Akron Phy
sics Club


Archive 1991
 

                       
1991  
January  Charlie Wilson - Nikola Tesla  
February  Bob Harrington - Liars Can Figure  
March  Mark Dannis - Supernova 1987A
April  Gary H. Kitimacher - Exploring the Planets
May  Dan Galehouse - Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories
September  Ernst von Meerwall - Planes and Missiles of the Gulf War
October  Harry Pinnick - The Physics of Music
November  Jack Gieck - The Effects of Urethane Flatproofing on the Performance of Pneumatic Tires

 

 

 

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Minutes: January 21, 1991 

     The Akron Physics Club's first meeting of the new year was held at the Tangier -- an experiment to see whether we like the ambience of a small private dining room and a "chef's choice" dinner at the price of $11.00, including tip. Tangier got a vote of confidence from the membership, and we have signed up our club here for the third Monday of every month for the rest of the year, with the option to cancel during the summer or whenever.

     Other club business included Bob Harrington's offer to make name tags for the members -- an idea that those of us who refuse to admit we are getting older heartily endorsed. In response to Chairman Charlie Wilson's invitation, members suggested such possible future program topics as global warming, an update on nuclear power, liquid crystals, a NASA program, and Dan Galehouse gave us a title for his promised future program: "Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories."

     In the absence of an outside speaker, Chairman Charlie Wilson gave us a program, as promised, on the wild and famous electrical (especially alternating current) genius, Nikola Tesla -- inventor of the rotating magnetic field, a generator for high-frequency currents, a system of arc lighting, and, of course, the Tesla coil, that lots of us attempted to replicate as teenagers. [And if part of that last sentence sounds familiar, it represents one of the joys of wordprocessing.] But Charlie had a reassuring sub-theme -a kind of moral: that although most scientific theory is taught as dogma -fact that ought to be obvious to any any intelligent person (because it is intrinsically true!) -- originated at some point as an aberrant notion in the mind of some innovative guy (or guyess).

     Our next meeting will be held, once again, at the Tangier, 532 West Market, on Monday, February 18, at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, and dinner at 6:30. Bob Harrington has volunteered to give us a program on fallacies in mathematics entitled "Liars Can Figure."

     Please call in your reservation (or your regrets, please) to Charlie this time: 836-4167. And if, after making your reservation, you find it necessary to cancel, PLEASE CALL HIM BACK -- or we will be charged for your dinner

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: February 18, 1991 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Our next meeting will be held, once again, at the Tangier, 532 West Market, on Monday, February 18, at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, and dinner at 6:30. Bob Harrington has volunteered to give us a program on fallacies in mathematics entitled "Liars Can Figure."

Minutes: February 18, 1991

     The Akron Physics Club met at Tangier on Monday, March 18 to hear Bob Harrington present a program on fallacies in mathematics and physics, entitled "Liars Can Figure." Neither abstruse nor arcane, his examples were fun!

     Recognizing that we can't always find an outside speaker of note, and in appreciation of the recent pick-up contributions of Charlie Wilson, Bob Harrington, and, as it turns out (below), Mark Dannis, Chairman Charlie is asking each of us to think up a topic in which he is interested -- one he would be willing to present an informal program about if asked. The idea is to have a bank of reserve programs to assist Program Chairman Leon Marker during dry seasons.

     Charlie and your secretary will be contacting each of you, utilizing our best Tomas de Torquemada techniques (counterclockwise!), to extract (1) a title or subject, and (2) a commitment as to a date by which you can be ready. These programs can be as simple as a recitation of the details of an article in Scientific American or other journals the rest of us might not have read, or as speculative as whether anyone really understands quantum mechanics. But YOU have been warned!

     Once again, our next meeting will be held at the Tangier, 532 West Market, on Monday, February 18, at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, and dinner at 6:30. Mark Dannis will be presenting a program on

SUPERNOVA 1987A



     Please call in your reservation (or your regrets, please) no later than Thursday afternoon, March 14: 867-2116. If I'm away, Cinemark's friendly answering machine will be pleased to receive your call. And remember: we call in our reservations on Friday morning, and are stuck with that figure unless we call in a cancellation on Monday morning. Otherwise we must pay for any no-shows (and they actually box up the dinner!). So if, having made a reservation, you become indisposed, for the sake of Harry Pinnick's modest treasury, please call in your indisposition to me or to Tangier's banquet office directly (376-7171).

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: March 18, 1991 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Once again, our next meeting will be held at the Tangier, 532 West Market, on Monday, March 18, at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, and dinner at 6:30. Mark Dannis will be presenting a program on - SUPERNOVA 1987A

Minutes: March 18, 1991

     The Akron Physics Club met at Tangier on Monday, March 15 to hear Mark Dannis' program, "Supernova 1987A," a Type II supernova. In reviewing the sub-atomic alchemy of stars Mark pointed out that from each square foot of surface our sun radiates the energy equivalent of a carload of coal per minute; but our 865,000-mile ball of (nuclear-fusion) fire is puny indeed compared to that original Big Mother, Betelgeuse. If this red giant (in the constellation Orion) occupied the location of our sun, its diameter would extend outward to somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune -- thereby substantially decreasing our fuel needs for household space heating [no pun intended]. Mark highly recommends "End in Fire -- the Supernova in the Large Magellenic Cloud," by Paul Murdin.

     In club business, we learned from Treasurer Harry Pinnick that area banks, like some area restaurants, have structured themselves to avoid cheap little entities like ourselves (I can't wait to see their faces when one of us gets the Nobel prize [actually I can't wait to see ours either]!); so we voted not to have a bank account. That'll show 'em.

     Now, as to the above NEWSFLASH: In discussing potential meeting programs in the recent past some members have suggested the possibility of a speaker from NASA (perhaps from Lewis Research Center in Cleveland), with the promise of a (free) interesting program with beautiful slides.

     Well: When the enclosed flier from the SAE (of which your secretary has been a member for 40 years) arrived, it became apparent that such a program put on by an engineer from NASA Houston -- with "outstanding photography that has been returned by the Mariner, Viking , Pioneer, and Voyager" -- would be going on at the Tangier in a room next to ours on the night of our next meeting. So: after talking to APC Chairman Charlie, I talked to speaker Dan Galehouse, who (although nearly finished with his promised slides for our April meeting) has graciously agreed to postpone his long-awaited program, "Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories," until our May meeting -- and I talked to Jerry Fox, chairman of the Cleveland Section of SAE about our reserving a dozen places of his anticipated audience of 220 on the evening of April 15, with the proviso that we confirm by their deadline below. He agreed.

     Program details are enclosed: GARY H. KITIMACHER, AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIST at the JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, is the speaker, at the Tangier, Monday evening, April 15. Subject: "EXPLORING THE PLANETS."

     Social hour begins at 5:30 this time (and I suggest we get there early enough to stake out some seats together). Dinner is at 6:30, and the program is scheduled for 7:30. Other differences: Dinner will be $15.00 this time (and this will give us a chance to see if the fare improves if we ante up a little more than our usual $11.00), and I MUST HAVE YOUR RESERVATION (or decline) by WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10. 867-2116. I hope you like the idea.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter

Meeting Announcement: April 15, 1991
TANGIER, 5:30/6:00 PM
AS (paying) GUEST OF
THE SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, CLEVELAND SECTION



Program details are enclosed:  GARY H. KITIMACHER, AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIST at the JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, is the speaker, at the Tangier, Monday evening, April 15.  Subject:  "EXPLORING THE PLANETS."

Minutes: April 15, 1991

     The Akron Physics Club met (in sort of fragmented way) at Tangier on Monday, April 15 -- sharing 1.2 tables as paying guests of the Cleveland Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers, to attend its program with NASA speaker Gary H. Kitimacher, Aerospace Technologist at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, who presented a multi-projector slide show made up of pictures beamed back from such space wanderers as Mariner, Viking, Pioneer, and Voyager, as well as copy-stand slides of artist's renderings. His subject was "Exploring the Planets."

     For the benefit of those who were unable to attend, your secretary's review is that you missed some magnificent slides -- although some of us would have preferred to have had it made abundantly clear when we were looking at images returned from space, and when we were seeing artists' conceptions (especially when the two were combined on the same slide). The program would also have been better if Mr. Kitimacher had not read a prepared script. He was a great deal better as himself, during the question/discussion period, and he was quite up front about NASA's troubles.

     The news in this epistle is, of course, about our next program:1 Dan Galehouse has been preparing slides for two months (and counting), and we look forward to his long-awaited "Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories."

     Our meeting will be held, as usual, at the Tangier, 532 West Market, on Monday, May 20, at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30. Once again, please call in your reservation (or, regretfully, your regrets) by Thursday afternoon, May 16: 867-2116. If I'm away, my friendly answering machine will be pleased to receive your call. And, again, please remember that we have to pay for no-shows. So if, having made a reservation, you become indisposed, for Harry Pinnick's sake (as, indeed, our treasurer personally found out the hard way!) please call in your indisposition -- however late -- to me or to Tangier's banquet office directly (376-7171).

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: May 20, 1991 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



The news in this epistle is, of course, about our next program:1 Dan Galehouse has been preparing slides for two months (and counting), and we look forward to his long-awaited "Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories."

Minutes: May 20, 1991

     The Akron Physics Club last met at Tangier on Monday, May 20th. Dan Galehouse presented his long-awaited program, "Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories," replete with slides. Full of originality and harboring an element of arcanity, Dan's paper produced a stimulating and entertaining discussion.

     In other business conducted at our May meeting, the group acquiesced to changing our meeting night to the fourth Monday of each month instead of the third [your secretary greatly appreciates the accommodation, since his trying to attend two local meetings simultaneously had implied an element of duplicity], and all this seems to be fine with Tangier -- which has also agreed to hold its (set menu) meal price to $11.00 and to provide a free screen when requested.

     Thus to our September piece de resistance [did you ever notice how those little flying accent marks point in opposite directions in that cliche?* SEE FOOTNOTE]: For our first fall meeting, Ernst von Meerwall will present a program we have waited for all summer: Planes and Missiles of the Gulf War. As usual we will meet at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30 and Ernst's program thereafter. The Tangier is at 532 West Market.

     Because your aging secretary inadvertently lost count of September Mondays (there have been so many this month), this announcement is a few days late, and Chairman Charlie has, therefore, already called and received reservation commitments (or regrets) from most of you. If he has not reached you, or if your commitment changes, please be sure to call me (867-2116) or the Tangier Banquet Office directly, (376-7171) NOT LATER THAN MONDAY MORNING, so that we can avoid either (a) paying for an unclaimed meal, or (b) starving a physicist.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

*NOTES: (1) My authority on the French language, none other than the still Honorable John Seiberling, advises that these are, respectively, the accent de grave, and accent de acu [which without any marks at all, the French have the temerity to pronounce "agu!"]. On rare occasions, as during a solar plexus, I understand, both may appear over the same letter like a little tent -- in which case they are called, for no discernible reason, an accent circonflex. Let that be a lesson to you!

(2) Moreover, the marks in question did not survive the translation from (a) Wang to ClarisWorks, and (b), Word. Lucky we have the living prose above!

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, September 23, 1991 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM

RESUSCITATION OF THE CLUB FOR ITS 1991-92 SEASON!



Thus to our September piece de resistance [did you ever notice how those little flying accent marks point in opposite directions in that cliche?* SEE FOOTNOTE]:  For our first fall meeting, Ernst von Meerwall will present a program we have waited for all summer:  Planes and Missiles of the Gulf War.  As usual we will meet at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30 and Ernst's program thereafter.  The Tangier is at 532 West Market.

Minutes: September 23, 1991

     Speaker for the opening fall meeting of the Akron Physics Club in September was Ernst von Meerwall, whose subject was "Planes and Missiles of the Gulf War." We heard about military intelligence gathering technologies, the nature of stealth aircraft design, the various flavors of missiles, the value of air superiority/supremacy in in making possible e.g. the use of two-decade-old aircraft (as cheap as $60 million apiece!) carrying dinosaur weapons to take out individual tanks (1800, count 'em) unwisely dug in. We absorbed detail on a whole array of ECM's, ECCM's, RPU's, etc., designed to carry out various nefarious missions (von Meerwall's sensible rule: you don't send a $2,000,000 missile after $500,000 airplane [I would if it was about to strafe us! ED. NOTE]). We learned how 600 mph Tomahawks work, how Patriots shoot down SCUDs at Mach 6, and how myriads of $5000 miniature gliders with the proper cross section can not only fool radar, but infantrymen as well.

     Physics problem of the evening: what is the net recoil value on the airframe of an aircraft-mounted Gatling gun firing 4000 six-pound uranium slugs a minute. [ANSWER: It's greater than the plane's engine thrust. Oops!]

     In other business, we were pleased to welcome two new recruits in Georg Bohm and Alan Gent! And Chairman Charlie received a number of new program commitments from members. Charlie's NOW HEAR THIS message was that we don't yet have enough programs for the year, and further volunteers and/or nominations are earnestly (ye, urgently) solicited. Possibilities suggested to date include Ernst's inviting Bill Doane to speak on liquid crystals and our prevailing upon Alan Gent to give us a technical overview of the activities of the University's College of Science and Engineering. In November, your secretary has agreed to present his data on the (sometimes strange) effects of urethane flatproofing on tire performance (including the now moderately famous "champagne bubble" effect), and in January we are planning on Jack Strang's program treating alternative scenarios to the Big Bang. WHAT HAVE YOU TO CONTRIBUTE?

     Meanwhile, back at the Lebanese ranch (Tangier, that is), for our October program Harry Pinnick will present a program on Musical Acoustics. Harry is well qualified as both a musician and a physicist. As usual we will meet at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30. The Tangier is at 532 West Market. Please call in your reservation(s) to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) by Friday noon, October 25. And please don't forget to cancel if you should suffer a stroke of fever and/or ague.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

ADDENDA TO LAST MONTH'S ADDENDA [In response to various semi-irate communiques]: (1) Circonflexe/circumflex. Both are correct, of course (the first in French, the latter in English -- even though the English version makes it look like the precursor to baptism). (2) Aigu/ecu [not to be confused with ague, above]. Okay, so John Seiberling has advised (in his fourth phone call on the subject) that it is correctly spelled "aigu," not the way I spelled it (3) Finally, Honorable John also insists that I rescind two out of the three "de"'s in the addenda. Take your pick; as Sigmund Freud was said to respond (in Viennese- tainted German) when a student spoke to him in the language Mark Twain hated, "My prosthesis does not speak French!"

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, October 28, 1991 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Meanwhile, back at the Lebanese ranch (Tangier, that is), for our October program Harry Pinnick will present a program on Musical Acoustics. Harry is well qualified as both a musician and a physicist.  As usual we will meet at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30.  The Tangier is at 532 West Market.  Please call in your reservation(s) to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) by Friday noon, October 25.  And please don't forget to cancel if you should suffer a stroke of fever and/or ague.

Minutes: October 28, 1991

     Speaker for the evening was Treasurer Harry Pinnick, who had the unique experience of being interrupted during his talk to be dunned for an additional $31(!) to pay for the three dishes of nuts(!!) that appeared not during our attitudinal readjustment half hour, but during dinner. To Tangier's credit, its Banquet Office is refunding this significant chunk of our treasury -- and has promised never again to put us in that room adjoining its phenomenally noisy kitchen.

     Harry spoke about the physics of music and a number of its subjective nuances as processed by resulting input to the human brain. He discussed loudness, as measured by sound pressure, and its logarithmic mental scale; with amplitude digitally encoded in transmissom from the ear to the brain -- as measured by the number of neurons that are stimulated by the signal. He also dealt with pitch, which is perceived by (and wasted on) the very young with a total range of perhaps 20 to 20K Hz. [Many rock musicians and their sound mixers leave these extremities behind before they reach voting (and drinking) age. And Sony Walkmans (Walkmen, Walkpersons?) aren't doing any favors either.]

     Finally, Harry opined about the arcane subjective effects of musical spectra -- the effect of harmonics or overtones on perceived sound. Beginning with band-width masking, he played a number of unique demo tapes on his sophis- ticated ghetto box. These included combinations of harmonics that caused us to "hear" an 800 Hz fundamental that wasn't there, a continuously "ascending" scale of dissonant chords that didn't really ascend, and treated us other phantomic effects that might make philosophers (but not physicists, of course) wonder how we might perceive the real world to really be if our impressions of it weren't distorted by these arbitrary senses of ours.

     For good measure, we learned that piano strings are standardly tensioned to half their breaking strength -- which suggests that the steel harp on which they are strung, when converted to a crossbow, could be capable of launching an intercontinental ballistic quarrel (sic), or at least exceeding the 982-yard flight of a Turkish sultan's arrow recorded by Sir Robert Ainsley in 1798.

     For our November meeting your secretary, Jack Gieck (sic), has agreed to present the highlights of three papers he delivered between 1982 and 1989 to the Society of Automotive Engineers on The Effects of Urethane Flatproofing on the Performance of Pneumatic Tires. Oddly enough, the last of these was selected by the SAE for the 1990 Ralph R. Teetor Industrial Lectureship Program, and was consequently presented at several universities -- as well as (albeit in abbreviated form) in a Federal court in Chattanooga.

     Please call in your reservation (or your regrets, please)867-2116.  If I'm away, Cinemark's friendly answering machine will be pleased to receive your call.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

 

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, November 25, 1991
TANGIER, 6:00 PM



For our November meeting your secretary, Jack Gieck (sic), has agreed to present the highlights of three papers he delivered between 1982 and 1989 to the Society of Automotive Engineers on The Effects of Urethane Flatproofing on the Performance of Pneumatic Tires. Oddly enough, the last of these was selected by the SAE for the 1990 Ralph R. Teetor Industrial Lectureship Program, and was consequently presented at several universities -- as well as (albeit in abbreviated form) in a Federal court in Chattanooga.

Minutes: November 25, 1991

     One advantage to a speaker's writing the minutes of his own talk [Jack Gieck: The Effects of Urethane Flatproofing on the Performance of Pneumatic Tires] is that he gets to put in things he forgot to say -- not unlike our distinguished congressmen and their Congressional Record. To wit: While a Durometer has a unitless scale, it is logarithmic, like a Richter Scale (albeit less destructive); on a Shore A instrument each 10 points (at least in the mid-range) are equal to a modulus increase of about 33% -- curiously, a little known fact among rubber engineers.

     The speaker presented lots of Kelvinesque data showing what happens to the properties of a pneumatic tire when you confound its expectations of an airy existence, fooling it by inflation to the same rated pressure with very soft polyurethane flatproofing elastomers -- one as low as 5-8 Durometer. Lots of properties are altered, but none devastatingly -- especially if water is used in the curing chemistry, which produces carbon dioxide as a reaction product. Such CO2 dissolves into the liquid urethane under pressure and remains dissolved or complexed in the solid elastomer -- coming out of solution in a "champagne bubble effect" when the tire and its contents begin to heat up. This proportionately reduces tire deflection, footprint, rolling resistance, work input, and general aggravation. The result is a temperature equilibrium plateau for any given speed and load, resulting in the overstuffed flatproofed tire actually running cooler than the same tire filled with air.

     In a film excerpt, an equally overstuffed rifleman demonstrated the value of the technology for military applications and/or to mafiosa or other vehicle owners whose popularity among their peers has sagged.

     In other business conducted by Chairman Charlie, the group expressed a preference for keeping our meeting night the fourth Monday of each month for 1992. Charlie and Program Chairman Leon Marker happily announced a number of scheduled speakers who have signed up for our 1992 programs, including our own Jack Strang.

     Kicking off the new year for our first meeting on January 27 will be

Dr. David W. Allender of Kent State University,
whose topic will be


HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

     As usual, we will meet at 6:00 PM for a social [half] hour, with dinner at 6:30. The Tangier is at 532 West Market. Please call in your reservation(s) to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) by Friday noon, January 24. And please don't forget to cancel if you should suffer a decline.

Jack Gieck
Secretary