Programme / Eötvös 100: Novelties from the Roland Eötvös Commemorative Year

2019 is the 100th anniversary year of the death of Roland Eötvös (in Hungarian Eötvös Loránd, 1848-1919), a pioneer of high precision gravitational physics, founding father of applied geophysics and innovator of higher education. His results are still with us, both in capillarity (before 1880) and in various fields of gravity. The Eötvös rule, Eötvös constant, Eötvös number (all related to surface tension of liquids), as well as several gravity terms: the Eötvös torsion balance, Eötvös experiment, Eötvös parameter, Eötvös tensor, Eötvös effect, and the Eötvös (E) physical unit. Roland Eötvös was President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1889-1905), Rector of the leading Hungarian university (now: Eötvös Loránd University), Minister of Religion and Public Education. He was not only a great scientist (explorer of true and deep relations), he was also a great man: supporter of young talents, sports organizer, sportsman, and stereoscopic photographer. At this Side Event, a cross-section is given from the novelties of the Eötvös 100 Commemorative Year (eotvos100.hu), as follows. (1) His stereographic photos provide an insight not only into his field measurements but also to his mountaineering activity, as well as to the historical Budapest; (2) The conclusions of a recent re-measurement of the celebrated Eötvös experiment (demonstrating the Weak Equivalence Principle with a high precision) are expected to be interesting for a wider audience; (3) The event ends with a book launch:

Eötvös’ most famous work (available until now only in German) has been published in a historical context both in English and in Hungarian.

Participants are encouraged to become actively involved; in exchange, they will receive a free copy of the book. In the Academy building, during the whole World Science Forum two Eötvös 100 exhibitions are on show: a Chamber Exhibition in Scientists’ Café and a pop-up-wall in the Gallery.