Einstein's Happiest Thought.

"There was a long history of speculation that in quantum gravity, unlike Einstein's classical theory, it might be possible for the topology of spacetime to change." and here's what we discussed:

The first session of the S.T.E.M Club was conducted in the Biology Lab of the Bishop’s Co-Ed School Kalyani Nagar on the 23rd September 2022.

The session began with President of the Club Dev Gala introducing the topic of Gravity to the students. A discussion ensued on the topic of Ripples in Space and Time, Gravity Lensing and the perplexity of having to choose between Newton’s theory of gravity and Einstein’s.

The Head of the Physics department Adit Rawat further elucidated on how Gravity is not actually a force but a consequence and explained it with the help of an example of the slowing down of a feather due to air resistance.

The students then indulged in healthy debate on the topic of distant galaxies and why time stops in a black hole. This was illustrated with the help of many interesting videos. The students kept their grey cells ticking on a question –

“What would happen if we were to drill a hole through the core of the Earth and drop an object through it?”

The matter of warped space and time and time dilation was explored by Harshini Jaykumar, Adit Bose, Tia Upadhyay with our Vice-President Shagnik Dasgupta which also led to the children examining themes of the Twin Paradox, Hafele-Keating experiment and the astounding science behind Atomic Clocks.

The group then further discussed the intricacies of The Big Bang Theory and the Equivalence Principle which Albert Einstein described as his “happiest thought”.

An engaging conversation on the topic of effect of zero gravity on Cosmonaut’s body kept the students enthralled and helped them see Gravity as more than just an academic concept and allowed them to delve into it as more than just a subject of Physics.

It was truly a productive morning with students engaging in deep discussions of science which got them intrigued to know more and look forward to more such engrossing sessions.

“Because there is a law such as Gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.” - Stephen Hawking