The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Opening Ceremony Pt.5

A continuation of Part 4; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-opening_14.html

Einsteinium-310:

This sequence was built around 310 performers. It is also another heavy duty Physics lesson.

It began with the performers forming the shape of a giant human. This was a reference to famous British Physicist Isaac Newton.

In 1686 Newton invented Gravity. As a way to keep black people down. Newton described his body of work as him;

"Standing on the Shoulders of Giants."

He acknowledged that he had appropriated the work of those who had gone before him and added to it. He expected those to come after him to appropriate his work and add to it.

Obama's BLM warriors would be appalled by this cross-cultural appropriation.

Their ideology insists that only British Physicists like Stephen Hawking can add to the work of British Physicists like Isaac Newton. German Physicists like Albert Einstein can only add to the work of other German Physicists and so on.

This approach would make any form of scientific or cultural advance impossible.

We certainly wouldn't be able to have things like the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Large-Hadron Collider which in 2012 proved the existence of the Higgs-Boson. 

Physics at this level is so extremely complicated that there are only a handful of people worldwide capable of undertaking it. The type of equipment required is also prohibitively expensive. So the people who are capable of this work pool their resources and gather together.

So at places like CERN you have international cooperation which would appal people outside of the world of Physics. Israeli nuclear Physicists working alongside Iranian nuclear Physicists and so on.

Suddenly a single performer seemed to be fired across the arena floor. As this single particle collided with the giant it was spilt apart.

This was a reference to the concept of nuclear fission. 

Standing on the shoulders of Albert Einstein this was discovered by German Physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938. In response Einstein teamed up with Hungarian Physicists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner to write the so-called; "Einstein-Szilard Letter."

That letter prompted then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the first nuclear bomb. 

The nuclear fission at the heart of that bomb created a new element - Einsteinium. The most stable isotope is Einsteinium-252. No matter how much police in Salisbury, UK try to insist that it's Einsteinium-380.

As the atom of the giant shattered amid fission the particles it had been made up of scattered. These sub-atomic particles spread around the arena.

The sub-atomic particles then grouped together in the centre of the arena in a circle. As they did so light projection gave the impression of them speeding up to approach the speed of light. Or at least as it's commonly portrayed in Science Fiction.

The Speed of Light is a constant which is used widely in Physics - rather like the constant Pi. This constant (c) is the C in Einstein's most famous equation E=MC2. 

This equation describes the; "Mass-Energy Equivalence." This quantifies how everything in the universe is either Energy (E) or Mass (M) and how the two states can be converted. Multiplying by Speed of Light constant (C) squared.

As they approached the speed of light the sub-atomic particles formed the shape of what resembled a human eye. With the black hole of the pupil at the centre.

This was a nod, or perhaps a wink to the 2016 Summer Para-Olympics Opening Ceremony. 

That featured a sequence entirely about the rods and cones which make up the human eye and the variety of things that can go wrong with them. Leading to visual impairment.

That Opening Ceremony of course was organised by the Brazilian Andrew Parsons. The new head of the IPC.

An earlier reference to the Brazilian Opening Ceremony showed the soundwaves produced by a drum as soundwaves. This raised an important point about the adaptations that can be made to overcome physical impairments.

It focused on what I think it one of the most common impairments known to TV viewers. The sense of sight being used to overcome an impairment in the sense of hearing.

In short visual signals are used to compensate for hearing impaired people who can't detect audio clues. TV programs feature subtitles so people who can't hear what is being said can read what is being said.

This sequenced focused on the other example commonly known to TV viewers. How the sense of sound can be used to overcome an impairment in the sense of sight. 

For example many TV services now also include Audio Description. This allows people who cannot see what is happening have what is happening described to them through sound.

As it stood there the pupil of the eye seemed to pulse as if in time with the human heart. 

This seemed to be a deliberate reference to a certain type of visual impairment known as; "Retinal Vessel Occlusion." This is caused when the tiny blood vessels within the eye either become blocked or burst. 

Although I am far from an expert common causes of this seem to be age and Diabetes. These are both hot topics within developed nations with ageing populations and high levels of obesity.

Finally the eye broke apart and the sub-atomic particles again flowed around the arena. 

The light up smart-fabric gloves the particles were wearing made clear they were intended to be light particles. Occasionally they formed into waves. In reference to the concept of; "Wave-Particle Duality."

Joined by South Korean Wheelchair Rugby (Murderball) players the particles then started to arrange themselves into chains or strings.

This introduced the complex concept of; "String Theory."

The discovery of the Higgs-Boson sub-atomic particle has shown that everything in the universe exists within a web of field of tiny, sub-atomic particles.

String Theory posits that this web or field is made up of sub-atomic particles arranged into strings. Rather like the threads you would find in a piece of fabric. 

It is the vibration of these strings which causes interactions with the field. So something like humming a Rihanna song causing a vibration which makes it rain.

Above the arena appeared a Lotus with four petals. These petals represented; Courage, Determination, Inspiration and Equality. 

Slowly the Lotus petals closed to form what resembled an Atom. As in Atom Bomb (A-bomb) or other sort of nuclear weapon.

This imagery was interesting because the Lotus flower has a special place in Animist religions. Particularly in Mahyana Buddhists who have Lotus or; "Padma" Sutra religious text.

The Lotus serves then as a symbol for the journey of enlightenment towards the complete purification of body, mind and deed through Buddhist teaching. 

An open Lotus signifies enlightenment while a closed Lotus signifies ignorance.

The petals of this Lotus; Courage, Determination, Inspiration and Equality closed to form a symbol of nuclear weapons. Suggesting the pursuit by a certain nation - we won't say who - is a regressive step leading to and driven by ignorance.

The sequence ended with a projection of a constellation of stars onto the arena floor. Signifying the universe. The sub-atomic particles in their quantum strings moved amid this universe.

After all as Einstein pointed out everything in the universe is either Energy or Matter and can transition between those states.

Obviously the projection also featured the colours of the Wu Xing. 

Because Einstein was not the first to see the universe in that way.

21:20 on 14/3/18 (UK date).