Ejaad-Nama 0x0A:Did you know...?
Ejaad-Nama (Urdu: Letters of Invention). A fortnight newsletter about Science, Electronics, Makers, DIY, and everything technical. We talk about lemons, acid batteries, and anything in between.
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Did you know … that elephants are the only animals that can't jump?
Did you know … that king of hearts is the only king in the deck without a mustache?
Did you know … your friends are more popular than you are?
Wait… you did not know that. This observation is called the Friendship Paradox, first observed by sociologist Scott L. While studying the properties of social networks, he observed that on average people have fewer friends than their friends do. The paradox is that most people believe that they have more friends than their friends.
This is proved by using Facebook. In one of the study:
The average Facebook user has 245 friends. But the average friend on Facebook has 359 friends.
This paradox is also mathematically proven and is if you are technically inclined, you can learn it here. However, one of the simplest explanations of why this is true can be seen by this example where there is always one guy who has truly lots of friends and shows up everywhere:
Imagine a really simple case.
Adam has three friends - Bob, Claire, and Denise.
Bob has one friend - Adam
Claire has one friend - Adam
Denise has one friend - Adam
Adam has three friends. The average number of friends that they have is 1.
Bob has one friend. The average number of friends his friend has is 3.
Claire has one friend. The average number of friends her friend has is 3.
Denise has one friend. The average number of friends her friend has is 3.
So, 75% of the people in our sample set (Bob, Claire and Denise) have fewer friends than their friends have. Only Adam doesn't. The averages are skewed by a small number of people who have large numbers of friends.
What’s the point of this you ask?
The direct application of this paradox has been to forecast the flu outbreaks. By monitoring the health of a few people who have a higher amount of friends, the outbreak can be limited. Or in another way, The friends of your friends are more likely to be sick in this pandemic.
This phenomenon is observable in many places: In the gym, its likely that your gym partner is always more fitter than you. Or in relationship, where if your lover had only lover, it is probably not you. It would be safe to say, that my friend writers probably have more subscribers/readers than I do. :( —————————————————————————
Hifza Mariam, who shared her one of three-piece artwork in my last edition of the newsletter, has completed the set. She is obsessed with re-using things at home, which puts her high on the “Do it yourself spirit” ladder. According to her, she tried using the plain canvas but she did not like it at all. Instead, she decided to use the free german newspapers with Acrylic paint to create a mixed media.
What I love about the paintings: The depiction of fuck-all attitude of the woman, doing whatever she wants in the face of all the negative news, gossips, media about her. She has an Instagram page where she shows more of her work and you could contact her directly if you are interested in owning one or all three paintings. You can also share this newsletter with your interested art-loving friends.
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The Vanderlust continues by Aqeel ⚒ Arshad, Arfan and Habib
Aqeel in my last edition to the newsletter contributed by writing his experience of hacking his multi-van for a camping trip. That’s how a camper was born. It seems this is progressing further. He has shared some of the renders of the camper van from a CAD software explaining the vision on what they want to do with it. It seems they want to have a foldable system that allows them to carry a lot of camping gear, bicycles but also be convertible into a flatbed. The system seems modularized and allows for a lot of possibilities depending on the trip you make.
They also plan to include an extra battery aptly named as leisure battery which can be used to power some night lights, charge phones, watch Netflix (and chill?). He has provided an extensive write up on medium. You can check out the full collection of rendered pictures, circuit diagrams, and other technicalities. —————————————————————————
If you would like to send in your projects and hacks to be part of the newsletter, please do comment below, or email me: a.nadeem89@gmail.com. Leave your feedback in the comments about the content. and subscribe here, and share the newsletter with your friend.
I really enjoyed this issue. Have some skepticism regarding the friendship paradox but I'll need to read up more on it first.