Iucaa Summer Camp 2016

IUCAA SUMMER CAMP 2016
St Mary's School Pune

The IUCAA Summer Camp was held from 25th to 29th April. Two students from each school were chosen to attend the camp. I was chosen by my teachers to represent my school. In the camp, Mr. Samir Dhurde was our mentor who had come to guide us through the various activities we would be doing.

He cleared all our doubts about the solar system and explained how each scientist found out about the facts about the solar system and proved them. We were given sky maps and also learnt how to look for constellations with respect to direction and time of the year.

Some scientists of IUCAA had also come to talk to us about the recent discovery of gravitational waves which caused ripples in spacetime.

We saw the Foucault’s pendulum at IUCAA, which was a proof of the earth’s rotation. It moved slowly in circular motion due to the Coriolis force along with the oscillations. Another speciality of it was it never slowed down to a stop , which seemed impossible to us since the frictional force of air should have dampened the pendulum’s vibrations.

Thus, it was a great experience of fun learning and experimenting new things independently.

Srishti Sarkar - X C