“What do you want to be when you grow up?
Asked the father to his lil buttercup!
The kid thought and said future I cannot see!
But all I want is you to be proud of me!”
My son got me this mechanical pencil which I used to skecth when he went on a picnic from his school! Made me happy and proud!
Most of the time the son would always look up to his father (now daughter and mother is a discussion for another day!); and would always want his father to be proud of him! His quest is usually to impress his father since Mother’s are usually easily impressed!
But (he he!) what would someone do if he had a father who had won the Nobel prize!
Well disprove him and win another Nobel!
Yes! That happened!
read on!
Physics is apparently the subject to love and is the subject which is the base for all the universe and matter and everything else!
The force between the molecules and atoms and what not!
The beginning of universe can apparently be only explained by physics and probably the end!
Physics can both create stuff and destroy!
Physics is the final say!
If my classmates and I liked Physics in the 11th and 12th grade then it is only because of our amazing teacher! One of the best teachers to have been part of our life; Usha Madam!
She was a brilliant physicist which is surprising since it was the KV! Her passion to teach was rivalled only by her love for physics!
The best thing was her acceptance of the opinion of minions like me! There was a question in the 11th grade which went something like the ‘work done by friction’ is positive or negative or something similar (my memory was never my most strong point!). The answer madam expected was apparently negative but then afterwards in the discussion I asked her, “but madam, Work is scalar! It can never be negative! is it not!” What I told her is not important but suffice to say that I created enough doubts for her to reevaluate the answer! The question turned out to be wrong! She gave grace marks to everyone!
My only regret in not writing the engineering examinations was that Usha madam would have been happy if I had taken engineering (Of course whether I get it or not is another matter altogether!).
The issue with physics for me was we had to imagine stuff!
The first thing which we had to imagine was the torque! I have never understood that! Then you have momentum! Then the fact that there are so many forces like even the Gravity which you cannot see!
There is not such problem with both mathematics and biology at that time! There was only one solution and there were cells we could see!
Now of course as a hobby and pastime, Physics is beautiful! I can finally see Usha madam and her love for the subject!
Now coming to the father and son!
Sir Joseph John Thomson theorised that Electrons were particles and his experiments and later research proved that! So much so that he was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 1906!
Now imagine if you had a father like J J Thomson! What would you do to topple his achievement! Only to make him proud of you of course!
Years later, Thomson’s own son, Sir George Paget Thomson, came in to radicalize the theory even further. These particles, named electrons, weren’t just particles, and they also weren’t just waves. Turns out they were … both? In 1927, George Thomson observed an electron beam pass through a nickel crystal, and watched diffraction patterns occur, which utterly changed what scientists thought of electrons!
Diffraction is when wavelengths bend around an object when they interact with it, and given how George Thomson proved electrons to do this, scientists were fascinated about how these unique particles behaved in this manner !
What this showed, however, was that electrons travel through the universe like a wave, but still somehow interacted with different objects as a particle!
So it was proved that electrons were both wave and particle!
George Thomson was awarded his own Nobel Prize in physics in 1937!
And no, George Thomson’s son did not try to prove that electrons are wavy particles! I think the Nobel committee would have decided to keep the Thomsons away from the electron!
Now Devanesan Chokkalingam, also known as Deva is one composer whose father and child will certainly proud of him!
Now turn off that particle or wave and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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