Bose and His Statistics

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Preface

To the adult reader

This book and others in this series written by me are inspired by the memory of my son Suresh who left this world soon after completing school. Suresh and I often used to discuss physics. It was then that I introduced him to the celebrated Feynman Lectures.

Hans Bethe has described Feynman as the most original scientist of this century. To that perhaps may be added the statement that Feynman was also the most scintillating teacher of physics in this century.

The Feynman Lectures are great but they are at the textbook level and meant for serious reading. Moreover, they are a bit expensive, at least for the average Indian student. It seemed to me that there was scope for small books on diverse topics in physics which would stimulate interest, making at least some of our young students take up later a serious study of physics and reach for the Feynman as well as the Landau classics.

Small books inevitably remind me of Gamow's famous volumes. They were wonderful, and stimulated me to no small extent. Times have changed, physics has grown and we clearly need other books, though written in the same spirit.

In attempting these volumes, I have chosen a style of my own. I have come across many books on popular science where elaborate sentences often tend to obscure the scientific essence. I have therefore opted for simple English, and I don't make any apologies for it. If a simple style w. 3 good enough for the great Enrico Fermi, it is also good enough for me. I have also employed at times a chatty style. This is deliberate. Feynrnan uses this with consummate skill, and I have decided to follow in his footsteps (whether I have succeeded or not, is for readers to say). This book is meant to be read for fun and excitement. It is a book you can even he down in bed and read, without going to sleep I hope!

Naturally I have some basic objectives, the most important of which is to stimulate the curiosity of the reader. Here and there the reader may fail to grasp some details, and in fact I have deliberately pitched things a bit high on occasions. But if the reader is able to experience at least' some small measure the excitement of science, then my purpose would have been achieved. Apart from excitement, I have also tried to convey that although we might draw boundaries and try to compartmentalise Nature into different subjects, she herself knows no such boundaries. So we can always start anywhere, take a random walk and catch a good glimpse of Nature's glory. Where she is concerned, all topics are 'fashionable'. There is today an unnecessary polarization of the young towards subjects that are supposed to be fashionable. To my mind this is unhealthy, and I have tried to counter it.

This series is essentially meant for the curious-With 'humility, I would like to regard it as some sort of a 'Junior Feynman Series', if one might call it that. With much love, and sadness, it is dedicated to the memory of Suresh who inspired it ..

To the young reader

The name of Satyendranath Bose will live for ever in Physics. You will know why when you read this book. Unfortunately, most people in India have never heard of him. I would not be surprised if most of our scientists also do not know much about him, although they might have heard his name. Indeed, I am prepared to bet that barring a sprinkling of physicists (mostly theorists), many in our physics community too are ignorant about Bose. Even if they have heard of him, it is quite likely that they are not aware of the significance of his work.

Bose made a monumental discovery which should make us all feel proud. I wish to tell you about it, and also to explain why it is important. I hope you would be inspired. Who knows, one day you might yourself make an important discovery!

Acknowledgements

This volume would not have been possible but for invaluable help from Mr. John D. Vincent and Mr. A. Ratnakar in collecting the source material. As earlier, Professor V. Balakrishnan, Professor N. Mukunda and Dr. M. V. Atre went carefully through the draft and steered me away from errors. To all of them my grateful thanks. Mrs. Naga Nirmala rendered useful assistance in converting the rough draft into a publishable manuscript. The friendly cooperation of the publisher is also acknowledged.

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