Saturday, April 22, 2017

Nikola Tesla - The unsung HERO

I love to teach electromagnetism and I teach it fairly well (or so do I think (?)). When I reach a section of introducing Electro-Magnetic Induction (EMI - as it is popularly known at HSC level) and when I start talking about DC and AC - EVERY TIME and I mean EVERY TIME - I have goose bumps when I talk about that great Serbian-American GEEK called Nikola Tesla. I still feel he should be talked about from school days. Films should be shown. He is in the league of extraordinary gentlemen (READ PHYSICISTS) who probably has NOT got his due in the history of science - or may be the masses do not know him as they do the likes of Sir Issac Newton and Albert Einstein. The guy was a GENIUS. I would rate him among the top in the pantheon of physicists - at par with the likes of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. The IDEAS he proposed changed the way we live. Many of those were probably ahead of time - IDEAS whose time probably had not come.

The web is filled with information about him so I would not copy/paste the information about him here.
Here are two sites you might want to go through to get a first feel about the MAN HIMSELF.

Website: 1. Nikola Tesla
                2.Things you didn't know about Nikola Tesla

There is a wonderful documentary by the BBC which you SHOULD WATCH
WebSite: 1. The Story of Electricity

The story of electricity Part - 2 tells us about the great war of currents fought between Thomas Edison and Westinghouse (Tesla). It is an amazing/chilling story of the two great men at war.

The story also reveals the human side of Tesla when in order to help Westinghouse, Tesla sells his shares. Tesla died in a hotel room in New York. A tragic death.

But HE continues to live with us through the GENIUS of his inventions. All the students of science must know his history and his GENIUS.

Even if one of the students reads the articles and watches the film and gets informed, I have done my job in spreading the gospel about the MAN - NIKOLA TESLA.



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