An interesting way to look at Galileo's work. Has some interpretations from a modern capitalistic viewpoint.
— G V Pavan Kumar (@Pavan_KumarGV) December 24, 2023
From a history of science viewpoint, I am curious to know if such thought process was common in the medieval age or was particular to Galileo. https://t.co/JvXySKlk1q
Category: History
Some books on the history of thermodynamics
Müller, Ingo. 2007. A History of Thermodynamics: The Doctrine of Energy and Entropy. Springer Science & Business Media. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/A_History_of_Thermodynamics/u13KiGlz2zcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
Truesdell, C. 2013. The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics, 1822–1854. Springer Science & Business Media. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Tragicomical_History_of_Thermodynami/3EjaBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
Solo podcast – Let go the ego!
Planck replies to Sommerfeld
Gamow, George. 1966. Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory.
An excerpt from the book mentioned above:
“Planck was a typical German professor of his time, serious and probably pedantic, but not without a warm human feeling, which is evidenced in his correspondence with Arnold Sommerfeld who, following the work of Niels Bohr, was applying the Quantum Theory to the structure of the atom. Referring to the quantum as Planck’s notion, Sommerfeld in a letter to him wrote:
You cultivate the virgin soil,
Where picking flowers was my only toil.and to this answered Planck:
You picked flowers—well, so have I.
Let them be, then, combined;
Let us exchange our flowers fair,
And in the brightest wreath them bind.”
Who thought these scientists were so poetic!
My Bengaluru memo..
John Michell and ‘dark stars’
November 1783,
John Michell published a paper on ‘dark stars’.
This was kind of a preamble to the concept of black holes & interestingly, was based on Newton’s corpuscular theory of light and the slowing down of light due to gravity!
See this article for details:
Part of the original paper (the beginning) is reproduced below :
The first few lines of Michell’s 24-page paper elaborate on his idea. As you may observe, he makes a remarkable connection between the velocity of light and the measures related to stars (distance, magnitude, etc.)
Kumar Patel and CO2 laser- Baramati-Pune to Bell Labs
Happy Deepavali: let’s celebrate (laser) light! Did you know there is a connection b/w Baramati, Pune city & the first-ever CO2 lasers? Kumar Patel, the inventor of one of the most powerful lasers, was born in Baramati & did his BE at the College of Engineering, Pune!
Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel had an illustrious career. From Pune, he moved to Stanford University for his PhD and then worked at Bell Labs, where he created his CO2 laser. See him describe the invention:
In Nov 1964 (around the time of the Diwali festival :)), he published his invention: https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.136.A1187
Wikipedia has a good profile of his work, including a video :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Kumar_N._Patel
Kumar Patel went on to win many laurels, including US President’s National Medal of Science. https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=270
Kumar was a rare engineering scientist who also served as the president of the American Physical Society in 1995.
https://www.aps.org/about/governance/presidents.cfm
One of the reasons to celebrate Diwali is the move from darkness(ignorance) to light(knowledge). I hope humanity moves toward peace, knowledge and harmony with nature guided by compassion and science. Baramati-born Kumar Patel has shown us one of the ways.
Kannada – ನಿಮಗೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ದೀಪಾವಳಿಯ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು
Marathi – तुम्हा सर्वांना दीपावलीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा
Sanskrit – सर्वेभ्यः दीपावली शुभकामना
Hindi – आप सभी को दीपावली की शुभकामनाएँ
I wish you all a happy Deepavali.
Curie and Raman – born on this day
Marie Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) and CV Raman (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) were born on this day. Both were extraordinary scientists and strong characters.
Marie Curie led an extraordinary life, and her dedication to science was unparalleled. She led a tough life in a male-dominated society and became a great scientist. Previously, I have written about her in one of my blogs on lab writing:
https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/expression-as-exploration/
CV Raman was an outstanding experimentalist and trained many students. He had his faults but led an astonishing scientific life, and linked are a couple of talks on his scientific biography that I have given:https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2022/03/18/talks-on-c-v-raman-youtube-links/
Scientists are human beings. For me, understanding their scientific life history in the context of their society & environment is fascinating. There is always something to learn from their past, not only from their achievements but also from their mistakes.
Keeps me humble!
Teaching LASERs – snapshots
Today, I will be teaching the origins of LASERs in my optics class. Some of the content may interest science enthusiasts here. I present some snapshots from my notes. As expected, it starts with Einstein introducing his A and B coefficients and the stimulated emission.
He introduced them in a paper written in German: Einstein, A. (1916). “Strahlungs-Emission und -Absorption nach der Quantentheorie”. Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft. 18: 318–323.
The English translation of the paper: “Volume 6: The Berlin Years: Writings, 1914-1917 (English Translation Supplement) Page 212 (224 of 462).” Accessed November 3, 2023. https://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol6-trans/224.
Under thermodynamic equilibrium, the detailed balance gives us the connection between the coefficients…and amplification and stimulated emission of radiation become a measurable prospect.
The pic shows the leading characters behind the invention of the Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER) Charles Townes was the intellectual pioneer behind microwave variety… and Maiman….the freak behind the optical version..
The history of the invention is fascinating and dramatic. I did a podcast on this a few months ago. Check it out..
Twitter thread on Chandra
Today is Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar’s birthday. I did a Twitter/X thread on him with several links :
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Physics 