Uncertain No More :)

NOTE: There are people who might not agree with the contents of this blog. However, I challenge you (yes you!) to read on and read on to the very end!

Estimate: (verb)

1. To calculate approximately (the amount, extent, magnitude, position, or value of something).
2. To form an opinion about.

There are points in our life where we find ourselves estimating. Depending on the context, sometimes we estimate the time we would take to prepare for work or for school. There are times we estimate the money we'll be spending to pay for our bills. Sometimes, we even estimate people. To be honest, now that I think about it, I personally don't like estimating. Why, because sometimes whether we like it or not, estimates are not accurate. When that happens we become disappointed and that is hard to take in. But me not liking estimates does not remove the fact that I do estimate.

Let's look at estimates in the context of our personal lives. Doesn't it bother you that there are things in your life wherein which you can't be sure of? Doesn't it? Think about it. We are not sure of many things in life. Yes, we can estimate but nevertheless we are not sure. You might say, "Haneka, that's the thrill in life! We get surprises every day." I don't disagree with that. Life would be boring if we knew what would happen to us every single day. But, if I may ask, what if there is a way to be sure? 

In Quantum Mechanics, we are taught the Uncertainty Principle. Simply put, this principle says that two quantities (say, present position and future momentum) cannot be simultaneously measured with high precision. This means that one quantity can be measured precisely; however, the precision of the other quantity to be measured will be compromised. The more you run after one to obtain an answer the more you lose the other. In life, there are things that we just can't be uncertain of. There are things that we just can't estimate. There are times where in we are demanded to decide - yes or no. We can't afford to be in the gray area. It's either we're hot or we're cold.

Now that we have considered this, let us ask again: What if there is a way to be sure of things? What if there is something or, better yet, someone that can help us know. In the bible, it says that:

^"6Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' "

John 14:6(ESV)

In this verse we find Jesus, saying that He is the truth and that He is the life. You see, until we know the Truth we are deceived by lies and we become blind. And, until we know the Life we have no life. And as long as we continually try to save ourselves and be lord over our own lives, we'll lose our life. "So Haneka,", you might ask, "what does all this have to do with estimation?" You see, if there is one thing that we can't estimate, it's where  we'll go when we die. We can't just estimate that and find out at the end that we're wrong. This might be too heavy for some of you, but I'd rather let you people know it now. 

In Jesus there are no estimations. In Romans 10:9 it says that:

⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

Romans 10:9(NIV)

Wow! We finally have a way and right to be certain - no more estimation. We don’t have to estimate whether we have done enough good works to earn ourselves a spot in heaven. We don’t have to worry ourselves to death on whether we’ve believed in Him enough for Him to spare us the pain of hell. Why, because the job is already done. Our sins have been paid at a price (Yes, you’re a sinner and so am I.) Don't get me wrong, there are things that we do have to trust Him for - things in our life that we still do not see. But God will never forsake us. And the one thing that we cannot be uncertain of, he made certain for us already.

It’s likely that some, or majority, of the people reading this blog know me as Haneka, an Applied Physics student, their batchmate, their classmate, their labmate and their friend. You might be thinking, “Haneka, you have no right to tell me what to believe in.” To a certain extent, you have a point. I have failed more subjects than the average student. I am challenged by the subjects I am currently taking. I fail and disappoint myself and others at times. And I too am uncertain of different things. But despite my imperfections, there is one thing that gives me the boldness to speak to you. And of this I am certain: That my God loves me. and  He has bought me at a price - His life. That, to me, is the only thing that really matters.

Moving on to the part of my blog where I am actually being graded. :D

Our activity today dealt with area estimation using images. To help us warm up, we had to create a black and white image of a regular geometric shape using paint or Scilab. The actual area of the shape that we will construct must be known. Using Green’s theorem, we were to calculate the area enclosed by the shape. I chose to make a square using Scilab. I utilized one of the methods I previously used in our second activity (link here). Here is the image I produced:

Figure 1. Square with white fill and black

background generated using Scilab.

It is important to make sure that the image of the square has a white fill, black background, and is saved as a BMP file. One of the reasons is because we will be using a built-in function in Scilab wherein objects must be binary. I then load this image into my Scilab console and implement the function follow. This function, in essence, gets the parametric contours of the object [x(i), y(i)]. We can then use the obtained x and y values, in implementing Green’s Theorem. Results are shown in the table below:

Table 1.Actual area and estimated area

using Green’s Theorem

Before we proceed, I want you guys to see the discrete form of Green’s theorem,

Green’s Theorem (Discrete Form)

Also, here is the code I used to implement Green’s theorem,

Figure 2. Green’s Theorem code for Square area estimation

Note that there was a problem with my SciPad when I tried to execute the code. Hence, I had to resort to entering the code line by line in the console.

After the “warm-up”, we had to pick a place, through Google Maps. We will use the image to estimate the area of the place. I picked the newly built CS Amphitheater. Here is the “raw” image.

CS Amphitheater in the National Science Complex of the Univeristy

of the Philippines as seen in Google Maps

To calculate the area using the same concept we must first think of a way to convert this image into a binary one. What I did was to overlay a circle (white fill) on the image where the circular outline of the amphitheater is. I then used a square shape to underneath the circle to cover the other parts of the image. However, when I checked the image type in Scilab, it was still a true color image. So I converted it to a binary one using the function im2bw. Here is the binary image:

Binary image of the edited CS Amphitheater image

I then implemented the following Green’s theorem through the following code: 

 Green's Theorem for CS Amphitheater area estimation

I then obtained the following results:

Table 2. Results for CS Amphitheater area estimation

Also, assuming that the amphitheater is a circle, I measured its radius using a tool in Google Maps. It turns out to be: 36.6883 m. Therefore, the total area occupied by the amphitheater is: 4228.682 m².Our next concern is to convert the results we got from Scilab to actual meter values. We can do this by using the scale in Google Maps (as seen in the lower left corner of the raw image), and through the method introduced in activity 1, convert the pixel values into actual meter values. I was able to obtain a best fit equation of y = 0.289x – 10.14. However, when I plugged in the Green’s theorem the result for the area was a surprising 15,645.9 m². This has a 72.97251 % error when compared to the actual meter values. This is perhaps due to an error in the code or in the manner of obtaining the best fit equation. Therefore, for this activity, I’d give myself 9 out of 10 since I was able to understand the topic and captions can be understood. The 1 point deduction is due to the large percent error.

Note: My sources are the links I used. :)

I would like to thank Jen-Jen Manuel, Kirby Cheng, Dr. Anthony Longjas for all the technical help they gave. Also, thanks to Lory Manalo for “proof reading”. Hannah Olid, you know what I’m thanking you for. And of course, to my God who has sustained me at all times, thank You and I love You.