Physics on a lighter note

Kamal Baruah

(The writer can be reached at kamalbaruah@yahoo.com)

All of us probably got a scolding from his father for inattention to household chores. One such stringent way was to be called a-padartha (worthless), which is most memorable. We were very disheartened then, but later on realized that it was largely irrelevant when our teacher during pre-university days reminded us with a great sense of humour. Telling a-padartha at such a tender age was totally wrong. Aren't you made up of matter? Don't get serious about it! We are less serious today. The professor made things easier at the first impression in our class.

In Physics, matter is the stuff that makes up the universe. Everything that takes up space and has mass is matter. All matter is made up of atoms, which are in turn made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Only vacuum is the absence of matter. Things that are non-matter are light, sound, heat, energy, gravity, time, a rainbow, love, happiness and the list is endless. We very much agreed as Physics deals with matter and energy that determine the structure of the universe. We're definitely a matter but not a-padartha (non-matter) at least in terms of Physics. The entireclass guffawed at the logic of the Oxford scholar Dr J Hatibaruah.

Science collided with our curiosity and imagination as the days rolled on into years and we still hadn't realized the core of truth behind Newton's 'apple', which is one of the most famous anecdotes in the history of science. One of my earliest recollections is not that 17th century "aha moment" of the falling apple, whilst Sir Isaac Newton discovered the Law of Gravity. We discovered the joy of falling fruits while throwing stones fiercely at the bunch of mangoes at primary school.

The discovery of the 'Raman Effect' was inspired by an incident while Sir CV Raman was returning from London to Bombay, where he fascinated with the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules in the deep blue colour of the Mediterranean Sea. We played deep-water swimming in the pond during summer to determine the direction in which we saw the setting sun under water. We didn't have scuba diving mask either to find the critical angle at the apparent position of the Sun. We experienced it unwittingly.

We were enlightened from experiments at Physics laboratory. The vibrations of sound and light fascinated us inside the dark room. Getting accurate results in decimal were tough. Yet we tried with a great deal of effort in calculation/analysis. With the availability of sophisticated arrangements of Galvanometer, Sodium/Mercury Lamp and Scale arrangement of optical set-up benches, we were amazed to see the coupling of light from the Laser into the USB Spectrometer, where the excitation beam path is sketched.

We were young and madly in love with those theorems. It inspired us to question each and everything and look for reasons. The curiosity opened the doors of imagination and that led to discoveries. There is nothing one can do, not a move one can make, not a thought one can have, that didn't tap directly into E=mc2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). Initially, wave forms from radiation, light, sound, X-ray, Gamma Ray were called energy, but Albert Einstein proved that any matter in our surrounding has energy and it can be converted into heat that can be calculated.

The interpretation of the Theory of Relativity is enormous. For example, a piece of 1 gm biscuit can produce 9x10 to the power of 13 Joules, such mind boggling calculation, while consuming one packet of biscuit can produce heat about 1,800 Joules, because our body doesn't have the mechanism to convert every electron, nucleus from biscuit. I felt a twinge of envy for that static biscuit for being such astronomical figure in unit of work/energy.

Long gone but not elapsed are those carefree days. It was dark while I was cycling down the street by the side of the Deepor Beel after tuition. I suddenly jumped over, went out of control and plunged into a ditch. My mother said that the lake was haunted by a ghost that evening. It was actually a street dog in the dark. My Professor said, if I hit the dog with more velocity I'd have a better chance of staring balanced and I was booed in the class for being unskilled rider.

The most famous equation of Einstein, the Theory of Relativity, is constantly at work, providing an unseen hand that shapes the world. His theory says that a small amount of matter could release a lot of energy. It was theoretically possible but didn't foresee that in Quantum Physics it became practical through the accidental discovery of chain reaction for Atomic Bomb. "Woe is me" – Albert Einstein felt upon hearing the news of the Hiroshima bombing. The 'Little Boy' contained only 64 kg of highly enriched uranium releasing energy equaling about 15 kilotons of chemical explosive.

Before I forget, we throw our weight beyond that scale of '64'; we had such a fire in our belly that went unnoticed by our parents. Wow! Being non-matter, that sounds great; on a lighter note, so perhaps we were a-padartha until we grew up on Physics fundamentals.