MANGALORE: Association of Physics Teachers of Mangalore University president Vrashabharaj said here on Monday that the association has chalked out a series of programmes this year to popularise physics among students.

He told presspersons that 2005 has been declared as the International Year of Physics. Students have been opting for medical, engineering and information technology courses. Physics and its applications are the basis of modern technology.

But awareness about this is declining among students.

Special significance

This year has a special significance to physics teachers and students as it makes 100th anniversary of Einstein's publication of papers, which permanently changed the way people looked at simple ideas like space and time. Based on his intuition and imagination, he carried out "thought experiments" to give path-breaking theories relating to matter, energy, space, time and gravity.

His equations were a kind of Abracadabra till they were verified.

Target group

He said the association has chosen high school and college students as the target group to popularise physics.

S.V. Subramanyam from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will deliver a series of lectures on "Einstein, his life and work" and other aspects of physics.

The inaugural lecture will be held at T.V. Ramana Pai convention centre here on Thursday.

Programmes will be held at Milagris College, Kalyanapura, Udupi; Poornaprajna College, Udupi; St. Philomena College and Vivekananda College, Puttur; S.V.S. College, Bantwal; Bhuvanendra College, Karkala; and S.D.M. College, Ujire.

The association will organise an essay competition on "Albert Einstein's life and achievements" for students of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts at the taluk and district levels.

It will organise a number of demonstration experiments in colleges under the Mangalore University and exhibition for high school students in November.

A lecture competition on physics will be organised for college students in December.

There is a plan to organise a two-day workshop on "Simple teaching aids in teaching of physics" for physics teachers of the undergraduate level.

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