Editorial
“The fundamental laws necessary for the mathematical treatment of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty lies only in the fact that application of these laws leads to equations that are too complex to be solved. “
- Paul Dirac
Complexity is what perplexes us, understanding it is what we vie for. Though the cliché goes as – Physics is the mother of all sciences while Mathematics is the language she speaks – we are always in continuous process of fine tuning this language and our understanding through it.
Welcome to the fourth issue of Ansatz!
We start from where we signed off last time. Yes, Prof. S.D. Majumdar. This time Prof. D. Basu, another cherished former faculty of our department and student of Prof. S. D. Majumdar, gives his homage to him. In his homage he shares his rich experience and knowledge of the language of Physics, which Prof. Majumdar taught him in his own unique way.
We then have a very simple and beautiful demonstration of complexity and chaos in physical systems. We are sure that you will be enchanted by the demonstrations and explanations by Prof. Krishna Kumar of his experiments. The system may seem simple but its physics and the complexity of parameters involved make it all the more riveting.
Next in line we have an invited article from Prof. C.S. Unnikrishnan of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. This article may well raise a few eyebrows among the traditional believers of the Special Theory of Relativity. Prof Unnikrishnan suggests the reasons why we need a new and better theory of Relativity. This article makes you think and think hard. We enjoyed reading it and hopefully you will enjoy it too.
Talking of the languages, how can a language be rich if the people talking it don’t have some poets among them? Dr. Shaymal Chakroborty continues to grace our column of “Poetic Phy”.
In our last two Scientist Foci, we remained busy exploring the Quantum Generation. To concur with the central theme of the present issue, here we step back (in time) to pick up one of those giants who attempted to understand all complexities of nature in terms of the (Newtonian) mechanical model alone. He is none other than Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, full of subtleties and idiosyncrasies, presented to you by Mr. Mayukh Nilay Khan (5 th year) of our department.
We then move on to exorcize the ghost of Pluto, the most recent member to be ostracized from the planet family. Mr. Abhinendra Singh (IIT-KGP) and Mr. Ashish Goel (IIT- BOMBAY) give us all the details of the family feud which took place last year. We get to know all about Pluto, the planet which is no more.
If you think that you know all about Pluto and the above article failed to test your inquisitive mind, we have our own sets of questions ready for you. Our new QUIZ affair is sure to tease and test your quizzical genes in the brains.
A request to our readers,
We continuously thrive to achieve new heights through and for Ansatz. For this we need your continuous feedback and word of mouth publicity. If you like what and how we present please ask your friends, relatives and whosoever you know to visit us. If you don’t, please send your brickbats at ansatzmagazine@gmail.com :-) .
