Tides of Thoughts

Assume you have 100 kg of potatoes, which are 99% water and 1% mass. They dried for one day, and the water percentage reduced by 1%. What is the new weight? When I asked this question orally, the common answer was 99 kg. However, when I asked the same question in writing and gave 1 minute to respond, the answer was 50 kg. The gist of the paradox lies in how 1% change in water led to a reduction of 50 kg in weight. Let the new weight be X. When we say the water percentage was reduced by 1%, the new water percentage is 98%. So, what is the other 2% made of? It is 1 kg of mass.  1 kg of mass = 2% of X X = 1 kg/2% = 1 * 100/2 = 50 kg. So, why do many people fail to answer the question when asked orally? Instead of doing the above steps, we simply tend to reduce the 1% mentioned in the question from the overall weight of the potatoes and end up with 99 kg as the answer. When we were given time and resources to calculate the percentages on a piece of paper or a calculator, we tend to foc...

  SARANYU: Surya’s Wife by Saiswaroopa Iyer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Saranyu, Surya's wife, is a retelling of the story of Sandhya and Chaya, with a mix of fiction that incorporates contemporary storytelling elements. Sai Swaroopa, the author of this book, was a well-established and renowned figure in the retelling of Indian mythological stories such as Abhaya, Avishi, and Draupadi. The plot of the story is about Saranyu, Chaya (the illusory of Saranyu) and Vivaswan during the twilight period (we call it Sandhya between two manvantaras). This story is quite popular among the Hindu readers who read epics. This story stands apart from all the earlier novels by the author in terms of narration and plotting. One important aspect is not deviating from the underlying philosophical outline of the original characters of Sandhya, Chaya and Surya. Though the book is termed as fiction, as the narration goes around the Hindu devas and daityas, a period of conflict between two manvantaras, it...