Pratap Singh, an Indian-origin schoolboy, won Institute of Physics Prize for his Cosmic-ray project

Pratap Singh, a 15-year-old Indian-origin schoolboy in the United Kingdom, on 12 March 2015 was awarded with the 500 pounds Institute of Physics (IOP) Prize. The prize also includes a trip to a national physics-related activity.

He was awarded for conducting an experiment that verified an effect of Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity.

He received the award at the Bing Bang Fair held at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham. The Big Bang Fair, which was held from 11 to 14 March 2015, saw competition between more than 200 students aged 11 to 18 years. The participants demonstrated their projects to thousands of visitors.

What is Cosmic-ray Project?
Singh, who is a student at The Perse School, Cambridge, used two Geiger-Muller tubes to detect cosmic-ray muons, which should not reach the Earth in detectable numbers unless time dilation occurs.

In his demonstration, he created a mathematical model for their arrival rate with and without time dilation and using a Raspberry Pi and some statistical analysis, showed that they follow the model predicted by special relativity theory of Einstein in 1905. His experiment was compact enough to fit inside a shoebox.

About Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. It is a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 50000, working together to advance physics education, research and application.