Newton's Old Bucket Experiment and the Modern Liquid Telescope

Abstract

In nature there are various pairs of observed phenomena and observing scientific techniques which are elegantly coupled with each other. A very general and well known example is the fact that the metal we use to build telescopes were once built in stars by nuclear fusion. Hence in a fundamental sense, stars themselves have helped us indirectly in observing them in great detail. In this article I mention a bit more scientifically subtle and an even more interesting example of such a pair which raises interesting thoughts about an old experiment, its beauty and relevance in a very modern tool for astronomy.