Classical Electrodynamics 

Electromagnetism is the branch of science concerned with the forces that occur between electrically charged particles. In electromagnetic theory these forces are explained using electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature, the other three being the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation.

Classical electromagnetism (or classical electrodynamics) is a branch of theoretical phy

This is the first article of our new Section, "Life on a Rock floating through Space" that will feature philosophical content along with science that makes our daily life, prosper. Some words of wisdom and philosophy that will have a potential to change the way you think! Hope you like our effort. Cheers! :)

Every-time we start our cars, turn on our lights, cook a meal or heat our homes, we're relying on some form of fuel to make it happen. Until now its inevitable been a fossil fuel, part of the carbon chain. And just as inevitable, that will have to change. Long before we decided to stop using fossil fuels, costs will have already made the decision for us. Not just the monetary costs, but the human costs, the cultural costs, the environmental costs. We will quite rightly, demand that our future energy is both sustainable and renewable. We will expect a lot from the likes of solar power, wind power, geothermal power and hydrogen fuel cells. Various estimates suggest that by 2050, nearly one third of the world's energy needs could come from just such sources. Which leaves the other two thirds to come from conventional fuels, such as oil and natural gas. 

To make that happen we have to strike a balance, between the need to protect people's way of living and their environment and the need to provide them with affordable energy. So this is why we need to hear from and listen to everyone who has an interest in the world, which is pretty much everyone in the world. This is the real price of energy and its worth it if only to make sure our children have a chance to buy it, and a world worth buying it in.

Most of us know about black holes. So, I am not writing this article about what black holes are and what are their characteristics. What I am gonna discuss here is what happens when black holes merge…
                                                                     
Have you ever heard of black holes mergers? How, Where And Why do black holes merge and what effects do these mergers have on us, i.e, on earth. Astrophysicists see a lot of possibilities of black hole mergers in the universe. The only means of “seeing” black hole mergers is through a “gravitational wave” eye.
Black holes radiate too little electromagnetic radiation of their own to be seen through electromagnetic wave detectors. But when two black holes merge, they radiate lots of gravitational waves. These gravitational waves can be detected once the sensitive gravitational wave detectors that are being built at various places in the world become functional. So far, observation of gravitational wave emission by compact stars has been indirect. Direct detection of the gravitational waves will be a big breakthrough, as this will open a new window to the universe. Besides giving one more direct test of Einstien’s general relativity, gravitational wave detection will lead to observations of many frontier astrophysical phenomena.

Black Hole Mergers: Where and How?

Black hole is generally a companion in a double star revolving in a circular orbit, accreting matter from the companion star and thereby causing the falling matter to emit X-rays (such X-rays sources in the sky in fact make the best candidates for ‘stellar’ black holes). Now, why do two black holes come closer and merge?
More than half of the stars in the galaxy are double stars (two stars revolving round their common centre of mass.) ‘Double stars are rather the ‘rule’ than exception’, goes the saying!
And there is every possibility that both the stars in a binary(or double star) would become black holes! According to classical electrodynamics, accelerated electric charges radiate electromagnetic waves and thereby lose energy. Similarly, accelerated gravitational bodies radiate gravitational waves and lose energy. This is an important consequence of general relativity.
 The stars in a binary, being in accelerated motion, radiate gravitational waves and thereby lose energy (remember that every curved path motion is an accelerated motion). The loss of energy causes the decrease in the separation of the companions. The bigger the acceleration, the bigger is the rate of radiation and the rate of decrease in their separation.
Every binary, thus radiates gravitational waves but not appreciably. By the times the stars in a binary reach the stage of becoming a white dwarf, neutron stars or  black holes, they come close, their accelerations are now bigger and radiation of gravitational waves from them becomes appreciable.
The radiation of gravitational waves by a binary ultimately causes the merger of the two stars it constitutes. Astrophysicists did see this possibility, but did not know until recently the details of how this phenomenon would occur; As two black holes merge, how much energy is radiated as gravitational waves? What is the shape of the gravitational waves radiated?

Stages in Black hole merger:

The final merger of two black holes can be divided into three stages
Inspiral
Merger
Ringdown

Inspiral:
In this stage, the holes are relatively far apart and can be considered as point masses. As these go on radiating gravitational waves, their orbits go on contracting and, in accordance with Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, the frequency of the gravitational waves emitted goes on increasing. Their paths are not circulars but spiral in shape as their separation is decreasing. The inspiral stage is a relatively long-lived one and continues for a million years. However the gravitational waves emitted by them are so feeble that these will be detected by our detectors only during the last year of this stage.

Merger stage:
When the two holes come very close and only a few final orbits are left, the holes leave their orbits and plunge together in a rapidly shrinking spiral. The event horizons of the two merge to form a single highly distorted black hole.
Ringdown stage:
The distorted single black hole that has resulted from the merger radiates away all its distortions in the form of gravitational waves and becomes a smooth, symmetrical, rotating black hole. The process is similar to what happens when a bell is struck by a hammer: the bell radiates all its distortions as sound waves and rings down and so the name ‘ringdown’.
The merger and the ringdown stages are very brief and last for only 10 minutes. But the energy radiated in the form of gravitational waves is colossus. Calculations indicate that energy radiated by these is more than the total energy radiated by all the stars of the observable universe at that time!

My Question:
Now one thing what I was thinking and it took my 3 weeks research was that:
In any case of a binary, the total linear momentum of the binary is zero in the centre of mass frame of binary. Suppose two black holes of equal mass are revolving round each other. These two vlack holes will radiate gravitational waves equally in opposite directions. So the total linear momentum carried by these gravitational waves will be zero two equal and opposite vectors give a zero result). The law of conservation of linear momentum then implies that the final single black hole that will be formed due to the merger will also have zero momentum in the CM frame as earlier. This means that the new black hole formed will move in the parent galaxy on the same path as the centre of mass of the original binary.
But if the masses are equal, they will radiate energy unequally, and the net momentum of the gravitational radiation will not be zero. So to conserve momentum, the newly formed black hole will acquirean equal and opposite momentum and recoil.

But what will be the total momentum emitted during a merger and what will be the corresponding speed of the merged black holes?

Well, I attended a conference on physics and asked a professor, searched on internet and also asked my friend’s brother (he’s interested in astrophysics) then I finally got my answer that:
It has been found that the velocity acquired by the newly formed black hole due to recoil will be much bigger than the escape velocity of the parent galaxy. Thus, these will be ejected out from the parent galaxy!

By Sushant Rawat (Writer and Contributor of Science Panorama)

Indium has been an unknown element to people since agers, or more precisely, it has been forgotten right from the development of quantum mechanics.
Indium is a very rare metal that is found along with certain ores of Zinc, copper, iron and lead.
Canada is the highest producer of Indium. It produces around 75 tons of Indium every year. Indium has derived its name from the indigo blue colour in the spectroscope.
was discovered by Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymous Theodor Richter in 1863 while they were testing zinc ores with a spectrograph in search of Thallium. It is interesting to note that most elements were discovered while searching for other elements. Richter went on to isolate the metal in 1867.

Availability of Indium:

Universe: 0.0003 ppm (by weight)
 Sun: 0.004 ppm (by weight)
 Carbonaceous meteorite: 0.45 ppm
 Earth's Crust: 0.049 ppm
 Seawater: 1 x 10-7 ppm

The Earth is estimated to contain about 0.1 ppm of indium which means it is about as abundant as silver, although indium is in fact nearly three times more expensive by weight.
One unusual property of indium is that its most common isotope is slightly radioactive; it very slowly decays by beta emission to tin. This radioactivity is not considered hazardous, mainly because its half-life is 4.41 x 1014 years, four orders of magnitude larger than the age of the universe and nearly 50,000 times longer than that of natural thorium.
As a pure metal indium emits a high-pitched "cry" when it is bent

Pure indium in metal form is considered non-toxic. However, all indium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic. Indium compounds damage the heart, kidney, and liver, and may be teratogenic(*). Indium trichloride (anhydrous) (InCl3) is quite toxic, while indium phosphide (InP) is both toxic and a suspected carcinogen.

(*)Liable to cause teratogenesis.
The term teratogenesis refers to the production of congenital malformations such as cleft lip and/or palate, anencephaly, or ventricular septal defect, which are medically serious abnormalities present at birth.


The first large-scale application for indium was as a coating for bearings in high-performance aircraft engines during World War II. Afterwards, production gradually increased as new uses were found in fusible alloys, solders, and electronics. In the 1950s, tiny beads of it were used for the emitters and collectors of alloy junction transistors. In the middle and late 1980s, the development of indium phosphide semiconductors and indium tin oxide thin films for liquid crystal displays (LCD) aroused much interest. By 1992, the thin-film application had become the largest end use.
Used to coat high speed bearings, in solar cells, mirrors, regulators in nuclear power, photo cells, the production of LCDs (this accounts for the majority of world-wide usage), transistors and blood and lung research. Used in the manufacture of low-melting-temperature alloys. An alloy consisting of 24% indium and 76% gallium is liquid at room temperature.
Indium can be plated onto metals and evaporated onto glass which forms a mirror which is as good as those made with silver but has higher corrosion resistance.

CAS-ID: 7440-74-6
An: 49 N: 66
Am: 114.818 (3) g/mol
Group No: 13
Group Name: Metals
Block: p-block  Period: 5
State: solid at 298 K
Colour: Silvery lustrous grey Classification: Metallic
Boiling Point: 2345K (2072°C)
Melting Point: 429.75K (156.6°C)
Superconducting temperature: 3.41K (-269.74°C)
Density: 7.31g/cm3
Availability: Indium is available in several forms including bar, foil, pieces, powder, nanosized activated powder, rod, shot, sheet, and wire.

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BY   P.S.SRIHARSHA.

Here at Science Panorama (SCIP) we love to give priority to Creativity, Imagination and New thoughts. As Einstein says "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."

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But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. 


There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflections in the glass, and our imagination adds the atoms. The glass is a distillation of the Earth's rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe's age, and the evolution of stars. What strange arrays of chemicals are in the wine? How did they come to be? There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products. There in wine is found the great generalization: all life is fermentation. Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did Louis Pasteur, the cause of much disease. How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts — physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on — remember that Nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for.