Day 4- Maxwell's Equations

Food is cheap in Poland. I can afford to eat out! I was even curious last night when I saw caviar on the menu for about £7, but decided to hold back and go for pork with potatoes and cabbage. Why is Eastern Europe the only part of the world that has realised how great cabbage is? I reckon it must taste better than caviar. I wanted to tell the waitress this, and had been reliably informed by my polish guide that the word for delicious is 'pyszny', so when she cleared my plate I said "that was PISHne". She seemed confused and told me her opinion on what the polish word for 'delicious' was.

It's all happening here in Warsaw. On my way home from dinner in the Old Town I passed a political protest outside the presidential palace. I felt a bit sorry for the protestors, who seemed to be outnumbered about three to one by policemen. Personally, I was more concerned about football fans than political riots, but thankfully Poland won their match (and the fans were still singing when they got back to the hostel at 2am). Meanwhile, somebody must've been busy fixing up ropes and cones all night, as by the time I went out this morning, the entire city had turned into a triathlon race track, complete with another Brazilian drumming band, of course.

The ropes and cones made it easy to choose which part of the city to explore. As I walked, they seemed always to block off every possible direction but one. Where did I end up? The university library, which, like all respectable university buildings, had Maxwell's Equations prominently displayed. Here they are.

 

These equations describe electric and magnetic fields. What is really exciting, though, is that they also predict the nature of electromagnetic radiation, i.e. light. And light was really in action- reflections bounced around the beautifully green rooftop garden of the library, and sunshine was refracted as it passed through the human fish-tank. No, I don't know why there were humans in a tank. I doubt they really knew either.

 

 

Needing to avoid all this electromagnetic radiation to save myself from sunburn, but still feeling that science vibe, I spent several hours in the science centre playing with their toys, until hunger dragged me out by the hand, crying "but there's still so many I haven't played with". Check out their Focualt's pendulum, it has knocks over sticks and rings bells as it goes!

 

Hunger satisfied, I continued to wander, and wound up the day having a nap in my hammock in Lazienki Royal Park. I woke up just in time to spot a security guard shout something at me in Polish. I assume it must've been "make sure you put stopper knots on both ends" or something like that, as I hadn't been too thorough with my knots.