Max Planck

The year 1900 is the watershed between what are known as classical Physics and modern Physics – not because it makes the transition from the 19^th century to the 20^th century, but because it saw the birth of quantum theory which changed the character Physics. The author of that path breaking theory was Max Planck who was born exactly a century and a half ago, on April 23, 1858 in the city of Kiel in northern Germany. Planck studied in the University of Berlin under Helmholtz, Clausius and Kirchoff and got his doctorate in 1879. After teaching in Munich and Kiel universities or some time, he replaced his teacher, Kirchoff, as professor of Physics in Berlin University when the latter died in 1889.

The quantum theory concerns the nature of light, a topic hotly debated in the 17^th century. Newton held that light is a stream of corpuscles (tiny particles) whereas his contemporary, Christian Huygens said that it is a sort of wave, As years rolled by, overwhelming evidence in favour of the latter view got accumulated – notably the phenomena of diffraction and interference, characteristics of wave motion – and, as a result, the wave theory was more or less accepted.

It came to be understood that light consists of electromagnetic waves, waves made up of oscillating electric and magnetic waves and travelling with a speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second. Coloured lights, found in the spectrum of white light, are electromagnetic radiations having different wave lengths varying from 3800 angstroms (an angstrom is ten billionth of a meter) at the violet end of the spectrum to 7200 angstroms at the red end. Consequently they have different frequencies (number of oscillations per second) which can be got by dividing the velocity of light by the wave length. The visible part of the spectrum is skirted on either side by the ultraviolet and infrared radiations.

Planck got interested in the problem of the black body, one that absorbs light of all frequencies and so, when heated, emits all frequencies of light. But, it does not emit them equally. No one, at that time, could explain why the black body radiates different frequencies in the way it does. Planck, however, managed to arrive at an equation which accurately described the distribution of frequencies in the blackbody radiation. But his equation was based on a seemingly untenable assumption that radiant energy does not flow continuously, but does so in packets o energy which he called quanta (plural of quantum). It looked as though he was bringing Newton’s corpuscular theory from the back door. But it was not so. For, he had not rejected the wave theory, but had established a link with it. He had assumed that the amount of energy in the quantum is proportional to the frequency of the radiation.

Energy of the quantum = h X frequency

The constant h is now known as Planck’s constant. Since some phenomena like diffraction are explained by the wave theory and others, like black body radiation, are explained by the quantum theory, the two theories are not mutually exclusive, but are complementary.

The theory was so revolutionary that it was not accepted by physicists immediately. Planck himself half-suspected that it might be a mathematical trick and may not represent anything real. But, in 1905, Einstein used the theory to explain the photoelectric effect, emission of electrons by some metals when light falls on them. It cannot be explained by the wave theory. Niels Bohr, in 1913, used it to describe the atomic structure and explain a great deal which cannot be explained by classical physics. By 1918 the quantum theory had become so important that it fetched the Nobel Prize for its author. Einstein and Bohr were awarded that prize in 1921 and 1922 for applying the theory fruitfully.

In 1930, Planck was made the president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society which was later renamed Max Planck Society. Although Planck was already in his seventies during the rise of Hitler in Germany, he resisted it. He sought to intercede on behalf of the persecuted Jewish scientists and, as a result, had to step down from the presidentship of the Max Planck Society. But, in the world of science, the veneration accorded to him was next only to that accorded to Einstein.

During the second world war, his house was destroyed by allied bombings; his older son was killed in action and the younger one was accused of plotting against Hitler and was executed. Planck lived into his ninetieth year to see Nazism destroyed. He was renamed president of the Max Planck Society and spent the last two years loved and respected. He died in October 3,1947.

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My father, J R Lakshmana Rao, wrote this for publication on Max Plank's 150th birthday on April 23. For various reasons it did not see the light of day. I decided to post it here.

Picture: Courtesy Wikipedia

Stony Silence

Doesn't the Stone - Karma affair (no, Karma is not a man and Sharon Stone is not having an affair with him) make you wish that she, and others like her, maintain a stony silence?

It is said that it is better to keep your mouth shut and let others wonder if you are an idiot than open it and leave no doubts.

Perhaps no one told Stone about it.

Are you wondering if it would have been better, for me, if I myself had taken heed of that adage and not written this post?

25 May 2008

The Tendulkar

I posted a tribute to Vijay Tendulkar in Peripatetica, instead of here, by mistake.

Decided to provide a link here.

http://peripatetix.blogspot.com/2008/05/tendulkar.html

RC

RC meant Resistor-Capacitor, for a long time. RC coupled amp kind of thing.

Later some spirited friends who did not know any electronics were talking about RC and I found that it stood for Rum and Cola.

In recent times it has been Bangalore RC. Royal Challengers. (The self styled defenders of all things Karnataka and Kannda and Kannadigas do not seem to have realised that it is not Bengaluru Royal Challengers! Too caught up gaping at the over hyped, under clad cheerleaders I suppose?)

It is another matter that they looked Royally Challenged and did pathetically in IPL.

Is it time to think of other names to follow Bangalore or Bengaluru?

When I see drivers and riders take a right turn on the roads of Bangalore, I feel that they are drifting. Not taking a turn at all. Will Bangalore drifters be a good alternative.

The most common sound that you hear on the roads of Bangalore is toot toot. The most common sound pattern for honking. Reminds me of the Road Runner cartoons. Could Bangalore Road Runners be a good name?

Or, should that be Bangalore Popeyes. Popeye's pipe also seems to make a similar sound but sounds more like a sounds made foghorns of ships.

Heard in Passing

A Kannada newspaper has published today a photograph of Mallikarjun Kharge drinking water. The caption said that he was campaigning constantly, it was hot, he was thirsty and he was drinking water.

An old man, reading the paper commented in the local patois, "What kind of reporting is this? Do you call this news? One of these days they will publish a photograph and say that this man was campaigning continuously. He did not have the time to have a bath. On the fourth day it started itching all over. He is scratching himself."

No. I have not bowdlerised the comment. He did not mention unmentionable body parts.

Are the news paper men listening?

Einstein and Religion III

After I wrote Einsten and Religion I wrote Einstein and Religion II. Recently there was a report on the auctioning of Einstein's letter to Gutkind in which he expresses more clearly what he felt about the subject. Here is an abridged version of the letter.

Einstein has expressed himself far more unambiguously here.

People on both sides of the religious fence seem to cite Einstein's apparently contradictory expressions in support of their arguments.

Both seem to be saying 'the great Einstein himself has said...' .

It is a fundamental tenet of scientific method that who has supported a certain theory has no bearing on the 'correctness' or otherwise of it. Applying this principle, what Einstein has said about religion or god is no conclusive evidence.

Einstein famously said, "god does not play dice". Niels Bohr is supposed to have retorted that Einstein should not tell god what he should or should not do. In the end, it turned out that god indeed played dice at least in the context of Quantum Mechanics. So much for Einstein's opinion on the subject.

A Land Where Women are Worshipped?

In the queue to buy some lunch. A news channel near the counter. Interview with people. Their opinion about introduction of sex education in schools.

Opinions: This is against our culture. This is a country where women are worshipped. Blah Blah.

Arrrrrrrrrgh, Puhleeeez, spare me the blushes.

Yes! This is a country where women are worshipped. That is why some 50,000 Nepali women migrate to India every year so that they can get worshipped in the brothels of India?

Perhaps a larger number of our own women are enslaved in brothels for the same reason?

Is that why we still have 'bettale seve' (nude worship) where women parade naked around some temples?

Is that why we still have devadasis?

Is that why we have honour killings? If a woman falls from the pedestal we claim to have placed her on, she is worth killing to save the non-existent honour of the so called family?

Is that why we have the second highest incidence of female foeticide in the world?

Is rape a form of worship too? Because all that rape raises nowadays are the headlines in papers and nothing more?

Is that why, when we curse a man, we call his mother names?

Is that why we do not want to even allow the introduction of womens' bill? Parliament is for humans and not for worship-worthy god(desse)s?

Do You Happen to Know Her?

Select Book House is a landmark in Bangalore in its own right. To describe it is like trying to describe something. It can never match the real experience. If you like books, your next pilgrimage destination is made.

The owner, Mr. Murthy, has a phenomenal memory about books and the people connected with each.

I once went to Select and asked for Leopald Infeld's autobiographical work - 'Quest'.

Mr. Murthy's face lit up. In his slow, clearly pronounced and well strung words, he said, "This is interesting. A few months ago a lady came here and asked for the same book, specifically. She is a lecturer of Physics in abc college. Her name is xyz. Do you happen to know her, by any chance?"

I said that I indeed knew her.

"Oh, how interesting. How do you know her?"

She is my sister.

Electrical Anecdotes

I added a new link to the links list on my Blog. Electrical Anecdotes. It is not (only) because I have contributed to that Blog.

It is a very interesting moderated Blog that needs to grow but does not grow fast enough.

Here is an invitation to all ye who can contribute.

I had even cajoled a few friends who have shared their interesting stories with me. They promised to write too but have not.

I am tempted to write on their behalf but I am sure I will miss some interesting detail that only they know.

I hope that this small note adds at least a few more to that Blog.

Poor Humorists

Art Buchwald was once asked if it was not difficult being a humorist. He said “Not at all. Not when the whole government is working for you.”

I am certain that he would have found it difficult in America during the last decade. You can’t caricature cartoons, can you?

What do you say when Bush says that the rise in food prices (I was about to type it as price Rice…) is because Indians have started eating better and the rise in petrol prices is because the Chinese and Indians have started driving cars? Even Art would have become tongue-tied at this brilliance, don’t you think?

How insensitive of those slit eyes and we brown skins! Can’t we have just one meal a day and walk or ride bicycles as we are expected to? Damn nuisances, these bloody natives. No?

It is the God given right of the British to waste food worth £10 billion a year.

It is the God given right of the Yanks to grow the fattest backsides in the world (If you do not believe me, just listen to Jay Leno talk expansively about the subject) on junk food.

Coincidence

A: Hi Kitty¹, heard that you are getting married. Congratulations! Who is the lucky girl?

K: Yes. Thanks. Her name is Radha.

A: I understand why you were searching for a house so desperately! Did you get anything good?

K: Yes, I did, in Gokulam²

A: Where in Gokulam?

K: Do you know that new apartment complex called Dwaraka? A first floor apartment

A: My goodness! What a set of coincidences!!

K: What coincidence?

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1. Diminutive for Krishnamurthy

2. A suburb of Mysore

Ragi mudde

I read this post on raagi mudde and posted a comment too. My thoughts about this subject raced. Among the comments was snippetsnscribbles slurping about raagi mudde with chicken saaru. I decided to write more about this on my own. I hope I have not committed any breach of blog etiquette. If I have, I hope I am excused.

Shruthi's list of things that go well with raagi mudde is fairly limited. Most of our experiences are limited by what Amma makes. What Amma makes depends, among other things, on her tastes, what her Amma made, her caste and class of society she comes from.

A friend of mine, a connoisseur of food (and classical music, not necessarily in the same order) once took me to a special place to savour raagi mudde with matan chaapees (Mutton chops). This is a special place called Jai Bhuvaneswari Hindu Miltry Hotel.

(Many restaurants in Karnataka that serve meat and fish call themselves Miltry - military - hotels. The Hindu part is not that it does not serve food to others. It could either mean that it is run by a Hindu or that the meat is Jhatka and not Halaal. Jhatka is the method of killing an animal, for meat, in which its head is severed in one stroke. Halaal is where the neck is cut and at the end there is a small strip of skin left attaching the head to the rest of the body. This is the recommended method of killing for mulsims)

Coming back to Jai Bhuvaneswari, you can spot it on the road from Bangalore to Mysore. Just before you reach Sriranagapatna there is a bridge. Before reaching the bridge there is a sharp turn to the left. You find JB there, to your left, just before the left turn. (I decry this method of giving directions. If you are traveling on that road for the first time, how do you know when you reach the bridge?. So let me try again.)

While on the way to Mysore, after you have passed Mandya and travelled about 20 kms, you reach a small bridge. As you approach the Bridge, you see a board to your left directing towards Karighatta. (That is a lovely place. You should see it) Pass the bridge and the road takes a right turn. Then you enter Kirangur. There is a row of shops to your left starting with a petrol bunk. After this row of shops, you find a pretty ordinary looking house with Mangalore tiles and a board announcing JB.

This place is famous for raagi mudde with various side dishes. What happened when I was sitting there and enjoying the food is indication of its fame.

A white, chauffeur driven [1] Contessa stopped in front of the place. The chauffeur waved, asking someone from the restaurant to go there. Someone did. The person sitting inside, whom we could not see, gave some "tiffin carriers" and orders for some food. The waiter brought the carriers in and announced what the orders were. It did contain raagi mudde and some side dishes.

Then, one of the owners who was serving us, as we were a rare occurrence - city bred educateds (that is what college educated people are called by many) - proudly told us who the customer in the Contessa was. "Do you know who that is? It is Arundhati Nag, Shankar Nag's wife. He and some friends are staying in Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel. But they want the food from here! Whenever they come to Mysore they come here for food" (Yaar gotta saa adu? Arundti Naagu saa. Sankar naagavrendti. Avrella laltmahal Otlallavre saa. Aadre avrigoota illindle bEku saa. . . ."

Wow. . . .