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18. Two Great Scientists : One From
Eastern India And One From
Western India
This is what happened long ago, a Professor of Gujarat College of Ahmedabad, happened to go to the intermediate class to give a lecture. He looked at the blackboard and loudly read what was written on it :'It is trousers that the professor wears.' And then, looking at the students, he added," If you wish, I will come from tomorrow onwards without wearing trousers." Hearing this, the class burst into a loud laughter.
This plain, simple and straight forward man with interesting nature was none else than the highly intellectual, extraordinary mathematician, Dr P. C. Vaidya.
Recently, at 9-30 a.m. on October 24, 1995, a rare and unusual astronomical event happened in India. It was a total solar eclipse - an event that in the day-light, gave the evening experience. The time of the total solar eclipse was at the most only one minute and thirty-eight seconds but the scientists of India and other countries had to make the best use of the little time. This renowned mathematician gave guidance about the principles for the experiments to be made during the one and a half minutes.
What made Dr Vaidya famous was his research work on Einstein's general theory of relativity. Of Indian scientists, only two were directly connected with Einstein for research work. One was Dr Satyendranath Bose who was every inch a Bengali and the other was Dr P. C. Vaidya who besides being every inch a Gujarati, was totally devoted to the Gandhian thought. Today we shall talk about research work of two pre-eminent scientists from two ends of India, the eastern end and the western end. Dr Satyendranath Bose During the period from 1905 A.D. to 1920 A.D., Einstein was renowned as a world famous scientist and scientists all over the world were impressed by his inventive and creative genius. Meanwhile, Dr Satyendranath Bose, a Bengali professor of India, came in contact with him. Both these scientists
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