C V Raman

Raman used this pocket spectrometer to measure wavelengths of light. Raman was born in Trichy, a city in southern India.

Early life

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born in India in 1888. Raman was always fascinated by natural phenomena and began his research into light and sound waves while he was still a STUDENT. In 1917, he became a Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.

When light waves enter the water, some of the light reflects and some gets absorbed by the water.

The science behind How he changed… the Raman Effect has many important applications today, from detecting diseases to identifying minerals. the wor ld

On an ocean voyage in 1921,

Raman was struck by the intense blue colour of the sea. Rejecting the accepted view that the sea reflects the colour of the sky, he proposed the colour was a result of white sunlight being scattered (reflected in many directions) as it hit water molecules. When this happens, a part of the light changes colour to blue at it scatters. This was called

THE RAMAN EFFECT. For this discovery, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.