive star, m is the mass of the planet or the small star and r is the distance between them.

While the star is going through the process of its decay, to neutron star, then into a black hole and finally into a singularity, the factors in the above formula do not change. Mass of the massive star remains the same (massive star to singularity), mass of the planet or the small star remains the same, G, the gravitational constant remains the same and r, the distance between the massive star and small star/ planet also remains the same. Hence the planet or the small star will remain indifferent to the changes the massive star is being subjected to and they will keep on orbiting the black hole. Hence if scientists observe a dark space being orbited by planets or small stars they know that this is a black hole and not an empty space.

We know that our sun along with the entire planets (complete solar system) encircles the galactic centre with a speed of 800,000 Km/hr. The galactic centre is in fact a supermassive black hole and not only our solar system, but millions of other stars are orbiting the galactic centre due to gravitational forces between the supermassive black hole and the stars. This supermassive black hole was once a supermassive star, billions of times more massive than the sun.

Now it is clear to us that a supermassive star millions or even billions time more massive than the sun can be squeezed to a singularity.

Now let us consider the reverse of it. If a supermassive star, billions of time more massive than the sun can be squeezed into a singularity, meaning thereby that entire mass of the supermassive star has been converted into energy and remain active within that singularity, then why all the mass and energy squeezed into a singularity could not be released 13.7 billions of years ago to create the universe.

Exploring the universe further strengthens our faith on the holy books which encourage us to contemplate the universe in order to understand the creator better.

Mohammad Fakhar Mahmood

27 August 2017

This article is addressed to the common users of electricity including house wives and office personnel. The intention is to promote awareness with respect to the hazards and safety precautions associated with electricity and electrical appliance because awareness is the first step towards safety.

We know that when we switch ‘ON’ an electrical appliance, such as light, refrigerator, oven, photocopier etc., electrical current flows through the appliance and performs the required function. We also know that if we accidentally touch a live part, we get electric shock. Sometimes we also get electric shock by touching the body of a faulty appliance. The shock tells us that the appliance has developed a fault and needs to be repaired. This happens when a part, primarily metallic, which is not supposed to be live, gets connected to the live part due to internal fault.. When we touch a faulty appliance, a small quantity of electrical current tends to flow to the earth through our body. This is possible only when one part of the body is in contact with the live part and the other with floor, wall, water pipe etc. This phenomenon is called earth leakage because part of the current leaks out of its normal path. In this article we will discuss the cause and effect of leakage current through the human body. Lets study a situation where leakage current has taken its route through a human body in contact with a faulty appliance.

Even a negligible amount of the leakage current if allowed to flow through human body can cause a serious damage. Some of us may have heard that when someone gets electric shock he could not move himself away. This is true. Leakage current may paralyse the limbs, it is passing through. To understand the logic, how electrical leakage current affects our limbs, we have to first understand how our limbs and specially the muscles function. In human body the brain acts as a command/ nerve centre. Through the nervous system, the brain sends command signals to the limbs specially the muscles to act. The muscles obey and act according to the command signals emanating from the brain.

It is interesting to note that the command signals from the brain are in fact tiny electrical current pulses at a frequency of about 100 pulses per second. The muscles contract and relax depending upon the magnitude of the impulses. The degree of contraction being controlled by the peak value of the current pulses. If the magnitude of the leakage current through the human body exceeds the value of the command signal the limbs stop obeying the brain . In fact they start acting in accordance with the leakage current translated into action commands. This phenomenon is responsible for the paradox that electric currents pull the limbs in contact.

Lets study the case in Fig 1 where a person is touching a faulty appliance. The leakage current has found its route to the ground through one hand, the body and one or both legs. The brain will register the abnormality through the nervous system and will send command signal to the muscles of the hand and fingers to disengage. If the quantum of leakage current has superseded the command signal he will not be able to disengage his hand or move his legs. If the person is not aware of the actual reason paralysing his limbs, he will use his free hand to help pull away his affected one. In this process will entangle his free hand also . However if he is aware of the actual reason of his problem, he will use his free hand to switch `OFF` the appliance or through a wooden or plastic piece (non conductor of electricity) push his affected hand free.

I know of one incident where one housewife got electric leakage through one hand and two legs. She entangled her free hand in trying to release the other one. When she raised alarm two of her daughters came to rescue her and tried to pull her away, and in the process got entangled themselves.

All three would have died if their son had not switched `OFF` the main.

The effect of leakage current on human body depends on its magnitude. Lets look at some specific amounts of current and effect of that current on human body in accordance with an I.EE (UK) publication. Since a very small magnitude of current can cause serious safety hazard, we will measure the current in milliampere (mA) which is 1/1000 of an ampere. A 100W lamp requires 417mA at 240V AC (standard Kuwait voltage).

a. 0.5mA to 2 mA would cause a slight sensation but harmless. b. 3 to 6 mA would give a shock but would not be very painful. According to a study published by the University of Idaho USA, 5mA is considered the maximum harmless current intensity. c. 8mA to l5mA would give a painful shock but the muscular control probably would not be affected. d. Current of 15 to 20 mA would override the command signal and the brain will lose control of the muscle. The muscles would contract completely and it would be impossible to release the grip of the hand. 20mA suddenly applied can cause crushed bones and severely torn muscles. e. A current of 20mA to 50mA passing through the chest, would cause contraction of the thorax muscles paralysing the respiratory system resulting in build up of waste material in the blood. If the current continues for a few minutes, it would cause irreversible changes in the brain. Even after cessation of the leakage current, the breathing cycle may not restart due to muscular fatigue. f. 50mA to 200mA leakage current, if passes through the heart would override the command signal controlling the contraction and expansion of the heart muscles. The individual fibrils contract haphazardly and result in ventricular fibrillation which almost stops the blood circulation. In ventricular fibrillation, the heart stops its normal beat and twitches and contracts without control. This may be fatal unless immediate C.P.R procedures are followed. g. Finally 200mA and over would cause severe burn. Muscular contraction would become so bad that chest muscles would clamp the heart and stop it as long as the shock lasts. Death would normally result.

The above data entails two essential field of study.

i. The route of the leakage current in human body and relative effect. ii. What controls the magnitude of the leakage current.

The route of the current in the human body determines the degree of danger the person is in. If the route is between two fingers, least damage is expected. In case of the person in Figl, the current would pass through the thorax muscles and heart. But one of his hands will be free. Lets consider the case in Fig 4.

A person has accidentally touched a faulty appliance with one hand and with the other he has touched a wall or a water tap. Here his two hands, thorax muscles and heart are affected, His hands may freeze but he can still move his legs or bend his knees to make him unbalance so that gravity would make his hands free. It is highly unlikely that a person would get his two hands and two legs entangled. Almost always a hand or a leg would be free. If the person is aware of the reason of his plight he can use his free limb to cause disruption of the flow of current through his body.

However the response time depends much on the magnitude of the leakage current which can be well understood by the study of current value versus the effect. Lets study the reasons controlling the magnitude of the leakage current.

A simple formula determines the amount of current. Current = Voltage/ Resistance

The voltage in Kuwait for domestic and office appliances is 240V. So it is the resistance of the body which determines the amount of leakage current. Human body when dry has a high resistance, to the order of 105 ohms per square centimeter or greater. For a person with dry skin the initial resistance between one hand and the foot will be approximately 30,000 ohms (cumulative effect of resistance by skin and the salty fluid within the body). This will initiate a current flow of 8 mA which may cause contraction of muscles. However this amount of current, if persists for more than a second, will cause perspiration resulting in sharp drop in the skin resistance which can be as lowe as 2000 ohms resulting in a current flow of 120 mA which is lethal. The resistance between the two hands of a person perspiring slightly is about 1500 ohms, corresponding to an 160 mA current which would be fatal if persists for a few seconds. It would be very dangerous to touch or operate an electrical appliance when the body is wet due to bath or perspiration.

However if the appliance is properly grounded, then the safety equipment would disconnect the power before any accident. Even if the safety equipment fails to disconnect the power, bulk of the leakage current would flow through the ground wire. Only a small fraction would Bow through the body which may give a mild shock but can not cause potential damage.

However in case a 3 pin plug is replaced with a 2 pin plug, there will be no functioning grounding. It is the longest pin of a 3 pin plug which bonds the body of an appliance to the grounding network of the building. Simply replacing the plug with a two pin type will make the whole grounding to the appliance ineffective.

To conclude the following safety tips are to be remembered and practiced.

• Awareness is the best tool against accidents. Every individual using electricity should be made aware of the hazards, logic and safety measures.
• Never tamper with the safety gadgets in the Distribution Boards and the Panels.
• Never use a two pin plug.
• Ensure awareness about the shock treatment practices specially respiratory resuscitation.
• There should be regular shock treatment mock up practices like fire drill specially in offices, factories and workshops.

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Mohammad Fakhar Mahmood Chief Electrical Engineer The Scientific Centre Kuwait

Come 16^th of December and echo of the worst tragedy ever inflicted on Pakistan and Pakistani people can be heard in every think circle and media. Some feel grieved with thoughtful approach that if this was the destiny, couldn’t it be accomplished peacefully without the tinge of shame. Others simply sink into grief and mourning. But a good majority uses this day for the favorite blame game offering advises with illogical analysis of the event as to what should have been done to avoid the tragic event; something very easy when the event has passed and result known. Being myself a witness of event from Dacca itself, today I want to address those who enjoy briefing the event with sarcasm and calling our army a bunch of cowards. I could never understand our own people drawing enjoyment or gaining political mileage out of a tragedy and talking as if such an event has happened for the first time in history.

Last week I was talking to an Indian friend and certainly with the intention of teasing me, he described 16^th December as the most shameful surrender in the history of warfare. He even claimed that such shameful surrender is totally inconceivable by the Indian army. I had no intention of ridiculing him, however quite politely I reminded him of even a more shameful endeavor by the Indian army. During 1962 war with China, after early reversals, Indian army dug in on Tsela Pass and shown to the local and foreign media of the heavy artillery and armour deployment with a boasting claim that the Chinese will not be allowed to advance one inch from their present deployment. However when Chinese, instead of attacking Indian defenses, started encircling Tse La Pass, Indian army retreated in shear panic and left all hardware behind and rushed to retreat in complete disarray. In my opinion the retreat from Tse La without fighting was a more shameful an act than surrendering in impossible situation. Indian army were connected to their main land and they had their air force intact which was superior to the Chinese air force. Pakistan army in spite on the other hand was disconnected from the main land, had an air force pathetically outnumbered in quantity as well as quality and with a hostile civilian population, was doomed from Day but still displayed some gallant display of air battle. I can’t recall the name of the British war analyst who had commented quote” I do not understand why so much is talked about the war in East Pakistan. Pakistani army had lost the battle even before it started. Even if Bonaparte was the commander of Pakistani army and a nine year old boy the commander of the Indian army, the result would be the same. Unquote.

Some of my Pakistani friends even argue that why Pakistani soldiers did not fight till death. In fact our politicians use the terms “until the last drop of my blood” or “ until last man last bullet” in their fiery speeches that our naïve public consider this to be true to the honor of a nation. But if you look into the history of battles, we find that at many cases, where is was no longer possible for an army to fight, the commander decided to withdraw or was forced to surrender. Evacuation of Dunkirk did not make British soldiers bunch of cowards, nor has any war analyst called German Field Marshal Paulus a coward for his act of surrendering the German Sixth Army on the outskirts of Stalin Grad. In fact after the war was over, Charles De- Gaul when he visited the war zone on Volga, he praised the gallantry of the German Sixth Army. An individual soldier may decide between honorable death and shameful surrender by jumping bare hand over a tank, however a commander, when facing a doomed situation, he being the guardian of his troops cannot push his people to death only for the sake of pride. According to Craig Symonds, professor emeritus of history at the US Naval Academy said quote” the normal practice in the battle between Confederates and Union navies was to fight until you have 10 percent casualities, then you can honorably surrender” Unquote. Surrendering under extreme grim adversaries has seldom been considered an act of cowardice.

In order to fully understand the situation which demands ‘until the last man last bullet’ and tactical withdrawal situations, I would mention here two historical events in the life of Mustafa Kamal Pasha.

When Mustafa Kamal was defending the Gallipoli peninsula and commanding a small contingent as a flank of the main army under the command of German Genaral Otto Liman Von Sanders at Saros Bay where General Von Sanders expected the main attack.

When the attack came, it took some time for Mustafa Kamal to realize that he is facing the brunt of the main British and Australian assault. He sent message to Von Sanders and ordered his troops to hold the ground until last man last bullet unless troops under Von Sanders are committed to the battle. He fought so valiantly that he was often seen standing in front line braving the barrage of the bullets, in order to bolster the morale of his heavily outnumbered troops. Mustafa Kamal earned his respect as an able commander from this moment of ultimate test of nerve and gallantry. It was 455000 British, 79000 French and 50000 Australian and New Zealand troops against 315000 Ottoman troops resulting in 250000 casualties each side.

The same Mustafa Kamal, when battle in Arabian peninsula became doomed and he was appraised of the extreme grim situation, it is reported that he, after a thoughtful moment, pondering over map of the battlefield, removed the Turkish flags from the Arab land and pinned it deep into Turkish order. He ordered his troops to retreat quickly in order to avoid any clash with the advancing British troops, lest the Turkish fighting machine would totally be dismembered. Even General Von Sander had to admit that the decision was right from military point of view, but he himself would not have taken this decision because a fast retreat would throw the abandoned Turkish civilians on the wrath of the Arabs who were fuming with revenge. But the brave commander was focusing on his future plans as to when and how he is going to regain the honor of his nation; a commitment he so successfully achieved later. Had he pursued the theme ‘last man last bullet’ in Arab Land, it would have resulted in gruesome annihilation of his army.

It would be impertinent to call Mustafa Kamal Pasha a brave man in Gallipoli, a coward at the time of tactical withdrawal and again a brave gallant commander, when he pushed Greek army with such great pace much to surprise of the Greeks as well as the whole world.

As a civilian, I personally do not have much information about armies and their war strategies, however our armed forces should continue getting the message that whenever it comes for the defense of the nation, the people of Pakistan are solidly behind them. Adolf Hitler, in his autobiography; Mein Kampf, describes how astrike in ammunition factories in Germany during the First World War, sent the negative message to troops in combat that the nation was not behind them, and that was one of the many morale sagging factors. Regardless of some controversial actions by some commanders, in a grim situation like battle for Dacca, where many factors were working against the country, Pakistan armed forces will remain the pride of the nation and we must not afford to send negative messages to the soldiers and offices in uniform, just for the sake of free media.

Nations learn from their past mistakes and there is no harm in analyzing the reasons of the debacle in order to address the mistakes and shortcomings in the political, social and the military policies. Unfortunately Dacca debacle has its roots in all three domains. Pakistan armed forces (talking purely in combat and defense parameters) have never disappointed the nation ever since Dacca on the battle front and every Pakistani has drawn his and her share of pride out of it be it 1948 or 1965. During the Indian army deployment on our borders in 2002, Pakistani armed forces although heavily outnumbered and outgunned, stood bravely up to the expectations of the entire nation.

In 1973 an Indian war analyst (a retired vice admiral of the Indian navy) cautioned Indian armed forces not to make plans on 1971 scenario. He said quote” from Indian armed forces point of view 1971 was a dream of admirals and generals. Indian armed forces should set war plans on more realistic combat situations” unquote.

If few commanders have failed us, so have some politicians, judges and civil servants. Failure or misdeed of some individuals cannot be accepted as enough reasons to malign the whole organization.

It must however be noted that military takeover of the government is never welcomed and many problems in this country can be attributed towards these disruptions of democracy. However it is also imperative that our armed forces should be assured of unfettered support of the entire nation so long they work within the constitutional boundaries of their organizations. An army devoid of public support loses its cutting edge against the enemy and eventually entire nation pays the price.

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M.Fakhar Mahmood

Electrical Engineer by profession and a witness of Dacca surrender

When I was school going kid, our place was a small city in India. No school buses, so boys and girls were walking to the school which was not more than a mile for the farthest children. The place was a hilly area; extreme hot in summer and chilling cold in winter. In summer the schools were closing at 10 AM so that children can return back home by 10:30. We were 7 brothers and sisters. Like all other houses, we were locked inside the house till evening. We had a favorite game to pass our time. We used to collect small stones from a pile left from previous construction and made competition as to who can pass maximum of 10 stones through the window bars; ¾ inch in diameter and 3 inches apart. Nobody was able to make a score better than 3 per 10 pebbles.

Time passed by and I took admission in Engineering. In second year we have an interesting subject Statistics of which probability was a chapter. One day out of nowhere I thought of calculating the probability of a pebble passing through the gap between two bars if thrown without aiming. I put right size of bar dia. and gaps between bars and selected an average diameter for the pebble. The result was stunning. The probability of the stone hitting the bar was less than 0.5%. Then why the stones were hitting the bar 70 – 80% on most of the occasion. I talked to my professor. He checked my calculations and told me that the calculation was correct. He was not interested in my story of getting an opposite result. Later I talked about my confusion to some elders (My father was dead then, although an extremely busy medical practitioner, he was never short of time to his children’s educational matters) but nobody even listened to my confusion attentively. So gradually this dilemma faded from my memory.

It was late 80^s when while reading an article in the Readers Digest, I got the answer to my long surviving query. The query, though had faded from my memory but never disappeared. It was a story of a man taking his son on a hunting session, hunting flying birds with a shot gun. The boy was an excellent shot and had scored excellent results shooting flying discs. The boy got the first bird right. Second he failed and subsequently he failed the next five. The boy was shocked, surprised and full of shame. But the father was not at all surprised because he knew the reason from his experiences. He told his son that after the first failure, his concentration was on his failure and not the previous success. His mind was overwhelmed with the apprehension of failure instead of aiming for success. In all such cases the failure has a much stronger probability. His asked his son to think of the target with confidence of success and memory of his first success. The boy could hit the target successfully thereafter. Lecture of the father not only corrected the mission of his son, provided me with the answer of the question which was somewhere present in my mind since the last 25 years. Because the query was there somewhere in my mind, I could co-related the story with my childhood experience. Now the result of my quest was vivid in my mind. While aiming to throw the stone through the gaps, we were afraid that the stone will hit the bar, and our aim was unintentionally directed towards the bar and we were successfully hitting the bars, which so far we have been considering failure. Think of the great ability Almighty has given to us. A strife which has less that 0.5% probability, we were achieving an average of 75% of success.

But why I want to tell these stories to professional engineers. Nobody is trying to throw stones between the bars. Nobody is going on hunting missions.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the same rule of throwing pebbles and hunting flying birds apply to our quest for successful career. Whether, it is engineering, finance, or simply, a sport. We have to find out whether we are targeting our success or concentrating over the fear of failure.

Have you seen in a cricket match if a very good batsman comes under pressure and becomes afraid of losing, every time he drives a ball, the ball will go straight to a fielder. He is in fact hitting the bar.

Targeting the Success

Everybody has set goal for his or her career. Each of us wishes to reach certain heights which he thinks is achievable. The first thing is to identify whether we are targeting a success or dreaming of a success. If you are targeting a success, you will in your mind think of the steps which can take you to that height. Hence your ultimate target should be broken into multiple targets; we call them steps. You ought to know well in your mind that without achieving; surmounting or circumventing, the first step, you should not dream of the next one. Your strife for the ultimate goal can only be successful if achieved in steps. Somebody has wisely said that success is achieved not in miles but in inches. Move a little further, hold your ground and move further. If, however, you think of an ultimate target, and within your mind, you are thinking only of the comforts and authority of that position, then be advised that you have not started targeting your goal. You are simply dreaming of a goal and chances of you reaching there are remote.

If you are really targeting a goal then try to identify the pre-requisites for achieving success as well as the distractions which may deviate you, away from the right course.

• To aspire for some higher position, you have to prove yourself worth for the present one with a great margin. In present day corporate culture, the success is measured of a team and seldom of individuals. If you are leader of a team, then it becomes more imperative that you get maximum, from every member of the team. Planning is the key. If you proceed without proper planning and did not allocate responsibilities of the individuals properly, then chances of success are remote. Blaming your colleagues and subordinate for your failure is another negative aspect preventing your success. Hence healthy relationship with your colleagues and subordinates will go in your favour. Don’t forget that you can achieve this only by creating respect for you in the hearts of others. A simple rule is that don’t expect from others what your yourself dislike to do. If you are thinking negative, you will form a big list of individuals, who don’t like you and are declining to follow your line or cooperate with you. All your life you will focus on fighting the intrigues (many of them imaginary) of others. Your target towards the goal (success) will be drastically distracted.
• The other important factor is to develop good relations with those who are not part of your team but important for you to achieve your tasks. Like, other department heads, with whom your coordination is essential. You will find people with different temperament, and dealing stubbornly will only result in stubborn reactions. To deal with people effectively is your own responsibility, which if you try to involve the top management, will not create any good impression of yours. Dealing with people so that they give you priority, is not very difficult but it needs most of the corrections in yourself which is the most difficult part of the career. Everybody considers himself perfect and wants others to correct their behaviour. Unless you learn the art of self- analyzing and analyze what changes I can make in my approach, improvements, can be a remote dream.
• While talking with others never forget the golden rule of effectiveness as published by famous human behavior specialist Eric Bern.

What Do You SayActual Words – 7% The way words are delivered – 38% Facial Expression – 55% If high success is my dream, then instead of trying to change the world, I have to focus on the target and make positive changes in my own approach.

• Successful managers never stop achieving knowledge. It is the knowledge that make you distinguished from others. Learning more about your subject, about management, about planning and about human behaviour are the essential tools for becoming successful mangers.

Plans are worthless planning is everything

These are not the words of an engineer nor of a management specialist. These are the words of General Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied armed forces during the Second World War. However similar message has been passed by the famous management specialist, Dr. Edward Deming. Never try to implement a plan which has been successfully implemented in some other organization. Don’t forget that every plan is tailor made for a particular environment. For any planning, the first requirement to collect actual data with respect to your strength, your weaknesses, prevailing guiding policy of the company, study of market/ client behaviour, a comprehensive study of client’s complaints or dissatisfaction. Only after collecting the above data, a successful planning can start. Planning is what every leader must carry out and refrain from going with shortcut, and implementing, someone else’s successful plan. Planning is all about setting targets one after another in order to achieve the ultimately set goal.

It is not very unusual that some factors and maybe some people are really trying to create impediment in your way for success. Never waste your energy in getting square with creating impediments for them by fighting their intrigues or clarifying the negative impression they are creating for you. These are the unnecessary distractions and if you fall prey to them, these will distract your focus from your ultimate goal and impede your progress. Just consider that if you are thinking seriously about those who are creating impediments for you, your focus will unintentionally be diverted towards them so much so that while concentrating on your goal, your mind will focus on the impediment and those who are creating the impediments. You will end up hitting the bars. Your performance should speak about you alone and policy of ignoring the impediments will create frustration in those who wish to see you down. Accordance to my experience ignoring the negative thinkers is a safe and positive policy; a policy which always shows positive results.

Don’t forget that Almighty has given you limited energy and resources. It is your own choice whether you use all the energy and resources in building your career or a good part of them in venting out anger against those whom you consider are creating hurdles on your way to success.

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Mohammad Fakhar Mahmood

Senior Electrical Engineer, Gulf Consult

In more than 30 years of my professional career, I came across many professionals; colleagues or otherwise. With some I was impressed; some did not impress me at all. However a good number of people created a profound curiosity in my mind. Those were the people who had excellent academic career and sharp professional skills, but were conspicuous due to their failures in grabbing the successes commensurate with their skills. In almost all such cases, their lack of success was normally attributed towards the imperfect world. My curiosity led me to study some of these cases and what I found was little to do with the imperfection of the world. While they concentrated on honing their professional skills, they ignored many important rungs of the career ladder. During my study I tried to record the various factors which affect negativity on the journey towards success. It is interesting to share my studies with the young professionals who may find it helpful in their own journeys towards successful career.

Success v/s Perfection

Success and perfection are not always co-related. Perfection may lead you to success, however too much concentration on perfection may sometimes shift your focus from the ultimate goal; success. To achieve success, perfection may be a pre-requisite. However those who target perfection instead of success, decline to make minor compromises, which are sometimes essential to make a product, design or idea sellable. While people appreciate bright ideas, they will buy only those which are profitable. While your employer wants you to be perfect, he would still want you to be open to compromises instead of resisting them. Rigidity is seldom appreciated in the corporate world. While accepting the compromises, it is pertinent to highlight the qualities which will be lost, but the message should be that of an attitude of compromise instead of rigid one. While you are concentrating on the quality of the product, you employer might be contemplating its marketing.

Avoid Self Praise

This is one aspect which is much disdained and even ridiculed in corporate culture. Unfortunately in most cases persons possessing excellent academic career or professional skills fall prey to it. The inherent desire that their skills are recognized and appreciated, transforms sometimes into ridiculous behavior. Your boss has hired you. He is utilizing your skills. Who knows better that him about your abilities? All he wants to know as to how much your skills can be translated into success; his success. Your colleagues know you and probably respect you within their hearts. However your efforts to impress them will corrode the respect, subsequently resulting in non-co-operations. You will be the only loser. If you consider yourself superior than your colleagues and keep a distance from them, very soon you will find yourself enclosed in a self- spun cocoon of esteem. You will be considered of little value to your organization. Your employers may still retain you like a piece of costly furniture but it is highly unlikely they will still entrust you with a task of great responsibilities.

Be in the Centre of the Team

If you are gifted with sharp skills, you are expected to be in the centre of the team. Your boss wants you to stimulate his work force. Your juniors want to learn from you. Your colleagues want you to lead the team with bright ideas and professional approach so that they get benefited from the success of the team. Always attribute the success to the team instead of you alone. If you succeed being in the centre, your juniors will go out of the way to give you their best. Your colleagues will feel comfortable with you as a leader and will be glad to drag your line. Your boss will be satisfied with the professional environment and the productivity of the team. You will be the ultimate winner.

Be a Leader and not a Follower

Only those possessing leadership qualities have the right to dream climbing high on the ladder of success. Blaming others for your failure is disdained in corporate culture. Your boss is only interested in accomplishment of the task, not in the list of excuses as to why the job could not be accomplished. Professionals, who accept the responsibility of failure, are more respected than those who blame others for their failures. Once a task has been assigned to you, it is your job to draw the action plan, form your team, surmount or circumvent the hurdles and manage the resources. Successful managers are those who have the courage to take decisions. A bad decision is considered better than no decision, because by analyzing the negative results of a bad decision, a person can hone his professional skills. Those who do not take decisions and play safe, remain stagnant with their skills. Nagging professionals are seldom assigned bigger responsibilities.

Identify the Right Course of Action

Management conclusions drawn from the popular 80-20 rule of Vilfredo Pareto, the famous Italian economist and management scientist (although Civil Engineer by profession) states that 80% of the reasons are linked to 20% of the problems whereas 20% of the reasons address 80% of the problem; vital few and trivial many. In order to tackle a problem or achieve a target, it is imperative to identify those 20% of reasons, which, if successfully tackled would eliminate 80% of the problem. Collection of statistical data and brainstorming are the proper tools utilized in identifying and prioritizing the action plan, so target is achieved faster and cheaper.

Improve your Communication Skills

The most common reason for the failure of stars in my observation was lacking the ability to communicate effectively. What good is your professional skill, if you cannot sell your ideas. And you cannot do it without sound and effective communication skills. During my observations, I have noticed of some salient lapses in the field of communication leading to miserable failures. I want to share them with young professionals.

Do not multitask

Multitasking has entered in our daily life like a virus. We eat while we read or watch TV. We walk and talk on cell phone. We watch TV and talk serious matters at the same time. However multitasking, while communicating with someone , especially in business matters can have disastrous effects. While you are talking to someone and at the same time distracting your attention to a paper on the table or moving the mouse on your computer screen, this implies to insulting the person you are talking to. The prerequisite for a successful conversation is your unshared attention. Even, while talking on telephone, moving the mouse on computer screen or shifting the attention on a paper on table, will easily be noticed on the other side, creating the negative feeling. Politeness, as well as seriousness, are the keys to successful conversation. Multitasking during the conversation removes the element of both from it.

Be Polite During Disagreement

Politeness is one virtue which is respected in any civilized society and is a key to any successful communication. During the communication, disagreements are a normal phenomenon. But disagreements do not mean war. The purpose of conversation is to convince the other person of your point of view. In case of disagreements, the task is more complex. It is to convince your counterpart, to shift from his standing to that of yours. This can only be achieved through polite approaches. Loosing temper will immediately evaporate any chance of agreement. Also avoid impressing others with your knowledge. Show respect to other’s view point even if you are in total disagreement. Phrases like ‘you are wrong’ and ‘your information is not correct’ are considered imprudent. Replace them with polite phrases like ‘ your ideas are good but I see some problem in their implementation.’

Never conclude a conversation with a note of total disagreement or broken down situations. When you feel that the conversation is not likely to reach a common accepted agreement, finish it with new proposals and an offer to discuss the matter later. This will give you the opportunity to re-draw your action plan and approach and prepare better for the next conversation. Before starting a conversation, be prepared to face a situation of total disagreement. This world does not belong to you. Always be prepared for such a situation to occur and be equipped with appropriate responses. Even if you do not want the failed conversation to be re started, end the meeting with utmost politeness. No tense face, no negative tone.

Never Equivocate

Equivocal professionals soon lose their charm and respect. Business communications and presentations should be clear of ambiguities. Those who equivocate are considered to be not confident and poorly prepared for meetings and discussions.

Presenting an Idea to Your Boss

Many skilled professionals have irritated their bosses by their negative approach while presenting an idea. While you present an idea , your focus should be on the idea itself and how it can be beneficial for the organization instead of praising yourself. Select the proper time for the presenting the idea to your boss. Never get him when he is tense or preparing for a meeting. Time after a successful meeting is the best for new ideas. Never try to sell yourself instead of the idea. Your boss will know your worth by what you are producing and not by the words, you consume in your praise. All he is interested is, what your idea is worth for the benefit of the organization. Do not forget that he owns or heads the organization and he has reached this place with great ideas, sharp professional skills and hard work. Maybe he himself sometimes contemplated the very idea you are trying to sell. Maybe your idea is excellent, but he does not see much financial benefits out of it.

While presenting the idea, look him in the eyes. You have to watch all the time whether your boss is still interested in continuing the discussion or not. The moment you feel lack of interest, you should skillfully pull out of the conversation. You should be prepared with the action plan of withdrawal before you have started the presentation. I have seen professionals faltering the moment they see lack of interest in the eyes or tone of their bosses.

Improve Your Writing Skill

Excellent writing skill is one of the basic requirements of executives and professionals. The letter should be short and free of ambiguities. Exhaustive letters make the very subject matter obscure. A letter is half conversation, hence anything which is a prerequisite for a successful conversation applies to it. Politeness and clarity are must. Offers, proposals should be very clear without obscurity or hidden conditions. Even if you want to write something strong, the hardness of the matter should be supported by politeness to a degree that firmness of the message does not disappear in the softness of the politeness. It should be like a steel rod wrapped with foam. The main object should be addressed in the very first paragraph. Add a reminder in the last paragraph if the letter is long.

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Fakhar Mahmood

Professional Electrical Engineer

Today when we talk of modern management principles, they are generally the post second world war principles which started in United States in late forties but got prominence only in early fifties when they got implemented in post war resurrection of Japan. Only after the change in management principles turned Japan from an Industrial dwarf (pre-war) to an industrial giant, these principles got worldwide prominence and acceptance and soon were applied in the industries and organizations throughout the world. The beauty of these principles is that they are not organization specific. They can apply equally to an auto industry as well as a coffee shop. When we talk of these revolutionary principles and techniques, three names and their theories and techniques are mainly referred to even after six decades. They are;

• Josef M. Juran
• Edward Deming
• Kaoru Ishikawa

However before we start talking about the three stalwarts of the modern management principles, it is imperative to note that these gentlemen made these remarkable achievements by implementing the revolutionary principles and theories developed by the greatest socio economic scientist and political scientist, mathematician and philosopher of the 19^th -20^th century; Vilfredo Pareto.

Vilfredo Pareto, popularly known as Pareto along with his principles and techniques was a man of such a multi-dimensional expertise that it requires volumes to describe his achievements and research publications. However today we will limit our talk to his studies and subsequent principles which relate to the later days revolution in management theories and techniques.

Pareto born 1848 – 1923 was a civil engineer by profession. He got engineering degree in 1870 and started his engineering profession but due to his research and analytical works in socio economic and management fields, soon(1886) he was teaching economics and management at the University of Florence and later years in Switzerland till the end of his life.

Pareto’s thesis in his civil engineering degree course was ‘The Fundamental Principles of Equilibrium in Solid Bodies’. Soon after his graduation Pareto started his owns study of ‘State of Equilibrium in the Distribution of Wealth in Italian Society’. In his study, Pareto deviated from the prevailing principle of carrying on analyses based upon popularly accepted figures in the Data institutions. He started his works by collecting actual data from various cities of Italy and Switzerland. His research paper completely changed the popular paradox of the wealth distribution in the society. His research and publications were wide and exhaustive; mainly on economic reforms, government role in various institutions, power wealth theory (political power transforming into accumulation of wealth), social problems etc. However we would rather limit our discussion on Pareto’s basic principles later applied in modern management principles and made quality improvement of organizations so technical and simple.

Pareto first discovered that 80% of the land in Italy belongs to 20% of people. This led to famous Pareto Distribution which is also called today as 80-20 principle. Later Pareto published that every malice and problem of a society conforms to the 80-20 pattern.

Without discussing more about Pareto and his research and achievements, which were mainly in socio-economic field, we will now start our discussion on how the Pareto Distribution (especially famous Pareto curve) were implemented in the modern management principles especially those implemented in Japan in early 50s.

After devastation in Second world war Japan’s elders decided to focus on economic growth instead of trying to become military power. Pre-war Japan’s industries had a reputation of poor quality and cheap but unreliable products. Famous term Japanese doll was popularly used for any fragile and unreliable material. European Industrial giants like England, Germany, Italy, had completely overshadowed the reputation of Japan’s industrial products. Japan’s elders knew that without a revolutionary change in the reputation of their industrial products, they cannot put the country on her feet. Japanese decided that in spite of nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their only respite is to shed the grievances against USA because due to General McArthur’s efforts Japanese were coming in contact with many expert Americans who were sympathetic to japan. In early 50s Japanese came in contact with two Americans who by that time were already famous because of their research, publication and successful implementation of modern management principles and techniques. They were Josef M. Juran and Dr. Edwards Deming. Japan begged them for their services and these are the two gentlemen who are responsible for the rise of Japan from an industrial dwarf to an industrial giant. We will now talk about these two gentlemen and their principles.

Josef M. Juran

It was Josef M. Juran popularly known as Juran, who was the first to implement Pareto principles in his profession.

• Statistics through actual data collection, later changed by Juran as data sampling when the data was too large.
• Pareto 80-20 principle.

Juran (1904 – 2008) was a Jewish Romanian American Electrical Engineer by profession. Later in his career he studied Pareto principles very keenly and found out that without properly analyzing the root cause or the major problem or problems in an organization, the management may be taking actions which may cost more and yield less results. He made his own study of various industrial and social behaviour in the light of pareto’s 80-20 principles and developed the famous Pareto curve which even today is used as a prime tool for eliminating the impediments towards the progress of an organization.

Later study and data collection in the fields of individual interest revealed many more examples.

• 80% of a stock is filled with 20% of the products.
• 80% of the profit is achieved with 20% of customers.
• 80% of the wealth is owned by 20% of the persons.
• 20% of the reasons are responsible for 80% of the disease.
• 80% of traffic pollution is produced by 20% of the vehicle
• 80% of customer complaints are about the same 20% of your projects, products or services.

This may slightly vary from country to country or organization to organization; 70-30, 90-10, but still it is popularly called Pareto Principle or 80-20 principle.

Juran developed the principle of ‘Vital Few & Trivial Many’ that a high level of efficiency (80%) can be achieved with limited means (20%). But if a management issued orders to actions on ad hoc basis and not based upon detailed study and data collection, it is just possible that after taking 80% of action (investing more money, man hours and resources) you achieve only 20% of benefit and yet there may be celebrations that the set targets have been achieved.

Juran publication on “Cost of poor quality” was based upon hard realities but was not much welcomed in corporate sector. Any corporate, if registered a profit less than what was targeted, it was considered a loss and the popular solution was to reduce the cost; meaning reduce the quality. Juran cautioned the corporates that once the effect of poor quality is registered in the market and your competitors have steps in, it takes a considerable cost and time to come out of the negative effect.

The first edition of Juran’s Quality Control Handbook in 1951 attracted the attention of Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and on their invitation he moved to Japan in 1954. Juran worked on the principle of quality of the end project and described the ‘Cost of Poor Quality”. Juran’s publication ‘Juran Trilogy ‘mainly focused on Quality planning, Quality control and quality improvement. Juran is widely credited for adding human dimension to quality management; pushing for education and training of managers. However his suggestion that top and middle managers need training was not welcomed, rather despised in the USA corporates.

One example of Pareto Curve is put up below. The subject is Pre-requisites of country’s Economic/Industrial Growth

If instead of considering the vital few they are busy in making industrial zones and inviting FDI, we know, what are the chances of success.

Another example of Pareto curve with respect to Public Health is as below.

You keep on making hospitals and they will never be enough. You keep on making medical colleges and there will never be enough doctors to tackle the ever increasing health problems. But instead you invest on providing the citizens with safe potable water and crack down on food adulteration and industrial waste polluting air and water, probably the present nos. of hospitals and medical colleges will be adequate.

The successful use of the Pareto principle was applied in late 50s when Datsun and Toyota of Japan decided to manufacture trucks. Advised by Juran they made survey in all the countries where they wanted to sell their trucks. They talked to the transporters of various countries and the result of the survey was stunning. Majority of the users wanted small trucks (pickups). Those days if you want to carry your sofa set or a refrigerator you will either hire a donkey cart or a 10 Ton truck. But 1 Ton pickup was high on public demand as shown on Pareto Curve. We all know what a revolutionary product was a small pickup.

Every organization has to generate its own Pareto curve based upon its goals, resources and working culture.

Dr. Edwards Deming

It is worth mentioning that Pareto’s’s 80-20 principle, Juran and Ishikawa’s works mainly created the necessary tools to analyse and prioritize the problems but the man who changed the complexion of modern management was Dr. Deming.

Dr. Edwards Deming popularly known as Deming (1900 – 1993) was the main factor behind the successful industrial revolution of Japan and latter his management principles got acceptance in every organization around the world.

Deming was also an electrical engineer by profession but due to his prowess in mathematics, developed the sampling techniques which were used first time during the 1940 U.S. Census, formulating the Deming-Stephen Algorithm for Iterative Proportional fitting in the process. In 1947 Deming was involved in early planning for the 1951 Japanese Census as requested by US Army then occupying Japan. There the Japanese learned about Deming’s expertise in quality control techniques and thus Deming was invited by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers to teach them statistical control for the reconstruction of Japan. Today Demin’s quality circle principles are adopted throughout the world in small as well as large organizations.

We will go through the major Deming principle.

• Create communication to all employees a statement of the aims and purpose of the company. Don’t forget that if top management failed to formulate and enforce a policy of the company then each manager will follow his own policy and the company will have 10 different policies if there are 10 middle managers (department heads)
• Adapt to the new philosophy of the day; industries and economics are always changing.
• Build quality into product throughout production
• End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone; instead, try a long-term relationship based on established loyalty and trust.
• Work to constantly improve quality and productivity
• Institute on-the-job (in house) training
• Teach and institute leadership to improve all job function.
• Drive out fear, create trust
• Strive to reduce intradepartmental conflicts.
• Remove barriers that rob people of pride and ownership
• Educate with self-improvement programmes.

Deming had realized that unless revolutionary changes are made in the culture of the management, industries and organizations cannot cope up with growing challenges.

The basic change Deming brought in the management was completely contrary to the pre-war principle. He stated that the most precious asset for any organization is its employees. Instead of always keeping the employees under threat of losing their job (a pre-war popular management principle), they should have faith in maintaining employment if remain loyal and productive as well as improve and adapt to the changes in the company’s culture.

Deming stated that majority (85%) of a worker’s effectiveness is determined by the environment (created by top management) and only minimally by his own skill. Deming always stressed in the improvement of management and the environment of an organization.

Employees should be regularly monitored about their performance, their skills, strength and weaknesses.

Their weaknesses be reduced through in-house training.

Those who are on decision making position should be appraised of the Company’s principles and leadership qualities be generated into them through regular lectures and training.

The most important factor is relation between employees especially intra- department relations.

In order to generate ownership of the company in the employees, Deming suggested the theory of Quality Circle. Quality circle is mainly instrumental in generating real data of problems and subsequent suggestion (through brainstorming) by the employees.

In a Quality circle or circles (more than one quality circle can operate at a time in an organization) 5 to 9 employees of different category engineers/ draftsmen/ Clerks form one group. Each group (quality circle) be given one task to discuss and each employee (regardless of his status) should be allowed to express his views freely without the fear of being ridiculed by the seniors. If head of department is also a member, he will never talk in the meeting but note down the views of others. However when he prepares the final report to the management he will write the conclusive outcome of the group discussion along with his own views.

Quality Circle meetings should be during office hours with tea and snacks provided by the management.

Allowing the staff (especially the lower staff) to talk on company problems would create a sense of ownership in them. Ridiculing a staff in front of others steals away part of his efficiency (without the employee actually noticing it himself) and the employer is the actual loser.

Deming insists that if you praise an employee, do it in front of all. If you want to reprimand a staff, give him a private meeting. If a staff is failing to improve, discuss his failures and shortcomings in a private session, explain all his weaknesses, ask him to improve, If he is stubborn he should be told either to improve or leave. Bad and stubborn staff not only spoil others, but also dishearten the good employees as well as destroy the culture of the company. Employees who do not mix with others and are short tempered should not be encouraged. Deming always stated that first thing to study and improve is the culture of the company. Once decided it should be made a guideline for every employee to follow.

Deming also asks the Management to constantly monitor the Company’s performance, efficiency and reputation and set targets to improve in all fields. Deming’s famous zero error theory became very famous in the Industrial management. He asked Toyota what is the error percentage which is within acceptable limit. Toyota said 2%. Deming stated that without going into your data records, I can say that your failures are between 1.5% and 1.9%, a matter of celebration. Make it 1% and you will get errors between 0.5% and 0.9%. Astonishingly this really happened in Toyota industries. However this did not happen just by reducing acceptable error percentage. Deming and Toyota called a meeting of all mangers and asked them to study the sections which had registered more than 0.5% of error. Gave them 45 days, to come with full study and recommendations to reduce the error percentage. After hours of brainstorming a new policy was announced and error percentage was successfully achieved below 1%.

The question is why Deming could not bring these changes in American Industries. It was all because American business and industries at that time were dominated by whites who were not prepared to involve the workers especially coloured race in the management. American business culture was the same as rest of the world ‘Whim of the owner’.

Ford motors were the first American company to seek help from Deming. In 1981 Ford’s sales were plummeting. To Ford’s surprise Deming did not talk of quality. He talked about management telling Ford that Management actions are responsible for 85% of the problems in developing better cars.

Following Deming’s techniques by 1986 Ford was the most profitable American Auto company.

Deming stated that experience alone is worthless. If a person does not improve his knowledge with years he will remain useless even after years of experience.

Deming made a principle to train top management only. He used to say that top management only is responsible for any good or bad of a company. Top management have to formulate the culture of a company and ensure that the culture is implemented by the middle management.

Demining never talked without data. He used to say “ In God we trust all others must bring data”.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa

Deming’s Quality Circle and Juran’s Pareto Curve techniques were further polished and strengthened by the great idea of Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa through famous Ishikawa Diagram popularly known as Fishbone Digram also as Cause and Effect Diagram.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa (1915-1989) was also an engineer by profession (Applied Chemistry) graduated in 1939. He joined JUSE and presented this principle in early 60s and soon it was widely accepted throughout the world as the most powerful tool for brainstorming.

A thick line is drawn on a paper. All members are invited to discuss various reason (on one subject at a time) which are impeding the improvement in that field and all causes noted. In the end the group will be able to identify the actual problem or problems impeding the improvement thus a task set for future. The above example is about losing clients by not fulfilling the commitments; dates and quality. Employees were allowed to freely express their views even when some of them talked about food quality and incompetent staff. Regardless all comments were recorded. Ultimately, the fault was in the policy of top management.

An example of the successful usage of the Ishikawa Diagram was reported by an electronic industry of Japan where girls were assembling and soldering electronic circuit boards.

They found their failure ratio quite high. They started analysing data. Surprisingly the failures were not the work of one or few employees but almost every employee registered failures. Company knew that the employees are all highly skilled. Further data analysis showed that most of the failures were work done in the afternoon.

Through brainstorming using Ishikawa diagram they found out that the monotony of the work and constant body posture was making them sluggish and tired. Body was sending negative signals to brain effecting their concentration.

On experts advise the company started a practice that after each 2 hours of work, the employees were taken in a bright hall and made pity exercise for 10 minutes. The result was stunning; zero failure.

As Deming says that techniques change, the market changes and so should change the culture of a company. For this it is imperative to follow a regular analysis of the company culture in the background of changing market climate in order to meet the ever challenging behavior of the market.

This is worth mentioning that the three gentlemen who started with the resurrection of Japanese industries in mid- fifties were responsible for Japan to be accepted by 1971-72 as the world leader of industrial quality.

Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis

In mid 1950s Eric Berne published his work on human transactional analysis and developed the famous PAC (Parent, Adult, Child) theory. However Eric Berne was not a management specialist. His field was human behavior. Later management specialists realized that management is all about human behavior, right action in right time. From late 70s Eric Berne’s PAC theory or transactional analysis was taught in almost all management institutions.

Child Receives instruction

Adult Gives instructions to his juniors and receives from his seniors

Parent Gives instruction and receives feed -back and reports.

The management problem is when the above three do not act how they are expected to act. In order to make things simple, I will give example of an Architecture Engineering Design & Supervision company.

• A child is a fresh graduate from university and is posted in a junior position somewhere on a project. He is expected to learn from his juniors as well as his seniors. He is not supposed to produce anything. Instead the company is investing in him so that after 4-5 years he becomes productive. However the engineer is an university topper and back of his mind he thinks the company has not done justice with him by placing on such a junior position. He does not give any respect let alone listen to his foreman. He even considers his seniors as inferior to him because they do not have academic excellence like him. Such an engineer will remain stagnant with his knowledge.
• An adult is let us consider, an engineer with 10-15 years of experience. He takes decisions on normal affairs. In case of disputes or bigger problems, he refers to his senior such as department head. However if the person has not developed leadership quality, he will never take any decision himself. He will involve his senior always with the intention that in case of a failure the blame will go to his senior. Playing safe will encourage him to believe that if he does not take a decision, he will never be blamed for any failure.
• Worst happen when a parent (top management) person does not live up to his responsibilities. Let us consider an architect who is best of all. He has brought lot of praise and business for the company. So the management wants to reward him and promote him on the position of general manager. His responsibilities are now completely different. He has to meet the clients, prepare report on his studies of clientage requirement, culture and hurdles in ministries, cost vs. efficiency. He has to coordinate with different departments and fix targets.

However back on his mind, he knows that it was his prowess in the field of architecture design which got him praise and promotion. So he keeps on interfering in the design of all architects and keeps on giving them suggestions and amending their designs. His suggestions may be valuable, but he has no time for his actual job so he keeps on fighting with the clients and also with the department heads by making commitments not coordinated with department heads.

I will blame more to the top management who failed to pass this notion to him that from the day of his promotion, his performance will be evaluated based on his achievements on his new responsibilities.

One more publication of Eric Berne is widely applied in management trainee. It is;

What do you say

Effect of what you say depends;

Actual words 7%

The way words are delivered 38%

Facial expression 55%

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M.Fakhar Mahmood

Electrical Engineer by profession