Focus: Facts for Prelims
Why in News?
In 1986, the Government of India, under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, designated February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman Effect”.
About National Science Day 2023:
- The theme of National Science Day 2023 will be Global Science for Global Wellbeing.
- The government of India designated 28 February as National Science Day (NSD) in 1986.
- On this day Sir C.V. Raman announced the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’ for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.
What is Raman Effect?
- Raman Effect is a phenomenon in spectroscopy discovered by the eminent physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928.
- After two years in 1930, he got Nobel Prize for this remarkable discovery and this was the first Nobel Prize for India in the field of Science.
- Raman Effect is a change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
- When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam.
- Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength.
- A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman Effect.
