sir c v raman - life and achievements
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SIR C V RAMAN
The Author
Shubashree Desikan is a PhD in Theoretical Condensed Matter, but chose to work in publishing – writing, editing, translating. Her knowledge of physics comes in handy when she writes science fiction and when she publishes science-related texts. She enjoys literature in translation.
Early Life…
Raman’s story begins in a village near Tiruchirapalli
He was born on 8 November 1888
Was the second child ofR. Chandrasekhara Iyer & Parvathi Ammal
Early life…
Family moved to Visakhapatnam when Raman was 4 yrs old
Raman’s father was a lecturer in Mrs. A. V. Narasimha Rao College
He taught Physics, Mathematics & Physical Geography
Raman…an intelligent student
Father was an athletic man & took active interest in sports
Raman was not physically strong
But was very intelligent
Preferred to read books & work at his studies
Raman – A voracious reader
Raman was a voracious reader. He read all the books in his father’s collection among which were original writings of great scientists.
To him, books were like old friends, never to be forgotten.
He was mainly influenced by 3 books – Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia, The Elements of Euclid, & Hermann Helmholtz’s The Sensations of Tone.
Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold
The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is a book by Edwin Arnold. The book is In the form of poem, and describes the life and time of Prince Gautama Buddha, who after attaining enlightenment became The Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. The book has been highly acclaimed from the time it was first published, and has been the subject of several reviews. It has been translated into several languages.
The Elements of Euclid
Euclid's Elements is a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems and constructions), and mathematical proofs of the propositions. The thirteen books cover Euclidean geometry and the ancient Greek version of elementary number theory. The Elements is one of the oldest extant Greek mathematical treatises and it is the oldest extant axiomatic deductive treatment of mathematics. It has proven instrumental in the development of logic and modern science.
The Sensations of Tone
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894) was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science. In 1863 Helmholtz published On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, demonstrating his interest in the physics of perception. This book influenced musicologists into the twentieth century. Helmholtz invented the Helmholtz resonator to identify the various frequencies or "tones" present in musical and other sounds containing by multiple tones.
Raman’s Education
Completed schooling by 11 years
Spent two years in his father’s college
Went to Madras when he was 13
Joined B.A. in Presidency College.
Youngest in his class
Unimpressive in appearance
In his first English class, Professor E. H. Elliot asked him if he really belonged to the class
Raman stunned all sceptics and stood university first in B. A. exams
Education
Teachers asked him to prepare for ICS (precursor to the present IAS)
This was a very prestigious exam
But candidates had ti undergo a medical examination before the qualifying exam
The Civil Surgeon of Madras declared Raman unfit to travel to England
This was the only exam he failed
Later in life, Raman would feel grateful to the man who disqualified him
B.A. to M.A.
Joined M. A. Physics in Presidency College, Madras
Teachers allowed the students free to look after themselves.
Raman enjoyed this and attended only one lecture during the whole 2 years
But he was developing his original thinking during the time
Started experiments with light waves
Presidency College, Madras (now Chennai)
Then Now
Raman’s initial experiment with light waves There was a discussion in Raman’s textbook about
how light that fell on a screen placed in its path would get diffracted, or bent, when entering a narrow slit in it.
Raman wondered what would happen if the light shone straight, not from an angle, on the screen.
His classmates would not think of pursuing this simple alternative line to see if something different happened.
Raman not only studied this variant problem, but also got his results published in Philosophical Magazine (England), while still in his teens – the first student of Presidency College to publish a research paper.
Education, Marriage, & Job
Passed M. A. in January 1907 Stood first in the university Married Lokasundari Raman wanted to pursue research But no labs in India, and he could not travel to
England So, he decided to write FCS (Financial Civil
Services) exam – forerunner of IAAS Topped the exam Went to Calcutta to work as Asst Accountant
General
C V Raman with his wife, Lokasundari (later days)
Life changing moment for Raman: Spotting IACS in Calcutta In Calcutta, one day, when riding to
work on a tram, Raman spotted the IACS (Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science) signboard
Raman walked in to the building This was a historic moment IACS became the laboratory where
he and his team performed the legendary experiments on light
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
Then NOW
Raman’s double life
Worked efficiently as finance officer all day After office hours, moved to IACS and did
research until night Papers appeared in international journals like
Nature, Philosophical Magazine (England), Physical Review (USA)
Communicated with physicists around the world
Liked to teach and gave popular lectures in Calcutta
Introduced giving live demonstrations, which ordinary people loved
Raman’s public lectures
Raman’s papers appeared in international journals
Raman experiments with waves and sounds Raman was fascinated by
waves and sounds He carried the memory of
reading Helmholtz’s book Raman chose to study
musical instruments at IACS
Explained the working of Ektara, a simple instrument made of a resonant box and a string stretched to lie across the cavity
Different kinds of ektaras
A folk singer with his ektara
Raman’s Ektara…
Remarkable Resonances
Starting from the understanding of the simple instrument ektara, Raman developed several ideas which he called, ‘remarkable resonances.’
From Ektara to Violin
During this time, he took up violin for study
First time a scientific understanding was established, which is used even today
Raman’s studies on the violin were extensive
Later published as a book – On the Mechanical Theory of Vibrations of Musical Instruments of the Violin Family with Experimental Results: Part 1
Raman devised a Mechanical Violin Player Mechanical Violin Player devised by Raman
was assembled from parts brought from a cycle shop, and other odds and ends
Did not resemble the instrument we know But, it had all the essential features of the
violin Stretched string, resonant box, the bow that
can be moved at a desired speed and stroke-length by adjusting the mechanical wheel
First time a mechanical violin player was designed for research & the concept is used even today
Mechanical Violin Player
From Acoustics to Optics
Until 1920 acoustics continued to interest him Besides the violin, he studied the veena,
tambura, mridangam, tabla… Around this time, his interest turned to optics
which led to the great discoveries that Raman is famous for
Beginning of a full-fledged career in physics
Around 1917, Raman got chance to move into a full-fledged career in physics
Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, newly appointed VC of Calcutta University offered him the position of Sir Taraknath Palit Professor of Physics Sir Ashutosh
Mookerjee
• To take up the Palit Professorship, he had to leave his secure govt. job along with a higher income
• The rule of ‘foreign experience’ was waived for Raman
• Raman volunteered to teach students, though he was required only to manage the lab and guide students in research
• Keen students from all over the country became his students and later rose to important positions
• K. Ramanathan, K. S. Krishnan and Suri Bhagavantam – some of the brilliant students of Raman
Professor of Physics at Calcutta University
C V Raman with his associates/students – K S Krishnan, K R Ramanathan, & S Bhagavantam
Sitting (left to right) : A.S. Ganesan, L.A. Ramdas, K.S. Krishnan, C.V. Raman, K.R. Ramanathan, S. Venkateswaran, S.S. Moorthy Rao. Standing (left to right) : C. Ramaswamy, S. Bhagavantam, S. Paramasivan, Sreenivasa Rao, N.S. Nagendranath, R. Ananthakrishnan and C.S. Venkateswaran
University Congress at Oxford In 1921, University of Calcutta conferred
honorary doctorate on Raman Went overseas for the first time to attend
University Congress at Oxford During his voyage back to India he spent
hours watching the Mediterranean sea and was struck by its colour
Lord Rayleigh’s earlier explanation for the blue colour of the sea
“The dark blue of the deep sea has nothing to do with the colour of water but is simply the blue of the sky seen in reflection.”
Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh) was an English physicist who, with William Ramsay, discovered the element Argon, for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. He also discovered the phenomenon now called Rayleigh scattering, explaining why the sky is blue, and predicted the existence of the surface waves now known as Rayleigh waves.
Raman’s observations on the colour of the sea Raman did not appear satisfied with Lord
Rayleigh’s explanation He watched the sea intently and conducted
experiments while on the ship with his optical tools to capture the colour of the sky
When the ship finally reached Bombay, Raman’s paper explaining his observations on the Mediterranean Sea was ready
The paper was sent to the journal Nature
Raman’s discovery Water molecules could scatter
light just like air molecules – was an important and radical idea in those days
Set him on the track to discovering the famous ‘Raman Effect’
In 1922, he wrote a brilliant essay, ‘The Molecular Diffraction of Light’
In this essay, Raman speculated that light may exist in quanta, i.e., as mass-less particles of energy
In those days it was considered an extremely radical suggestion Raman’s Essay
Raman in his laboratory
Towards discovering the ‘Raman Effect’ Raman felt that if light did not exist as
particles, or quanta, then scattering experiments would show only a change in the light intensity and not in its frequency, or colour.
On the other hand, if light did exist as particles, or quanta, then a scattering of light could change its frequency as well as intensity.
Towards discovering the ‘Raman Effect’ Raman did not bother what others
thought about his ideas. He directed all research at the institute
towards finding evidence for the corpuscular theory of light through scattering experiments.
The discovery of the Compton effect in 1923 established the fact of the existence of light quanta beyond doubt.
Raman’s hunch was proved right.
Corpuscular theory of light
In optics, the corpuscular theory of light, set forward by Sir Isaac Newton, says that light is made up of small discrete particles called “corpuscles” (little particles) which travel in a straight line with a finite velocity and possess kinetic energy. This theory also rules out the presence of any medium for propagation of light.
Compton effectIn physics, Compton scattering is a type of scattering that X-rays and gamma rays undergo in matter. The inelastic scattering of photons in matter results in a decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, called the Compton effect.
Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.
Towards discovering the ‘Raman Effect’ Now, Raman set his team members to
work on his ideas on light scattering. This was a delicate experiment,
because effect is very weak, and it is difficult to be sure of the observation.
K R Ramanathan, Raman’s student, first spotted this phenomenon in 1923.
Raman’s spectrograph
Towards discovering the ‘Raman Effect’ Many other students were also able to
reproduce this effect, which they named “feeble fluorescence”.
But, it took 4 more years for Raman and his team to become sure of what they were doing.
Finally, in 1927, they were able to say confidently that the new effect was not ‘a type of fluorescence’ but a ‘modified scattering’.
C.V. Raman explains a point to a group of scientists
The ‘Raman Effect’
This led to the discovery made on 28 February 1927 – the fact that light can undergo a scattering through a liquid resulting in a change in its frequency.
This was the famous ‘Raman Effect.’ This date is now celebrated as
National Science Day in memory of this historic event.
Effect after the ‘Raman Effect’ Raman was aware of the enormity of his
discovery. And he was so sure that he would get the
Nobel Prize for that year that he booked two steamer tickets to Europe in 1928!!
But he had to wait for 2 years before receiving the honour.
Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.
Noble prize for physics in 1930
Sir C V Raman (second left) with other Nobel Laureates of 1930, (back row) M. Svedberg, M. Euller, M. Dahlein, Hans Fischer, (front row) Sir Clair Lewis, S. Lagerlof, Karl Landsteiner and M. Barany, after the presentation of the prizes in Stockholm.
Other honours
Raman received a large number of honorary doctorates and membership of scientific societies during his life.
The other important honours that Raman received: Before the Nobel Prize, Raman was knighted by
the British ruler in 1929. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1924. Raman was awarded the Franklin Medal in
1941 India’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna,
was awarded to him in 1954. In 1957, Raman received the Lenin Peace Prize.
Raman as Director of IIScSome time after being awarded the Nobel Prize, Raman was offered the post of Director of Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He continued in that post till his retirement in 1948.
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Stamp released by the Govt of India on the centenary of Indian Institute of Science
As Director of IISc
As Director, Raman gave equal time to research and organizational work
Conducted a lot of important research Nurtured many good students during
his tenure as Director His tenure was not without
controversy, but he never gave up and never once thought of leaving the country for a better life
Raman Research Institute
After his retirement, Raman devoted time to the setting up of the Raman Research Institute and the running of the Indian Academy of Science in Bangalore
He edited journals Current Science and Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Science
Logo of Raman Research Institute
Raman Research Institute
Indian Academy of Science
C. V. Raman (second from right) poses with other dignitaries at the inaugural meeting of the Indian Academy of Science in Bangalore on July 31, 1934
Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore
The journal started by C V Raman in 1932 to popularise science is published even today. The picture of the cover alongside is of the latest issue. An online version is also available athttp://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/ . One can even access back issues of Current Science on this site and read articles right from the first issue; and some of the articles written by C V Raman himself in the early issues. The first issue and subsequent issues can be accessed at http://www.ias.ac.in/j_archive/currsci/volindex.html . One can also read articles from Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Science @ http://www.ias.ac.in/j_archive/proca/volindex.html
End of an era…
C V Raman died on 21 November 1970
He was cremated in the Raman Research Institute campus itself, amidst the surroundings he loved, without any religious ceremonies
Today, a solitary tree is all that marks the spot in the grounds of the Raman Research Institute
The tree planted on the site at the campus of Raman Research Institute where Raman was
cremated
Assessment of C V Raman – an original thinker and a great scientist Raman was a brilliant student, an
original thinker, and a hardworking disciplined person
But more than these, C V Raman was able to contribute greatly to Indian science only because of his deep and genuine passion for physics
He also showed remarkable independence in choosing to work in areas that excited his curiosity.
Assessment of C V Raman – an original thinker and a great scientist In Raman’s youth, India was not an
independent country, and there were hardly any institutions or even libraries to support higher education
Faced with lack of infrastructure, Raman always improvised and built up whatever he needed from scratch
Raman’s determination, spirit and contributions will indeed remain special within the context of the practice of science in India
Postage stamps released by the Govt. of India in honour of Sir C V Raman
Postage stamp released by Republic of Guinea (West Africa) in honour of C V Raman
THANK YOUand
I hope you enjoyed this pictorial voyage into Sir C V Raman’s life and times
Dr S Jayasrinivasa RaoProfessor – Dept of H&S
Aurora’s Scientific and Technological Institute
This presentation was originally conceived by MR NAGARAJ CHILLAKUR, Asst Prof, MJR College of Engineering and Technology, Piler
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