December 10, 2016 Saturday
Bedtime Story
1905 - The Annus Mirabilis or The Miraculous Year
Experiments provide us empirical evidence on the basis of which
one can propose a hypothesis or even a theory if it agrees with further
experiments.
In this particular example, Albert Einstein in 1905 published a
paper to explain the emission of electrons from metals after they were exposed
to light.
The paper titled “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the
Production and Transformation of Light” was published in the science journal Annalen der Physik that in turn was
inspired by a paper of Max Planck on black body radiation.
By the way, the year 1905 is considered an “extraordinary year” or
sometimes “miracle year” (in German Annus
mirabilis) for the 4 papers published by Einstein in the same journal, all
in the year of 1905.
These papers changed our understanding of all the 4 basic
constituents of universe: space, times, mass and energy including light.
He proposed that light consisted of discrete quanta called photons
(instead of the electromagnetic wave as was well known and established by
then).
Any theory in physics is taken seriously if it continues to hold
good and consistent with the findings of further experiments.
Einstein even formulated the equation that predicted regarding
photoelectric effect.
The equation predicted a liner increase of the energy of the ejected
electrons with the increasing frequency of the incident light (irrespective of
its intensity).
Ekmax = hf – Phi
Where hf is the energy of the photon (Planck’s constant multiplied with the frequency in hertz of the incident light).
Ekmax is the energy of the released electrons which
have the maximum kinetic energy.
American physicist Robert A. Millikan (yes, the same Millikan of
the extremely high skill oil droplet experiment fame) while working at the
University of Chicago was very sure that Einstein had to be wrong.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night and my fellow cousin ape.
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, may I
suggest this large collection of Kids Songs:
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