Blogtrek

Puzzle-Piece Syndrome

I ran into a syndrome which is ubiquitous throughout human existence. It occurs when a concept or entity appears in two different forms, and then is regarded by people as being two different objects. An example might be "annual leave" and "PTO". A person knowing what annual leave might be bewildered as to why she loses some annual leave because of something called PTO. Then she finds that PTO is "paid time off", and is the same as annual leave. Another possibility is a transaction between two check accounts. It shows up as $436.74 in one account but as $992.33 in another, because it got included with some other deposits. These don't appear the same, so one records these both into Quicken, and so the $436.74 deposit into the receiving account gets counted twice, resulting in an overdraft. I call it "Puzzle piece syndrome" because it reminds me of the situation in which there are two clumps of put-together puzzle pieces. Then one finds pieces that fit into these that cause them to come together to form one piece.

Mathematics abounds with instances of Puzzle-Piece Syndrome. For example equations such as x² + 2x - 3 = 0 looks like a series of symbols, and a parabola looks like a curve that a home run makes. But when one plots the equation on paper, the equation turns into a parabola. Understanding the Universe may be one giant case of Puzzle-Piece Syndrome. Magnetism enables a piece of metal to pick up nails and tacks. Electricity causes sparks and makes a current flow through a wire. These don't look at all the same. But they are. To demonstrate that, coil an electric wire about a metal core and the core will pick up nails and tacks when the wire is plugged in. Or, move a piece of metal back and forth across a powerful magnet. This will light a light bulb. In other words, electricity and magnetism are the same. In the same way, Einstein finds that gravity, which makes me fall down from a ladder, and inertia, which makes me fall forward when I trip on a badly constructed sidewalk, are the same. Later on, physicists find that gravity and electromagnetism are the same, so it appears as though understanding the Universe is like solving one big jigsaw puzzle. We have many pieces in place but not all, so we continue to find ways of combining things, of finding instances of Puzzle Piece Syndrome. So it is more than just incomprehensible acronyms and overdrawn check accounts that come from Puzzle Piece Syndrome. It's the very understanding of our Universe that comes from it, for Life indeed is One Big Jigsaw Puzzle without End.