GUWAHATI, March 15 - Albert Einstein�s birthday was celebrated in the Department of Physics of Arya Vidyapeeth College here on Wednesday, said a press release today.
In the beginning, one-minute silence was observed to pay respect to legendary British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on March 14, the same date as Einstein�s birthday.
This was followed by an inter-departmental prize money quiz competition among the major students of 13 groups on topics related to Einstein and his works. The quiz was conducted by Dr Krishna Kingkar Pathak and Satyadeep Bhattacharya, faculty members of the department.
Dr Prasad Basu, Assistant Professor of the Department of Physics, Cotton University, delivered a talk on �Einstein � the legend and his contributions to science�.
Dr Basu lucidly explained Einstein�s Special Theory of Relativity, which is an experimentally well-confirmed physical theory that shows how space and time are intimately connected to each other. Next, he discussed the General Theory of Relativity, which is one of the towering achievements of 20th-century physics.
Dr Basu explained how light from a distant star/planet bends when it passes near a star as per Einstein�s General Theory of Relativity. He illustrated how the universe, which is about 13.7 billion years old, has been continuously expanding since the Big Bang, first predicted by Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann and confirmed experimentally by American astronomer Edwin Hubble.
There was an interactive session after the talk where the questions on Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) were put to the speaker by the audience.
Earlier, Dr Pradip Bhattacharjee, Principal of the college, and Dr Apurba Kumar Das, convenor of the programme, gave the welcome address.
