I like to
pull life analogies from almost anything that lets me do so. Maybe it’s a mechanism
of mine because I am desperately trying to understand the way life works and
why it does what it does, that I end up seeing things in a bigger way than how they
appear. Trying to understand the chaos from everything around us, or maybe everything
around us is a smaller depiction of the bigger chaos called life. Even the most
insignificant things, only seem insignificant, but actually hold a lot more
than they show. Or maybe you might tell me I am overstating, overthinking, over-something.
Maybe I am. But I like seeing it this way. It’s beautiful.
Recently, I
had watched this video by one of my favorite YouTube channels, Veritasium,
which is a science-oriented channel. So, this video was all about two types of
flow of liquids: laminar flow and turbulent flow. The comparison between the
two, situations where each will exist, and stuff like that. Before getting to
my point, let me use the knowledge gained from the said video and science you a
little bit, just to fill you in on it, which is undeniably giving me great joy!
Laminar flow
is the beautiful flow of liquids that you see in fancy fountains, the beginning
of the fall of water at a waterfall, which almost looks like a sheet. Or when
your tap is running slow and you see the water fall like a sculpted tube;
smooth, perfect, surreal.
https://techblog.ctgclean.com/wp-content/uploads/laminar-Water-Jets-e1441893063760.jpg
Something like
this. You now know what I mean. Those are not transparent pipes, that’s water.
This kind of
flow exists in the following situations: when the velocity is low, when the
viscosity is higher, and when the container or pipe or the structure holding it
has a narrow diameter. Which means that it exists in very controlled environment.
It requires a lot of factors to occur.
Now when we
bring a change to the factors, like increase speed of the substance, reduce
viscosity and so on, it transitions to the second type of flow; Turbulent flow. This
exists in every other situation. When you run your tap faster, the water in a
waterfall right before it hits the bottom, and air generally, is turbulent. So,
when we disturb the peace of laminar flow, we get turbulent flow. It is chaotic…
https://pratt.duke.edu/sites/pratt.duke.edu/files/styles/full_content_width_16_9/public/images/news/feature/turbulence-small.jpg?itok=nu-q-1Z2
Now I think
you know where I am going with this. Turbulence exists naturally in the
universe. In the wind we feel, the water that flows by in the river, its everywhere.
Chaos is everywhere. And as beautiful as laminar flow looks, as appealing as it
is, it is possible only in controlled environments. It doesn’t last. Whereas
turbulence is free. Does not need any controlling. And we see and feel this
turbulence more often, and we also find it beautiful. It creates patterns!
Life is chaotic most of the time, just like how nature designs everything. Look around you, chaos. The complete, total, profound peace that we hope for, or luckily get in life, is like the laminar flow; needs a controlled environment and doesn’t last long. We chase this temporary peace because its appealing, surreal. Agreed. But when it gets turbulent, we are agitated. We do not realise that life is creating patterns that you cannot yet see. Just like the smoke from an incense stick. There is both peace and trouble in life. They alternate. We cannot be happy with one and hate the other, that's just a sad existence. You must learn to see the beauty in both of them, as hard as it my become at one point. You have to prepare yourself for the turbulence in the flow of life. If you can control life, there’s laminar. Otherwise its turbulent, and you have got to open you eyes and see that, even though it may not seem so at first, chaos is always beautiful...
Live
chaotic,
Mohana
PS: Here is
the link to the video on which I have based today’s post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zI9sG3pjVU
If there are
any mistakes in the science part of what I have written, please do correct in
the comments, so that everyone who reads this can know the right facts.
The pictures
do not belong to me. All credits to the owners.
Excellent analogy. Even life would be cool and organized (like a laminar flow in a pipeline) only under very controlled conditions, as low velocity. Any increase in velocity after a certain threshold, makes it turbulent. But interestingly, correct flow rate in a pipeline can be measured only if it is turbulent and not laminar. Similarly in life, the real personality comes out only under turbulent conditions.
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