Exhibition on Earth opens in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Did you know that India's population of 1,100 million can encircle the Earth 50 times over? Or that the Earth moves around the Sun at 1,08,000 km/hr or 30 km/sec?
     
If you didn't, then an exhibition which opened on Friday at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum here is just the place for you to go this weekend to delve into a wealth of information about our planet and ways to measure its various parameters.
     
Titled 'Measuring Our Planet', the week-long exhibition, through 25 exhibits, will help visitors grasp the techniques of measuring Earth's dimensional parameters like its shape, diameter.
     
Apart from these information, the exhibition will help them understand about the Earth's  external and internal features, its rotation and revolution speed, magnetic field, gravity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed. It also explains geological phenomena like continental drift and earthquakes.
     
"It will not only highlight the conventional and modern methods employed by experts in measuring these features but will also illustrate some simple methods of calculating them which a common visitor will find easier," Museum director Jayanta Sthanapati said.
     
He pointed out that a separate section on Climate Change has also been included in the exhibition to highlight the dangers of Ozone layer depletion and consequent global warming and the melting of glaciers.
     
The exhibition was inaugurated by Director-General of National Test House Rabindra Narayan Mukherjee in presence of Ingit Mukherjee, D-G of the National Council of Science Museums.