HEAD’S POST ‣ Why should more people enjoy maths
March 9th, Sunday
Volume 0
‣ Why is the sky blue? ‣ From nobody to dictator in 15 years ‣ Black Wednesday of 1992
From
Maths to History
Boarders’ Discussion Club Topics to be announced on Twitter and Facebook in advance. Every Thursday 20:40 to ~21:30 ! ! !
Head’s House Common Room
!!
! ! ! !
!
!
@BCDiscussion
! BC ! !
Boarders’ Discussion Club
All year groups welcomed! Come for friendly, relaxed chats with hot chocolate.
Contact us through Twitter or Facebook for topic suggestions/enquiries and everything else. Future topics announced on Twitter and Facebook in advance.
A bit about us ! Hi, we’re Timmy and Classy from Head’s, the cofounders of this enterprise. To be completely frank, we’re nothing more than two keen Asians trying to share our passion for subjects we love. We are by no means the most qualified writers of such columns and are therefore willing to accept any criticism directed our way, especially constructive ones.! ! This is effectively the pilot volume of this magazine, new volumes will hopefully come out fortnightly. Having a grand total of
four writers at the moment, we encourage anyone within the school who are, like us, keen and passionate about a subject to contact us. You can write about any subject of your choice (can you tell we’re desperate?)! ! Continuing with the shameless recruitment, as displayed, my graphic design skills are appalling to say the least, any talented graphic designers are also wanted.! ! We have set up all the regular social media groups and pages. Please do not hesitate to contact
us if you think you can contribute in any way, we Asians are not really as intimidating as you think we are.! ! Most importantly though, if you find this magazine interesting in the slightest, it would be much appreciated if you could spread the word. Copies of this magazine should be available digitally online.! ! Lastly, there is always room for advertisements, if there are any student clubs or events you want advertising, again, feel free to contact us through any means available.
/HeadsPost
Contents
@HeadsPost
2
Physics
Why is the sky blue?! Timmy Lee
4
Mathematics
Why more people should enjoy maths! Timothy Xu
6
History
From nobody to dictator in 15 years! Classy Fan
8
Economics
The Black Wednesday of 1992! Alisdair Hsu
1
Physics
Why is the sky blue? ! As a child, I’m sure most of us have looked up and asked, why is the sky blue? Why are clouds white? As we grow up, these questions may become increasingly trivial, we move on, subduing our curiosity about these childish questions. Throughout the rest of this article, I will try and explain with as much detail as possible, ‘why the sky is blue’. But if nothing else, I hope that I will reinvigorate your thirst for answers, I want you to ask questions you can’t answer, observe instead of see, and challenge what you think you know about the world. By answering ‘why the sky is blue’, I will tackle, to the best of my ability, one of those childish questions you may have once asked.! ! First and foremost is to understand the idea that white light (in this case from the sun) consists of a mixture of different coloured light from red to violet, i.e. all the colours of a rainbow. Each colour of light corresponds to a certain wavelength of light. For example, red consists of light which has a wavelength of about 650 nm (nanometer, a billionth of a meter) while violet light is about 400nm. So when we see the colour ‘white’ what we are really seeing is light of wavelengths 400-650 nm (which are said to be within the visible range of light) all mixed together. Although this GCSE bit of physics may seem insignificant, you will be amazed how greatly this has contributed to science throughout history. !
! Although the following ideas may be more complex, they are nonetheless a well understood natural phenomena. The most crucial piece of the puzzle is, unsurprisingly, another property of light, namely ‘Rayleigh scattering’. As the name implies, Rayleigh scattering describes how rays of light are scattered (distorted) under specific circumstances. So instead of travelling in a straight line, the ray of light is bent, much like how the path of a snooker ball alters, subsequent to hitting another ball. This phenomenon occurs when electromagnetic (EM) waves of any wavelength travel through a medium where particles smaller than a tenth of its wavelength are present. Our atmosphere satisfies this precondition as O2 (oxygen) and N2 (nitrogen) particles, which make up 99.9% of our atmosphere and are smaller than a tenth of the wavelength of all visible light. ! ! Another characteristic of Rayleigh scattering is that radiation is scattered unevenly according to its wavelength. To be more precise, the power (intensity) at which EM waves are scattered is inversely proportional to the its wavelength to the fourth power, i.e.;!
! ! ! !
Where P is the power of the scattered light and đ?œ†4 represents wavelength to the fourth power.
2
With simple algebra, we can deduce that the power of scattered light will be greater the shorter its wavelength as the reciprocal of a smaller number is bigger. As mentioned before, the wavelength of light determines the colour we perceive them as. Therefore, it can be inferred that shorter wavelengths (violet and blue) light will be scattered much more when traveling through the atmosphere than longer wavelengths (red, yellows and greens). But this still doesn’t fully explain why the sky is blue.! ! The next piece of the puzzle is less mind boggling in a sense, but does require a spacial imagination. As established, light that reaches us from the sun consists of a range of wavelengths, a selection of which belongs to the visible range. Another property of light from the sun is, since the sun is so far away from the Earth, (approximately 149,600,000 km away), light rays that reach us from the sun is assumed to be parallel to each other. In other words, we’re considering the sun to be infinitely far away, only for convenience’s sake. The following is best visualised through the use of a diagram. Below is a representation of how light rays from the sun would reach the Earth during midday when the sun rays approach this 2D model of Earth. perpendicularly to the horizon.!
! !
Physics
The white arrows represent light rays (photons) from the sun travelling through the Earth’s atmosphere, as mentioned before, Rayleigh scattering will occur when EM waves travel through a medium such as our atmosphere. Each coloured arrow represents a ray of light of that particular wavelength (colour) scattered, note that this is only a scaled down and simplified version of reality. The power of the scattered radiation of different wavelengths is represented by the length of the arrows, hence the longer blue arrows. ! ! What’s left is how to interpret this model. Imagine you in the observer’s (marked by the eye) shoes. As it is mid day, if you were to look directly upwards, you would see a white arrow, representing white light from the sun. In other words, if you looked directly at the sun, you would see almost pure white light. But if you were to tilt your head slightly to the right, (assuming you weren’t blinded by the sun), you would see a blue arrow that was scattered off a neighbouring ray of white light. Note that only arrows point directly into the observer’s cone of vision can be seen. As the scatted blue light is so much more powerful, the majority of light that reaches the observer will be blue no matter where in the sky they look.! ! So the next time you look up and see a clear blue sky, you’ll be able to explain why. More importantly however, I hope that you will begin to ask ‘why?’, and seek answers within the vast sea of knowledge available to you.!
! The rest of this article is for those who are unsatisfied with the borderline elementary level of explanation provided above. The following is going to be an extension regarding other phenomena that has to do with the sky and the scattering of light. ! ! Firstly, one of the more obvious problems with my explanation is, since violet light has the shortest wavelength within the visible spectrum, why isn’t the sky predominantly violet? There are quite a few ways to answer this. From a physical standpoint, wavelengths of incident EM radiation from the sun are not entirely equally distributed, less violet light reaches us from the sun. The graph below of solar irradiance (intensity against wavelength of solar EM waves) illustrates this effect!
Graph of solar irradiance ! On top of that, as green wavelengths are also somewhat ! scattered, the mix colours between green and violet gives a blue colour. ! ! From a biological standpoint, the light sensitive receptor cells on our retinas are least sensitive to purple light, and much more sensitive to blue light. Though it can be argued that since purple light
3
from the sun is least intense, humans’ eyes have evolved to be less sensitive to purple light. Therefore even though more violet light may be scattered, we perceive the sky as predominantly blue.! ! Following on from that, another natural phenomenon that is based on the scattering of light is the colour of clouds. Recall the condition for Rayleigh scattering being ‘EM waves traveling through a medium where particles smaller than a tenth of the EM wavelength in question are present’. When considering clouds, the particles of condensed water droplets present in clouds are much larger than a tenth of the wavelength of visible light, in which case, instead of Rayleigh, Mie scattering occurs. The predominant difference between them being that Mie scattering does not prefer light of particular wavelengths but rather scatters light of all wavelengths evenly, therefore resulting in white clouds.! ! Sunsets (and sunrises) are also closely linked to this matter. During sunset, light from the sun has to travel through a much thicker layer of the atmosphere. This results in a majority of the light with shorter wavelengths, (violets, blues and even greens) to be completely scattered. Whats left are the red and oranges. This results in brilliantly red setting suns along with the red clouds that cover the sky. You may also notice that the sun gets progressively more orange after midday, especially if you have a west-facing window at home.
Mathematics
Why more people should enjoy maths Person: “What’s your hobby?”! Me: !
“Maths.”!
Person: O_o *slowly backs away*!
!
! Although the above scenario has never occurred to me in real life (yet), it’s very close to what occurs to most mathematicians. It has become socially acceptable to hate maths. This is an unfortunate however inevitable consequence of the way we teach young children maths nowadays.! ! Borrowing the analogy from Numberphile, imagine a kid taking fine arts lessons; however, he was only taught how to paint the fence. He wasn’t introduced to the works of the great masters such as van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci, and for him, painting the fences constituted the entirety of “fine arts”. It’s not difficult to see the improbability such a child would grow up to enjoy what he perceived as fine arts. This is exactly what is wrong with the current teaching of maths in most nations: most teachers teaching children up to 16 years old were not concerned about how well a concept is understood, but rather concentrated on securing exam results; one might call such a method “stuffing the duck”. In fact, I dare to say a significant chunk of maths teachers in years lower than higher education don’t understand maths properly themselves and secretly hate the subject. Their bland factual teachings stripped away the creativeness and beauty
inherent in mathematics, and consequently bored most pupils. However, I have to stress they are far from the main people responsible for this global crisis, as they are probably the products of such education themselves. Professional mathematicians should engage more with the public. There should be a popular TV program where a celebrity mathematician teaches maths, like how Bill Nye teaches kids sciences in a fun and creative way.! ! All in all, why should more people enjoy maths? I listed out the main reasons below:!
!
1. Maths is fun.! While that certainly does not apply to 100% of everything and everyone, it should be a common discovery for pupils. Maybe not so much when you are learning the basic operations, but once you start learning solving equations to “find x” and applying calculus, the joy one can receive is immense. Partly the joy of success when you solve a question, but much more during the process of it; especially when a question is of a type you have never encountered before and ergo had to independently think and establish some kind of theorem or operation of your own in order to solve it. The act of applying what you have learnt and expanding upon it to discover more things with your own thinking is extremely satisfying and fun.!
4
2. Maths is beautiful.! “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. “! !
!
!
—Albert Einstein!
Most people probably see maths as the opposite of beauty: dull mechanical processes that repeat all the time, following strict rules, and has no creativity whatsoever. That is simply not true for anything more complex then basic addition/ multiplications etc. There usually are countless ways to solve a single problem, using all kinds of methods; however different the methods may seem to be mid-way, they converge eventually. Once you have some mathematical knowledge, you are literally free to do whatever you want with the information. Sometimes simply combining multiple information yields an unexpected result. Moreover, there are inherently beautiful results in mathematics, of which a famous example would be: Richard Feynman once called it “our jewel” and “the most remarkable formula in mathematics”. Neurological research has shown that when Mathematicians are viewing “elegant” formulae, the same regions in their brains become active as when pleasure is derived from arts of music. !
! !
!
Mathematics 3. Maths is important.!
4. Perhaps most importantly, maths grants critical and logical thinking.!
! Mathematics in a modern society is as important as literacy, and I do mean that. One cannot survive in a city without being able to calculate the price of items or understanding the statistics in advertisements; these are the applications for ordinary people. For professionals in technology, sciences, and engineering, mathematics is absolutely essential to carry out work in their respective fields. For them, mathematics serves as a helpful tool to describe the models of reality easily and conveniently. Furthermore, it allows the efficient communication between two professionals in the same field. Perhaps slightly cliché, but without mathematics there wouldn’t be modern civilisations. All of the sciences depend on mathematics.!
! Apart from all the direct applications of mathematics in other professional fields, it helps ordinary people in their daily lives, in ways more than assisting you to calculate prices. It is a method of thinking - critical, logical, precise, and rigorous. In order for something to be regarded “true” in maths, a proof is required. A proof consists of logical steps using axioms (things we define to be true such as 2+2=4) and/or other theorems (proven statements) to establish a statement. Like the natural sciences, a proof will be peerreviewed to minimise the chance of errors and loopholes. However, one reason why maths is more rigorous and fool-proof than natural sciences, even physics, is that it only allows logical conclusions; in
other words, it is deductive or a priori. It cannot be wrong in the same way that the statement “all bachelors are unmarried” cannot be wrong. After adapting to such a way of thinking, one can greatly enhance their abilities and potential in this world. Logical critical thinking is perhaps the single most important skill a person can have. It can be used to debunk dodgy commercials, to scrutinise claims made by politicians and news reporters, and to independently make a judgement using evidence. ! ! Of course, I do not think everyone should be learning Calculus or other complex mathematics, but more people should enjoy maths than they currently do. They need to know maths is not about painting the fence; it is about the creative works of masters.
Below is a mathematical proof for the converging reflective property of a 2D parabolic surface Claim: Parabolas have the property so that, if they were made of a material that reflects light perfectly, then incident light rays travelling parallel to the parabola’s axis of symmetry is always reflected to its focus, regardless of where on the parabola the reflection occurs. G
E C
, EC is the incoming ray. CB is an extension of EC where B is on the directrix. A is the focus. CF is the tangent at point C on the parabola. Connect AC. Connect AB, D is where AB meets CF. Coordinate of A is (0,f), the focus of parabola f(x).! Proof:
L
∵ L
f(x)
A D F
B
5
History
From nobody to dictator in 15 years ! Germany was shattered after the devastating events of World War I. With the forced agreements and armistice, came a new imposed government, army and land reduction and the treaty of Versailles, which upset everyone in Germany. This gave rise to the NSDAP Party, aka the Nazis, and following the subsequent years, they steadily gain support and eventually led to Hitler’s dictatorship followed by World War II, all within a short period of 20 years.! ! By the end of 1918, soldiers like Hitler were kept from the dire situation of Germany’s frontline until the final days of WWI, leaving them biased to believe the Weimar (old German government) signed away their victory in the armistice. This led to the “Stab in the Back” theory where the Weimar Republic, not army generals, were to blame for Germany’s defeat in WWI. Returning from war, Hitler was hired as an intelligence officer and was sent to investigate the German Worker’s Party (DAP), the shortlived precursor of the Nazi Party. Hitler agreed to their views and soon joined as the 55th member. Eventually his political beliefs took over and reformed the party, to Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP/Nazi). In 1920, Freikorps, right-winged exsoldiers led by Wolfgang Kapp, attempted a coup and took over Berlin for several days before they
were forced to leave by uncooperative citizens. As the Kapp Putsch failed, the Freikorps were banned and many eventually ended up in the NSDAP, giving rise to the SA, the thugs of NSDAP who beat up and intimidated political opponents. ! ! In 1923, the Nazis attended the Beer Hall/Munich Putsch; Hitler and his thugs marched into the beer hall to force politically important individuals onto his side. The attempt failed as they were outnumbered by the military. Surprisingly Hitler only received a nine month jail sentence for such serious offence. Although by 1923 the group had already accumulated 3000 members, it was Mein Kampf (My Pain), a book Hitler wrote during his sentence, which attracted new members, in addition to the publicity from the failed Putsch.! During the early 1920s, Germany was recovering at a slow pace after the destruction of World War I and its crippling treaty of Versailles. Germany was facing multiple problems like the hyperinflation of the marks and French occupation of the city Ruhr. Stresemann, as the chancellor, introduced multiple policies to help stabilise post-war Germany: the introduction of new currency, persuading French troops to leave Ruhr, improving international relations, and introducing American loans to help rebuild the economy. The policies
6
sparked mixed reactions, with some seeing a promising future while others viewing them as immediate solutions that possess potential problems in the future. New currency meant people with savings were not compensated for and foreign relations tactics seemed too “weak” to the right-winged population, in turn upsetting many people. The dependency on US loans only escalated the extent of the damage during the Wall Street crash of the 1930s.! ! As Germany was relying heavily on American loans, it is no surprise that the Wall Street Crash led to US recalling their loans. With most of the money out of Germany’s economy, unemployment rate soared and bankrupted banks and businesses, along with the rest of the world. With unemployment and very few businesses left, the government had no choice but to raise the taxes in order to stay operational. The “austerity budget” was so unpopular among Germans that President Hindenburg had to use the emergency laws (temporary dictatorship) to enforce it. The government did not do much to help the economy as they feared hyperinflation would result after the previous attempt. This made the government very unpopular, driving people towards extreme groups like the Nazis, especially when they promised to act and provide a better future while the government just sat and watched.!
History ! At the same time, Hitler took advantage of the predicament in order to gain power, changing their target audience to the working class and unemployed. They have also learnt their lesson with violence during the failed putsch and used the SA army in rallies to demonstrate their order and discipline during the time of chaos, creating an effective and appealing contrast. Hitler himself was also a very talented speaker and combined with effective propaganda via new radio and film technologies, they attracted much more attention and supporters. The organisation and power of Nazis contrasted with President Hindenburg, who did more harm than good during the Great Depression, provided a big push for the Nazi party.! ! The deep rooted fear of communism also drove people towards right-winged extremists like Nazis. The weak left-winged oppositions were insignificant in power and could not stop the Nazis from dominating the parliament and becoming one of the biggest parties. And when needed, the SA army was always there to give voters a little “push” during elections. Luck favoured the Nazis when Hitler made a political deal with the unpopular chancellor, Von Papen, who operated directly under President Hindenburg, to take his place and keep Von Papen in the parliament. And by 1933, Hindenburg and Von Papen thought they could keep Hitler on a leash and risked appointing him as chancellor. In a way power was not taken by Hitler, but rather reluctantly handed over to him.! ! A month later, the parliament burned down and a communist is caught and becomes an excuse to arrest many of the communist opponents while Hitler convinces
Hindenburg to grant him the power of the emergency laws (passing temporary laws). Although the fire is a little too convenient, modern historians believe it was not the act of Nazi themselves. ! Shortly afterwards, the general election was held, where only 44% of the population vote Nazi, not enough to be the majority in the parliament, so he arrested 81 communist deputies and put him in majority. Then the parliament voted to give Hitler the power to pass his own laws permanently (The Enabling Act), while the SA stoped oppositions from voting and beaten up those against it. The Enabling Act had effectively made Hitler the dictator of Germany to do anything he wanted legally. He passes laws that require meetings of all the parties to be reported so that Nazis can break in and interrupt them. ! ! It is not long before the Nazis took over government and police, replacing anti-Nazi personnel and teachers and setting up the infamous Gestapo. They encourage Germans to report opponents and the “undesirables” to be arrested or removed. This resulted in mass arrests of communists, Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and prostitutes and sent to concentration camps. Even law abiding citizens get caught in the chaos and were taken away for “crimes” as small as writing antiNazi graffiti or saying that the economy is bad. Gestapo helped Hitler suppress anyone who dare to oppose him, by either striking fear into the heart of every German or arresting them, resulting in a quiet, cooperative population that expressed no objection. ! ! By May of 1933, Trade Union offices were banned and are replaced by the German Labour Front which reduced workers’ pay
7
and took away their right to strike. Hitler also passed the Law against the Formation of Parties, making Nazi the only political party in Germany, banning all other parties and sending their leaders to prison. After removing the remaining political opponents, Hitler turned to his own army, to weed out the last of the possible threats. Rohm, leader of SA and close henchman of Hitler, talked about a socialist revolution and plans to take over the army, poses a threat to Hitler. By then, Hitler had built his own private army; SS, body guards devoted to protecting Hitler, and uses them to eliminate the SA threat. On the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler ordered the SS to kill more than 400 SA officers, and Rohm was executed for alleged homosexuality and treason. And by August 1934, Hindenburg dies and Hitler took over the office of President and also acted as the leader of the army where every soldier had to swear to die for Hitler and declared himself the Führer of Germany.! ! Hitler’s journey to power is remarkable, in terms of luck, qualities and determination, bringing him from a nameless soldier to a dictator who terrorised millions upon millions of innocents in a mere 15 years, not to mention the deaths across Europe over the course of WWII. The deep rooted hatred upon losing WWI was a major driving force for him, along with patriotism and aggressive ideology, drove him to the extremes, leaving a trail of blood in the modern history. In our modern world, it is quite hard to believe such events can still take place; Gadaffi, Shwe and Hussein should serve as a reminder that dictatorship is not a thing of the past and there are things to be done about it.
Economics
The Black Wednesday of 1992 ! Understanding what happened in the past is sometimes really useful in helping to shape our modern world, and, more crucially, to avoid making the same mistakes again. In 1992, 16th of September, a catastrophic event broke out and marked one of the most shameful moments in British history, in which the British government was forced to abandon the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and withdrew the pound sterling from it. This event became known as “Black Wednesday”, and it is symbolically important as it not only serves as a valuable source for economists to analyse, but also determined the broad future of the Britain’s economy and politics. ! ! “Black Wednesday” eventuated due to the accumulation of a series of complex events, which could be traced back to 1989, when Nigel Lawson resigned his post as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and was succeeded by John Major. A bold decision was made by Major’s government as he successfully convinced the Cabinet to sign up for the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and had the exchange rate of 2.95 Deutsche Mark to a pound sterling. This had a huge economical implication as this would mean that the pound sterling had to follow the Deutsche Mark and the pound sterling should have a fixed exchange rate. It was only
allowed a permitted range change of ± 6% with other members’ currencies. John Major hoped that by joining the ERM, Britain would be able to have a stabilised currency just like the German’s Deutsche Mark, which contributed to sustainable economic growth along with low inflation. In addition, the uncertainty of fluctuation of the pound would be reduced which encouraged exporters to do more businesses with foreign traders; however, he failed to recognise the fact that Britain’s economy was still in recession and a fixed interest rate with Germany would not be beneficial for Britain. For instance, the contractionary monetary policy that was suitable for Germany at that period of time was not appropriate for Britain, as they needed higher growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to get out from the recession slump, which is the exact opposite of Germany’s economic policy. The potential problem underlined in Major’s decision to join the ERM was noticed, and the tabulated, resilient observers would eventually become the winners of this historic event. ! ! Things didn’t look all bright and well under the new policy; deteriorating economic activities such as rising unemployment and low consumer and business confidence devalued the pound.
8
The government was aware of the lower limit threshold set in ERM and they increased the interest rate in the hope to attract new money flows into UK since the return would be more profitable with higher interest rates. It didn’t take long before this rise in interest rates proved to be a failure in economical aspect. Many home owners were in mortgage payments; essentially this meant an increasing burden on the mortgage buyers as it became less affordable for them. The effect tumbled down to the housing market and the fall in house prices lasted four years. Ironically, this led to a further devaluation of pound as the speculators became more certain about the fact that the UK government was gradually losing control of the economy as the core problem still remained in the ERM, despite the government’s attempt to resolve the problem. Hence, the dilemma was intensified by the speculators’ bombardment of short selling the pound sterling around the globe, with George Soros being the leading figure. Short selling involves borrowing assets or money from lenders, and selling them in the hope that the price will drop soon. The investor will then buy back the same amount of valuables at a lower price, and the difference between the prices will be the profit earned. !
!
Economics
! The day known as “Black Wednesday” finally arrived and it became the eternal nightmare of John Major’s government. On that day, the financial markets in London opened in turmoil with the on-going short selling of pounds from speculators. The government counteracted by changing the already high-level interest rate from 10% to 12%. Again, this bluff failed to intimidate the speculators and it was seen as the last struggle of the government. The battle between the two sides began with the government pouring in millions and millions of pounds in defence of the currency; on the other side more pounds were being sold and the trade centres were flooded with transactions. The final rise in interest rate was announced, which increased it to 15%. Nevertheless,
the UK government was unable to protect the devaluation of pound sterling and the pound continued to experience free fall. At 19:00, Chancellor Norman Lamont announced the decision to leave the ERM and kept the interest rate at 12%. In other words, the government had lost the currency battle. The loss to the government was enormous and it was estimated that the money lost to tax payers was around 3.5 billion pounds. Furthermore, the government suffered low credibility and the relationships with other European countries were inevitably impaired. ! ! In retrospect, the motto of “Black Wednesday” should be carefully considered by the government and used for future reference. Numerous aggressive attempts had been done to object
to the market forces in order to keep the value of pound sterling at a high level, and this led to even greater problems in the economy which were neglected by the committees. Perhaps the government’s committees should give a more reliable account for its currency’s strength and foresee the potential risks that may exist when making such decisions. Despite all the consequences, “Black Wednesday” brought about a new phase for Britain’s economy and enabled its growth which constructed its embodiment today. To some extent, it may well explain why Britain has recovered from its latest financial crisis in 2008 whereas monetary union countries in Europe are still on their back foot, overshadowed by the Eurozone-Crisis.
Below is a graph that illustrates the fall in the value of the pound on the Black Wednesday of 1992
9
!