e

Do you wonder why is the title 'e'? And mind it, it's a small e. That
makes a difference, I tell you. Just guess for a while say for 14
seconds what it can be.
I am going to talk about 'e' for exponential function. Now, what
about it, huh? It's a mathematical function and you don't need to be
warry of what comes ahead, in case you were wondering that I am
going to scribble some mathematics for you.
I am just going to make you aware of something that you may already
know but may have slipped your attention. What I am going to tell can
even be trivial with respect to someone, that's OK. I was just
fascinated by the fact and I wanted to write about it.
Is your interest in reading this article further, exponentially increasing
or decreasing?
Let me tell you a story of a kid named Alex. He had a phobia of going
in front of a large group of people and talking, he would screw up. One
day he was a member of a group that was going to present on
lithosphere. He wasn't told when his turn would come, all he knew
was that he had to present on the core and the mantle. A slide with
that name came to life, he skeddadled to the stage, spit all he had in
his wildly racing mind and was back. Another member then whispered
to him that it wasn't his turn yet, that was just an introduction. That
was a shock. Now, his turn came actually. He walked up to the stage,
and explained all the points properly. That went well and he even got
thumbs up for it.
So, what happened? The fear to do that work got reduced to half,
when Alex was asked to do it few minutes after he went up first. The
third time, if he were asked to go up, he would have gone up pretty
calmly and with ease. The fear decreased to half of its previous value,
every time. Doesn't that look like an exponentially decreasing curve?
Do you swear? Or curse or use profane words? Not that there's any
line of difference between these nowadays.
But just try to remember the first time you did that, whenever it is,
whatever word it is. The first time you gave in to that temptation. I
don't know what it's for you, but let's say at the age of 13, just because
the poor number denotes the enunciation of teenage. You took about
13 years on this planet to swear for the first time! But then what about
the second time? How long did it take? 13 years more? Probably not.
Say few days or not even a day. It's like from zero you reached the
zenith pretty much exponentially.
Likewise, it happens that in doing something good or not good, there's
a resistance. Then, you begin to build up of give up and then you level
up. This looks like a graph of an exponential function to me. Or may
be logarithmic. Yet, logarithm has an e in it.
Let's visit few of its reflections in physics.
You see radioactive decay obeys it. So is a chain reaction initiated by
the attack of a neutron loyal to it; that can be an atom bomb.
Rates of reactions and diffusions of constituents. Fourier's transient
heat transfer law. Or damping of an oscillating bob. What else have I
missed? Charging of a capacitor and well even it's discharging.
Let's get to something usual for a while. When you meet a new person
for the first time, things can be pretty awkward or formal, especially if
you are an introvert. There's a barrier between the person and you.
When you meet the person second time, things are better. This
barrier, with the number of meets, melts down. Does that sound like
an exponential decay?
Let's think of another example.
Um, let's say someone's irritating you, but you hold your calm. They
do it again and yet you hold yourself. They still poke you, you clench
your fists now or hold something tightly. But again the attack
continues and the dam collapses; all that you hold in floods out like
crazy water. Not that it happens with everyone, but can happen with
some ones.
Our life is like an exponential function. In the beginning of anything
new, there's a resistance, you need to overcome it, learn to climb the
hill, which is pretty steep but when you do, you reach the peak. But
that's not an end, it's just one exponent you conquered, and you may
realise that the number of such exponents increase exponentially with
every exponent you reach.
Cheers to exponential function.