Einstein Theory of Relativity

Einstein Theory of Relativity
In 1905 Einstein suggested that the new source of energy was none other than matter itself. The route by which he reached this conclusion deserves to be traced. Early in 1905 Einstein published his great paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies’” which laid the a foundations of what came to be called the special theory of relativity.

The cardinal notion of the special theory is that light always travels at the same speed regardless of the speed of its source. If you toss a pebble forward from a moving automobile, then the speed or the pebble equals the speed of the automobile plus the speed with which the pebble was thrown. But with light situation is different. If you turn on the headlights of a speeding car, the velocity of the light from the headlights relative to the ground does not consist of the speed of the light plus the speed of the car. According to the special theory of relativity, the speed of the light from the moving headlight is exactly the same as it would have been if the car had not been moving at all. This simple idea that the speed of light is constant relative to very (un-accelerated) frame of reference changed physics and changed the world.

In late 1905 Einstein published three page meditation on the relationship between the mass of an object and energy contained in it. He reasoned that if the expenditure of energy needed to accelerate an object resulted in an increase in the mass of an object, then a decrease in velocity must produce a decrease in the mass of an object. The exact mathematical relationship between the mass of an object and the energy it contained flowed directly from the equations of the special theory, and was expressed in the famous formula:

E=mc2

that is, that the energy of a body is proportional to the mass of the body multiplied by the square of the speed of light. In 1908 physics and chemistry joined hands when Max Planck took note of Einstein’s equation and suggested that the phenomenon of radioactivity could be explained as the direct transformation of matter into energy.

In the years immediately following Einstein’s proposal, physicist and journalist amused themselves with calculations that a teaspoon of matter contained enough energy to power an ocean liner around the world. But even in the relatively pacific years before World War 1 the military implications of radioactivity and atomic energy did not go unnoticed.
Einstein Theory of Relativity

History of CERN

History of CERN
The initiative of setting up research organization for studying the nucleus of the atom was made by the French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Louis de Broglie, in 1949. In 1952, the European governments provisionally established “Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire” (CERN) to be located at a site near Geneva. Its convention was ratified in 1954, and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and its first accelerator, a 600 MeV proton Synchrocyclotron, began operation in 1957. One of the first experiment achievements was the long awaited observation of the decay of a pion into an electron and a neutrino.

In 1960s, CERN was leading in neutrino physics benefiting greatly from fast ejection of protons from the synchrotron. The 28 GeV Proton Synchrotron commissioned in 1959 acted as the central hub and it provided an unparalleled variety of particle beams and research possibilities. CERN commissioned the Isotope Separator On-Line (ISOLDE) in 1967 for the study of very short lived nuclei. It began construction of the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) to develop the world’s first proton collider, which was commissioned in 1971. The most significant work started back in 1968 with the invention of multiwire proportional chambers and drift chambers that revolutionized the electronic particle detectors. Georges Charpak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1992 for this work.

CERN began to gather its momentum with the construction of a seven kilometer Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) in the early 1970s, initially planned for energy 300 GeV. The interconnected, large facilities gave an edge to the particle physics experiments, the construction of the SPS expanded the activities of CERN in the French side, thus residing now at the border of the two countries.

In 1984, Carlo Rubbia and Simon van de Meer received the Noble Prize for Physics for their work, which culminated in the discovery of the W-boson and Z boson at CERN in 1983 – the long sought carriers of the weak nuclear force – confirmed the “electroweak” theory unifying weak and electromagnetic forces.

In 1981, the construction of the 27 kilometers long Large Electron Positron collider (LEP) ring started. It was the largest scientific instrument constructed at the time, for initial operating energy of 50 GeV per beam.
History of CERN