Thursday, March 29, 2012

Harmonics: A Sign of Problem or Stability? Thinking of Models


Harmonics:  A Sign of Problem or Stability? Thinking of Models

In electrical engineering harmonics are just mathematical / artificial components which can help us to  analyze and understand certain electrical phenomena.  But is this the end of the story?  I humbly submit there is more than that behind the scenes.

Harmonics may have indeed some much more profound meaning.  They seem to be related and express the stability and order of the physical process that generates them.  And for this simple analysis let us go back to ancient scientific models.

From antique Greece to the medieval times -  circular / harmonic movements are related to the eternal stability of the Unmoved Mover.  The idea of a desire, love or appetite of the physical reality to be closer to the Source - led them to think of perpetual motions - for which the most perfect figure was a circle and hence, harmonically built.

These spherical movements are the basis for planetary harmonics - carried “by love, by intellectual desire, never satisfied because they know they can never completely assimilate themselves to their object, and never frustrated because they continually do so to be the fullest extent  which their nature admits or requires.  Their existence is thus one of delight.  The motions of the universe are to be conceived not as those of a machine or even an army, but rather as a dance, a festival, a symphony, a carnival, or all these in one.  They are the unimpeded movement of the most perfect impulse towards the most perfect Object.”

Can this perspective be of any help for power engineering? 

In electrical engineering, however,  the thing is a little more complicated, but nevertheless, let us try.

When a quasi-perfect sinusoidal voltage source is disturbed by a non-linear excitation (resulting from an energy conversion process, for example) the resulting current  can be visualized as a sum of harmonic components (a fundamental + higher frequencies – thanks to Fourier).  And although the higher frequencies can be annoying to the electric grid they themselves maybe a sign of the stability of the energy conversion process.   

Thus, using the medieval model, they can be seen as a symbol of the harmony within the physical energy conversion process and the desire of all higher frequency components to maintain closer to the original source,  via integer multiples of its circular movements.

Perhaps one could go even further and explain resonance as the natural / self-ability in nature to maintain, within bounds, and for as long as possible, the energy available between physical elements, via the production of a harmonic exchange of energy.

Anyway, the ancient and medieval models are certainly scientifically outdated, but they can still delight us - - -   few constructions of imagination have such integrated splendor, sobriety and coherence  – and perhaps, sometimes, they can still help us to visualize certain things by giving us intuition insights that cannot be derived purely from mathematics.

Some may say this is totally irrelevant and too philosophical, religious and metaphorical and that modern physics is direct and objective - - - but what about the “curvature of space”?  - - - -  I accept it, but it sounds more like the old definition of God – “a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. “   

Without parables and metaphorical language modern science cannot speak to the masses.

I hope no one will think that I am recommending a return to the medieval model  to study electrical engineering :-) – I am only re-affirming that different models may reveal different aspects and all models should be respected (even when they are obsolete) and non-idolized.

Meanwhile, let us continue to unfold the physical reality of electrical engineering and create more detailed models for harmonic studies and the grid of the future, but let us not forget  that “nature gives most of her evidence in answers to questions we ask her.  Here, as in the courts, the character of the evidence depends on the shape of the examination, and a good cross-examiner [or power engineering researcher] can do wonders.  He will not indeed elicit falsehoods from an honest witness.  But, in relation to the total truth in the witness’ s mind, the structure of the examination is like a stencil.  It determines how much of the total truth will appear and what pattern it will suggest.”

Harmonics can indeed be a sign of problem, but they also express a profound order  - - - "The beauty of electricity  - - - [is] that it is under law " said the great Michael Faraday.

Cheers,

Paulo

PS – Phrases under quotes are from The Discarded Image (CS Lewis)


Saturday, March 24, 2012

 Beekbergsebos, March 24, 2011













vervelend knieen




Proost - Cheers

O Brasil Perdeu Parte de Sua Sanidade Mental

Genialidade and Wisdom


Mundo Moderno - Chico Anysio
Mundo moderno, marco malévolo, mesclando mentiras, modificando maneiras, mascarando maracutaias, majestoso manicômio. Meu monólogo mostra mentiras, mazelas, misérias, massacres, miscigenação, morticínio – maior maldade mundial.
Madrugada, matuto magro, macrocéfalo, mastiga média morna. Monta matungo malhado munindo machado, martelo, mochila murcha, margeia mata maior. Manhãzinha, move moinho, moendo macaxeira, mandioca. Meio-dia mata marreco, manjar melhorzinho. Meia-noite, mima mulherzinha mimosa, Maria morena, momento maravilha, motivação mútua, mas monocórdia mesmice. Muitos migram, macilentos, maltrapilhos. Morarão modestamente, malocas metropolitanas, mocambos miseráveis. Menos moral, menos mantimentos, mais menosprezo. Metade morre.
Mundo maligno, misturando mendigos maltratados, menores metralhados, militares mandões, meretrizes, maratonas, mocinhas, meras meninas, mariposas mortificando-se moralmente, modestas moças maculadas, mercenárias mulheres marcadas. Mundo medíocre. Milionários montam mansões magníficas: melhor mármore, mobília mirabolante, máxima megalomania, mordomo, Mercedes, motorista, mãos… Magnatas manobrando milhões, mas maioria morre minguando. Moradia meia-água, menos, marquise.
Mundo maluco, máquina mortífera. Mundo moderno, melhore. Melhore mais, melhore muito, melhore mesmo. Merecemos. Maldito mundo moderno, mundinho  - - - .

Louis Armstrong em “What a Wonderful World” 




Humor Puro


Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 ESV / 82 helpful votes
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Genesis 21:6
And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Openende Bloem

The Wonders of Creation
+1 day
+2 days
+3 days
+4 days
+ 5 days
+6 days
+7 - Today March 23

" Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."  
Mat. 6:29

The Beauty of Spring

Spring Life - Narnia Life

"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters."




 "...He spoke of Swanwhite the Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter, who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool, her reflection shone out like a star by night for a year and a day afterward."

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Spring is Here - Voorjaar is Nabij

Images - March 11, Eindhoven


“Since they need change [He], being a hedonist at heart, has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable.  But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence.  He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made by that union of change and permanence that we call Rhythm.  He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as a recurrence of an immemorial theme.”
(C.S. Lewis - The Screwtape Letters ( Letter XXV)

Early spring is 
“that thin, tingling, virginal weather”


All around them, though out of sight, there were streams chattering, bubbling, splashing and even (in the distance) roaring. And his heart gave a great leap (though he hardly knew why) when he realised that the frost was over.
This didn’t prevent Edmund from seeing. Only five minutes later he noticed a dozen crocuses growing around the foot of an old tree—gold and purple and white.
(Narnia)









What the Bird Said Early in the Year


I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

This year time's nature will no more defeat you,
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

This time they will not lead you round and back
To autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick! -- the gates are drawn apart.
C. S. Lewis


"When [Aslan] shakes his mane, we shall have spring again." 
C.S. Lewis

Flowers of Narnia - July 17 / 2022

 “Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully ...