Monday, May 22, 2006 | 3:53 AM

Gahh. My guts are twisting in green envy. After chancing upon the exhibition by the photo soc, and checking out the new photo entries on the pod collect, I am determined that I definitely want to get a SLR next time. One with much higher range for aperture mind you. And definitely with high noise reduction and focal length.

Anyway, during GP just now, something short of a realisation revealed itself. Haha, oxymoron, I know. Well. My group decided to do the question "The best things in life are free. Do you agree?"

And when Mr Seah reached our table, we have only managed to agree and settle on one thing, our definition of "free."

I went a little chemistry and physics mad by offering it, yet I thought it turned out pretty well.

By free, we mean
1) it doesnt require effort or any input to start [link to introduction of energy into a closed system to do work]
2) it can occur on its own [delta G less than zero, rxn can take place spontaneously]
3) does not require effort/ input to sustain/maintain

Hmm, and actually we sort of went off miles and Mr Seah put us back on the right track. Actually, the many questions he chose to answer himself, were for us to answer, and he actullay would lead us to certain realisations had we attempt to answer them. And this was what I found out on my own.

By trying to define what is a "best thing in life", we first have to see, what gives us the greatest satifaction or joy, or utility. And perhaps we begin with the example of doing well for an exam we studied hard for. And from there we go on to, so it is those actions that evoke in us certain feelings of maybe peace, contentment, happiness, leisure, of which we may define as the feelings we most like to have. And it is these feelings tht actually are the best things in life, not the actions or objects.

For eg, I said I think one of the best feeling in life is doing well for a test I studied hard for. So this is the tangible thing. Which creates a sense of achievement. And it is this feeling that I define as my best thing in life.

Mr Seah gave an example of his ipod being the best thing in life. But essentially, he was trying to say that it is the feelings he get when he listens to the ipod which makes the ipod the best things in the world.

It is the intangible, invisible things that gives objects or actions or activities their values.

It is then that we realise, maybe it is true tht things in life, best or not are never free.

So the feeling of listening to an ipod is free, but in monetary terms, you had to pay for it. Getting good grades mean your payment in terms of time.

Hmm.... Anyway, dashed this off my head before I forget. We have to hand up the outline on Wed, I think.

I am glad I sort of answered those questions on my own and reached the answer by myself. =)

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