A TO Z OF NEWS“If you can't understand it without an explanation,you can't understand it with an explanation.” Haruki Murakami 03

News...To The

Today, in order to comment, debate or even opinionate, one needs to dig deep and know the A TO Z of news. Startingwith letter A, TIMES NIE takes you on a news-ical journey,explaining every name, place and context associated with it

Piyush Goyal’s Einstein-gravitygaffe has Indians Googling ‘whodiscovered gravity’

Recently, Newton andEinstein were the toptrends in India and thou-

sands of citizens were lookingup who discovered gravity on thenet. The trends, in fact, were theresult of a comment made byUnion Railway Minister PiyushGoyal during an event that MATHS NEVERHELPED EINSTEIN DISCOVER GRAVITY.

EINSTEIN

ELECTRIC EEL

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

Einstein's theory of relativityHow Relativity WorksThere are actually two theories of relativity, generalrelativity and special relativity.

Special RelativitySpecial relativity says that motion is always relative.Imagine a baseball floating alone in empty space. Howdo you know if it’s moving or not? You can’t. But if youput a basketball in space with the baseball, you couldsee whether the baseball was getting closer to the bas-ketball or further away from it. Then you could see ifthe baseball was moving.

That’s why it's called ‘relativity’. The motion of onething is always relative to the motion of everythingelse.

General RelativityNow let's go on to general relativity. General relativi-ty explains why things fall towards the ground whenyou drop them.

General relativitystates that space-time islike a big trampoline. Imag-ine taking a big trampo-line, and putting a heavybowling ball on it. Thebowling ball would make adip in the trampoline andmake it bend down.

All about EinsteinAlbert Einstein was bornat Ulm, in Württemberg,Germany, on March 14, 1879. In 1896, heentered the Swiss Federal PolytechnicSchool in Zurich to be trained as ateacher in physics and mathematics. In1901, the year he gained his diploma, heacquired Swiss citizenship and, as hewas unable to find a teaching post, he ac-cepted a position as technical assistantin the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905, he ob-tained his doctor's degree.

Who discovered gravity? The first person who dropped somethingheavy on their toe knew something wasgoing on, but gravity was first mathe-matically described by the scientist IsaacNewton. His theory is called Newton’slaw of universal gravitation. Later, Al-bert Einstein would make some im-provements on this theory in his theo-ry of relativity.

Newton on gravityNewton’s third law states that the forceon an object is always due to another ob-ject; all forces act in pairs that are equalin magnitude and opposite in direction.This is why you feel recoil when you strikean object, and why you do not fall throughEarth due to the pull of gravity.

Isaac Newton establishedthe Laws of Gravity.Albert Einstein has traditionally been credited with discoveringthe theory of relativity.

➤ Ocean tidesare caused bythe gravity ofthe moon.➤ The standardgravity fromEarth is 1 gforce. When riding a roller coasteryou may feel a lot more g forces attimes. Maybe as much as 4 or 5 g's.Fighter pilots or astronauts mayfeel even more.

FUN FACTS ABOUTGRAVITY

What are they?Despite their misleading name,electric eels are actually naked-back knifefishes and are moreclosely related to catfish andcarp than other eel families. ❚They can reach up to 2.5m inlength and are the only fish ca-pable of producing such strongelectrical discharge via threeelectric organs. ❚ They use their powerfulshocks for defence and stunningprey.❚ It was previously believed thatthere was just one species ofelectric eel — E. electricus —but a survey of 107 specimenscollected in different parts ofthe Amazon in Brazil, Suri-name, French Guiana and

Guyana, has identified two fur-ther species — E. varii and E.voltai. ❚ Scientists found that E. voltaidischarged 860 volts, the mostpowerful shock ever measuredin an animal.

Charged-up eelsThese famous freshwater pred-ators get their name from theenormous electrical chargethey can generate to stun preyand dissuade predators. Their bodies contain electricorgans with about 6,000 spe-cialised cells called electrocytesthat store power like tiny bat-teries. When the eel finds itsprey, the brain sends a signalthrough the nervous systemand produces charge.

Newly-discoveredeel packs thebiggest electricalpunch of all animals

This is something toget amped up about: ateam from the

Smithsonian Institute hasdiscovered a NEW SPECIES OFELECTRIC EEL that can gener-ate an electrical shock of upto 860 volts, the strongest byany known animal.

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

Biologists study the impulsegenerated by an electric eel inGermany

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

Formula EFormula E is a class of mo-

torsport that uses only elec-tric-powered cars. The series

was conceived in 2011, and theinaugural championship com-

menced in Beijing in September2014. The series is in its fifth sea-

son. It is sanctioned by the FIA. Ale-jandro Agag is the founder and cur-

rent chairman of Formula E Holdings.

HistoryThe proposal for a city-based, single-seaterelectric car motor racing championship wasmooted by Jean Todt, president of the worldgoverning body of motorsport, the Fédéra-

tion Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Race day formatAll events begin with two practice sessions inthe morning, an opening 45-minute sessionfollowed by a further 30-minute session. Dri-vers originally had two cars at their disposalthough this was eventually revised to just onevehicle after the introduction of the Gen2 carfor the 2018-19 season, with 250 kW (335bhp)of power available throughout.

The race itself is set to 45 minutes plusone lap. Until season four, drivers made onemandatory pit stop to change cars.

Nasa is winning big at Emmys

Nasa’s 2019 EMMY videosubmission showed howthe coordinated effort

between Nasa and SpaceXbrought the historic Demonstr-ation Mission 1 to an audience ofmillions. Nasa has won twoEmmy Awards for interactiveprogramming for its coverage ofa Mars mission and the agency’sfirst test of a spacecraft that willhelp bring crewed launches tothe International Space Stationback to US soil.

The EmmysThe Emmys is an Americanaward that recognises ex-cellence in the televisionindustry. The Emmy is con-sidered one of thefour major Amer-ican entertainmentawards, the others be-ing the Grammy (formusic), Oscar (forfilm), and Tony (fortheatre).

The Emmy Statuette

The Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman hold-ing an atom, was designed by television engineerLouis McManus, who used his wife as the mod-el. The wings represent the muse of art; theatom the electron of science.

EMMYSFormula E names

ex-Manchester Unitedboss as new CEO

Jamie Reigle, a for-mer leading exec-utive for

Manchester United atthe Los Angeles Rams,has been named ChiefExecutive Officer forFORMULA E with imme-diate effect.

The Canadian ex-ecutive takes over a rolehandled by FE founderAlejandro Agag sincethe series’ inception in2014 as the latter steps upto his chairman duties.

FORMULA E

The College TelevisionAwards (part of Emmys)

are in recognition ofexcellence in college

student-producedworks. College students

can submit productions andreceive recognition in comedy,documentary, drama, newscasts etc

STUDENT AWARDS

❚ The Emmy is named after “immy”,an informal term for the imageorthicon tube that was commonin early television cameras ❚ And the first Emmy went to...Shirley Dinsdale. Dinsdale, aventriloquist starred with apuppet sidekick on a comedycalled The Judy Splinter

DID YOU KNOW?

During the first season, the FE SchoolSeries for student teams that developedtheir own electric car took place as sup-port races at select events. However, theseries was not continued during the sec-ond season

FE SCHOOL SERIES

Almost theentire pop-ulation of

ECUADOR had their per-sonal data leaked online,

security experts said, amassive breach that the

government called a “verydelicate” issue.

An estimated 17 million people,including almost sevenmillion minors and children, had their dataexposed by a breach on anunsecured server run by anEcuadorean marketing and ana-lytics firm.

ECUADOR

EcuadorEcuador is a country in northwestern South

America, bordered by Colombia on the north,Peru on the east and south, and the PacificOcean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islandsin the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres west ofthe mainland. The capital city is Quito, whichis also the largest city.

What is now Ecuador was home to a vari-ety of Amerindian (groups of people who werepresent in what became Ecuador before theSpanish colonisation of the Americas).

The territory was colonised by Spain dur-ing the 16th century, achieving independence

in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, from whichit emerged as its own sovereign state in 1830.

INTERESTING FACTS

1The national tree of Ecuador is the cin-chona tree which produces Quinine, the

first drug used to prevent andtreat malaria.

2Ecuador is one of only two countries in South

America that does notshare a border

with Brazil.

3On April 12 2019, Ecuador granted politicalasylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian

Assange.

4 In 2008, Ecuador was the first to offi-cially recognise the rights of nature.

Rather than treating nature as property,it recognises that nature has consti-

tutional rights and the “right toexist, persist, main-tain and regener-ate its vital

cycles.”

‘Almost entire population ofEcuador has online data leaked’

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images