Volume No.8 March - April 2017 Issue No. 2 From the desk of the Editor Dear colleagues, The Alpha story is a fascinating one. Most people would designate as “English” the writing that is used to express the English language. This writing might also be termed “Latin,” or “Roman,” for even in its modern form English writing differs little from the Latin writing of more than 2,000 years ago. The Latin alphabet is a development from the Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet, in turn, is an adaptation of a writing that was developed among the Semites of Syria about 1500 BC. Outwardly, this first Semitic writing seems to be an original and individual creation. Its principles, however, are certainly based on the Egyptian word-syllabic writing, which, together with the Sumerian, Hittite, Chinese, and other writings, belongs to a great family of ancient systems of writing. The history of the oldest of these writings, Sumerian, can be followed from about 3100 BC. Examples of written numbers exist from even earlier — as early as the late 3rd millennium BC — in other parts of the Middle East. This issue … We have attempted to give each of the 26 alphabets equal weightage. We identified individual contributors and allotted them an alphabet and asked them to put in their creative best in presenting thoughts around the Alphabet. I am confident you will find this issue informative, colourful, fascinating, …. (can I get an adjective starting with each alphabet!). My thanks and congrats to each contributor and thanks to the creative team for making this issue very special. Please don’t miss a letter in this - you’ll regret it for sure! Look forward to your feedback. Ciao until the next issue (your favourite summer special). The Power of Alphabets Special Issue ALGEBRA Algebra is an important and a very old branch of mathematics which deals with solving algebraic equations. In third century, the Greek mathematician Diophantus wrote a book “Arithmetic” which contained a large number of practical problems. In the sixth and seventh centuries, Indian mathematicians like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta have worked on linear equations and quadratic equations and developed general methods of Peacock (Britain, 1791-1858) was the founder of axiomatic solving them. thinking in arithmetic and algebra. For which he is called The next major development in algebra took place in the “Euclid of Algebra.” De Morgan (Britain, 1806-1871) ninth century by Arab mathematicians. In particular extended Peacock’s work to consider operations defined Al-Khwarizmi’s book entitled “Compendium on on abstract symbols. calculations by completion and balancing” was an P Prabaharan, Production, SSCL, Berigai. important milestone. There he used the word aljabra – which was Latinized into algebra – translates as competition or restoration. Al-khwarizmi’s contribution to Mathematics and Geography established the basis for innovations in Algebra. He presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. He is considered the founder of algebra. In the 13th century, Leonardo Fibanacci’s books on algebra were important and influential. Other highly influential works on algebra were those of the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), and of the English mathematician Robert Recorde (1510-1558). Air Force One (1997) The President of the US is returning home from Moscow when his plane, Air Force One, is hijacked. Held for ransom until a General is released, the President now finds himself in a do or die situation. Director: Wolfgang Petersen Writer: Andrew W Marlowe Stars: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close Apricot: Apricots can be eaten Asparagus: Asparagus is a perennial fresh or dried - both are packed with vegetable, taking two or three years vitamins! Fresh apricots have a soft to become established, but it lives for and slightly furry skin. They make 20 to 30 years. Asparagus requires a good lunchbox snack. Apricots are minimal care and produces sweet, also high in beta-carotene - this helps tender stalks every spring. us keep our eyes and skin healthy. 2 The colour amethyst is a moderate, transparent purple. It is also known as a deep shade of lavender. Its name is from the stone amethyst. Positive Words starting with the letter B Beatify To make supremely happy. Bliss Complete happiness. Benevolent Marked by or disposed to doing good. Blazing Bruce Lee Of outstanding power, light, speed, heat or intensity. Lee Jun-fan, known professionally as Bruce Lee, was a Hong Kong and American actor, martial artist, Benefactor philosopher, filmmaker, and founder of the martial art Someone or something that provides help or an advantage. Jeet Kune Do. Biophilia A hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature. Beingness The quality, state, or condition of having existence. Beautify Improve the appearance of. Breeziness Briskly informal, relaxed, cheerful. Beatitude State of utmost bliss, blessedness. Buoyancy K Sathish Kumar, Maintenance, Chemplast Sanmar, Mettur. The ability or tendency of something to float in water or other fluid. A cheerful and optimistic attitude or disposition. Ben-Hur (1959) When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent Bullishness into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. Optimistic about the prospects of something or someone. Director: William Wyler Brio Writers: Lew Wallace (novel), Karl Tunberg (screenplay) Great energy and confidence. Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Bloom Stephen Boyd A flower, especially one cultivated for its beauty. Broccoli: Broccoli is a cool-season Blueberry: The blueberry is a crop that tolerates late spring frosts. flowering shrub that produces berries Fresh broccoli tastes infinitely that are coloured blue to purple. better than commercially-produced counterparts. Burgundy is a shade of reddish brown associated with the Burgundy wine of the same name. 3 called A and B! The Conflicted, fun part is that the C Confusing, language is written in its own tongue. It evolved Capricious, into C++ and then C#. Charming, Crazy, C is Cool; it gives us music in Concert. In Cool! music, C is a note having C for Cat? Or C for Cut? This is not easy to C! a frequency 261.63 Hz or its multiples by 2 or Sometimes C has no role as in ‘science’. C is definitely ½. schizophrenic, it seems. Even worse – it is almost unnecessary – when we have an ‘s’ and a ‘k’ to do most C is rich: standing as it does for Cash (Crores anyone?) as of its work. A simple semi-circle that doesn’t lend itself well as for Credit Card. Demonetisation clearly does not to much elaboration is the third letter of the alphabet. It affect this rich guy. C is for Carat – a measure of a gem usually also stands for the third in a series. stone’s size. Scientifically ‘c’ has been enshrined in “E = mc2” – an C is sporty: C for Champion, Courage and Class. C is equation everyone knows, even if they do not know what for Cricket and ‘caught by’ in cricket. C is emotional: it says, ‘c’ stands for the velocity of light – nearly 300,000 C for calm, C for care, C for contact, Co-operation and km/s. Oddly enough ‘c’ also stands for the velocity of Companionship, C for child, C for church and C for sound in air – about 330 m/s. ‘C’ is all light and sound, colour. C also has a dark side: as Crime and Criminals. one might say. Of course, ‘C’ has no copyright on presence C gives us food – by allowing us to cook! C also names in equations, even if it does stand for ‘Copyright’. C makes many culinary delights. C for Coffee and C for Chocolate several other appearances in science: ‘C’ for Carbon – the – sometimes combined into one heavenly ice-cream! basis of life, ‘C’ also stands for ‘cytosine’ a building block Clearly without the Vitamin ‘C’ we would not have of life – one of the four nucleotides used in building DNA. Chemplast, Chennai, Cuddalore or Cricket – one wonders In thermodynamics (the science on heat and energy) where all these important components of the Sanmar C starts the Calorie. C also measures the temperature as family would then be! Celsius. C for Curie, the unit of radioactivity and one of G Sanjay Kumar, SRSTI, Sanmar Corporate Division, the greatest scientists (not just woman scientist) – with Cuddalore. two Nobel Prizes! C for Chemistry and C for Chemical Engineering! C also represents Centum (that dreaded number Casablanca (1942) of the students of In Casablanca, Morocco in December mathematics in Chennai). 1941, a cynical American expatriate C also names the iconic meets a former lover, with unforeseen devices of all – Car and complications. Computer. C is also Director: Michael Curtiz the original superstar of Writers: Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein programming languages. Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid In that case C did come Marie Curie after two other languages Cantaloupe: Cantaloupe is a type of melon Carrot: Carrots are slow to belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family germinate, especially in dry which also includes fruits and vegetables conditions, but they take up little like squash, pumpkin, cucumber, gourd, room and are easy to grow. Thin etc. This fruit is light yellow to orange in carrots to 2 inches apart and grow colour, sometimes with a deeper salmon hue half-length varieties, such as ‘Danvers and like other melons it also grows on the Half-Long’ if you have heavy soil. ground surface as a trailing vine. 4 The web colour cyan, is one of the three secondary colours in the RGB colour model, used for creating all colours on a computer or television. D for Absolute Power and Certainty! When one pronounces the letter D one subconsciously puts power into it! D is used for strong words like Daring, Decadent and Diligent.