1.

How were the great men who Raman read about as a child reflected in the work he did later in life? A: C.V Raman was a brilliant student and original thinker right from his childho od. He was an avid reader and went through all the books in his father s collections. As a school going child he read the original writings of great scientists. the b ooks he read, which changed his mental and spiritual outlook and determined his path were Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold, The Elements of Euclid a book on classical geometry and The Sensatio ns of Tone by Helmholtz, a German scientist. The keen study, the nature of solution to the problems, carried the mark of these great minds into future. The study of waves and sound in his c hildhood interested him in his later life. 2. Why did Raman fail to impress his teacher when he first joined Presidency Col lege? A: Raman completed his schooling, only at the age of eleven years and spent next 2 years in his father s college. When he was only years he went first to join the presidency college. He appeared too young for his class as Raman was not physica lly string. He was unimpressive due to his weak frame. 3. What made Raman say of the civil surgeon of Madras, I shall ever be grateful t o this man ? A: When Raman exhibited extraordinary intelligence in his BA examination, his te achers were astonished and understood Raman s ability. They encouraged him to appear for the ICS prestigious examination which Indians rarely get through. Before Raman coul d take the test he had to undergo a medical test. But in the medical test the civil su rgeon of Madras had declared him medically unfit to travel to England to appear for ci vils Raman s interest was to study physics, so when he was declared unfit, he really fe lt grateful to the civil surgeon. He was overjoyed as he could continue his study o f physics. 4. Why was the day when Raman walked into the Indian Association for the culture of science a historic moment? A: Raman had flair to pursue research in physics but there were no labs in India . He could not travel to England. So he decided to write FCS exam. He topped the e xam and got the job of Assistant Accountant General for British India. While travell ing in a tram, he noticed a sign board of Indian Association for Cultivation of Scie nce. He got off the tram and out of interest he walked into the building. Later it w as in t his building, he performed many legendary experiments along with his team. Hence the first step into the IACS building enabled him to conduct many experiments and le ad

to the invention of famous Raman Effect. So, the day he walked into IACS was ind eed a historic moment. 5. Outline the subject of the first research Raman conducted in the IACS? A: Raman was fascinated by the waves and sounds right from his childhood. He got a chance to study and experiment at IACS. He came across an idea from Helmholtz s book which he read in his childhood days. So he decided to study on musical instruments. He explained the working of Ektara, which is a simple instrument, made of a resonant box and string stretched to tie across the cavity. He studied about Remarkable Resonances . The scientific understanding on studies of violin and the interest in acoustics led Raman to study many musical instruments. It was the first time musical string instrument were scientifically studied. 6. What discovery did Raman make during his voyage across the Mediterian Sea and did it prove to be important? A: During the voyage across the Mediterranian Sea, Raman spent hours watching the sea from the deck of the ship. He was admired by the colour of sea which was blue. Raman used simple optical tools and did experiments to capture the colour of the sea. He discovered that the water molecules could scatter light just like air molecul es. He speculated that light exists as mass less particles of energy. He performed the Corpuscular theory of light thoroughly scattering experiments. The existence of light quanta was established beyond doubt. Finally they understood it as modified scattering which led to discovery of the famous RAMAN EFFECT on 28th Feb, 1927. This discovery proved to be important because th ey found the fact that light can undergo a scattering through a liquid resulting in a change in its frequency. This was the famous RAMAN EFFECT.