Akron Phy
sics Club


Archive 1993

        
1993  
January  Don Wiff - Molecular Composites  
February  Arkady Leonov - On the Comfort Factor in Human Social Behavior  
March  Leon Marker - Group Discussion: U.S. Energy Policy  
April  Mark Foster - Neutron Scattering  
May  Bill Doane - Liquid Crystals for flat-Panel Displays
September  Tom Dudek - Polymer Composites for Automotive Exterior Body Panels
October  Mark Manley - The Nucleon and its Excited States
November  Darrell Renecker - Golf Balls for Golfers

 

  

 

 

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, January 25, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Speaker for our first meeting of 1993 will be our own Dr. Don Wiff, Head of Polymer Physics and Physical Testing for GenCorp Research. Don's subject will be:

MOLECULAR COMPOSITES

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. THIS TIME PLEASE CALL IN YOUR RESERVATION (or regrets) TO CHAIRMAN CHARLIE WILSON at 836-4167 by Thursday afternoon, January 21, in case your secretary has not returned from vacation in time. And don't forget to cancel by Monday if you should fall ill, since THE CLUB IS CHARGED FOR NO-SHOWS


Minutes, January 25, 1993

     In attendance at our first meeting of 1993 were Aggie Aggarwal and his guest, Prof. A. Keller of Bristol, England; and regulars Mark Dannis, Jack Gieck, Bob Harrington, Bob Hirst, John Liska, Dan Livingston, Leon Marker, Pad Pillai, Irv Prettyman, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, Don Wiff, and Charlie Wilson. We were also pleased to welcome back previous speakers: Ron Eby, as well as John and Phyllis Watson.

     Our January speaker, Don Wiff, Head of Polymer Physics and Physical Testing for GenCorp, introduced us to the very small world of molecular composites -- submicroscopic rigid rods in a flexible matrix (often a thermoplastic, e.g. PVC or nylon), having a high axial ratio -- which Don macroscopically characterized as analogous to straight pins in a Brillo pad, having the integrity displayed, a zillion orders of magnitude greater, by a log jam.

     A typical polymer for the "rigid-rod molecule in a flexible coil," Don explained, is PBT (poly-p-phenylbenzbisthiazole); initials for other candidate materials include PBI, PBO, and PBTN -- the long versions of the nomenclature for which are equally difficult to pronounce, or spell! [In an effort to fix the new word in my memory, I resolved to use it three times the next day in casual conversation -- but it didn't go well.]

     Don reported on work he had done some 15 years ago at Wright Patterson Air Force Base -- since his more recent work at GenCorp remains classified. At the Air Force laboratory, he was able to make very thin films, a fraction of a millimeter in thickness, having spectacular properties -- including thermal integrity to 290C, solvent resistance, optical transparency, excellent mechanical properties and amazing fracture toughness.

     Hybridized with graphite, the Air Force had an interest in these materials for airframe structures because of their high strength to weight ratio, and the fact that they are transparent to radar. An obvious application for ground forces is helmet liners.

     Speaker for our February meeting is to be Prof. Arkady Leonov, of the University of Akron's Department of Polymer Engineering, whose subject will be:


SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION OF A HUMAN COMFORT FACTOR


     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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, February 25. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Speaker for our February meeting is to be Prof. Arkady Leonov, of the University of Akron's Department of Polymer Engineering, whose subject will be:

SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION OF A HUMAN COMFORT FACTOR

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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, February 25. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!


Minutes, February 22, 1993

     Members present at our February meeting included Georg Bohm, Mark Dannis (who was able to join us for dinner at long last), Jack Gieck, Bob Hirst, John Liska, Leon Marker, Pad Pillai, Irv Prettyman, Darrell Renecker, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, and Charlie Wilson. Treasurer Emeritus John Liska advised that the club remained solvent with a balance of $89.36 (less Tangier's hefty $20 rental for an overhead projector for the evening because our usual angels in this regard were unable to attend).

     Our speaker was Prof. Arkady Leonov, of the University of Akron's Department of Polymer Engineering, formerly with Stanford University, and subsequently with IBM at San Jose. His subject was "ON THE COMFORT FACTOR IN HUMAN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR," based on his paper with coauthors Chernyak and Lerner, detailing their theory of social behavior. Our speaker also credited economic theorists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, citing principles by Walres, Pereto, Marshall, Hicks, Keyes, Samuelson, and others.

     The goal of economic science, Prof. Leonov believes, should be that of "revealing regularities observed on reality which could be deduced from a small number of fundamental principles." To this end, he introduced us to a formidable array of (some 58) mathematical expressions designed to quantify and express the "comfort factor" in human social behavior -- "encompassing the mass of social variables and parameters" associated with this challenge, including material, cultural, and spiritual elements, made up of such factors as income, job values, consumption, investment, recreation, government efforts to manage society (both directly and indirectly -- e.g. with propaganda), private life activities, religion, personal preferences and desires, and other considerations. He gave us a thermodynamic analogy of "a system of variable temperatures in which there is no true equilibrium," and spoke of "discomfort as a measure of social instability."

     Details he explored included "individual labor behavior with due regard for consumption," and "qualification as a quantitative individual parameter." He also touched on criminal behavior, and motivation of the self-employed. Asked about the dimensions of the units that might be plugged into the mathematical expressions he offered, and how they might be measured, Prof. Leonov stated that they were "unitless," but that they generally had values between zero and one -- and that they were not merely subjective, but that psychologists have techniques for determining their values.

     Since Prof. Keller, who was to have presented our March program, now has a conflict, Program Chairman Leon Marker has valiantly leapt into the breach, and will offer some opinions and lead a discussion on


U.S. ENERGY POLICY FOR THE FUTURE


     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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) by Thursday afternoon, March 18. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, March 22, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Since Prof. Keller, who was to have presented our March program, now has a conflict, Program Chairman Leon Marker has valiantly leapt into the breach, and will offer some opinions and lead a discussion on

U.S. ENERGY POLICY FOR THE FUTURE

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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) by Thursday afternoon, March 18. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!


Minutes, March 22, 1993

     Although Prof. Keller's family obligations forced our March speaker to cancel, a tolerably brief business meeting included lots of good news for the future from Program Chairman Leon Marker and Chairman Charlie Wilson: In addition to anticipating our April speaker, Dr. Mark Foster, whose topic is delineated below, we shall be treated in coming months to a program by KSU's liquid crystal guru, Dr. Bill Doane (in May); and, in the fall, we have promises from Dr. Vernon Neff (who may speak on Cold Fusion), as well as our own Bob Hirst (Solid State NMR), Georg Bohm (Radiation Effects on Polymers), and Alan Gent (NASA's Second Generation Shuttle Booster).

     Georg Bohm suggested (and volunteered to collect and edit!) a set of curricula vitae for the membership. Accordingly, each of us is instructed to send Georg (or bring to the next meeting), a bio on himself -- half a page to a full page in length. Thank you Georg! [Dr. Georg G. A. Bohm (the umlaut is optional), 1212 Sunset View, Akron, OH 44313]

     Leaping into the breach (fortunately not the breech!) occasioned by our scheduled speaker's absence, Program Chairman Leon Marker lead a discussion on U.S. Energy Policy, which soon exploded into a five-star-cluster pyrotechnic display of data and opinions on such related topics as recylcing, pollution control, the American wastrel mentality, and overpopulation. Gleanings (not necessarily original) laid on us by the membership included:

_If people began procreating at the rate of three children per family just 6000 years ago (the famous date proclaimed by "mathematician" James Usscher (1581-1656) -- who, with the help of a Standard Reference, fixed the date of his equivalent of the big bang at 4004 BC), the living population of the earth today would exceed the mass of the planet.

_If energy consumption continues to grow at the rate of 7 percent per year (a planning figure frequently used by power companies), and if the entire earth was a giant sphere of oil, it would be used up in 342 years.

_ More than half of power plant energy is wasted in heat -- sufficient wastage to affect weather and crops. Using water/steam, Carnot cycle efficiency of nuclear plants is limited to 30%; coal plants 40%.

_ Total world-wide energy consumption is estimated (to three significant figures?!) at 178 Tetrawatt Years per year. But the energy received by the earth from the sun is 15,000 times that amount.

_ Germany does a vastly better job than the U.S. in recycling and pollution control.

_ We don't really have an energy problem; we have a population problem. World population is presently doubling every 40 years!

_ Thus, the Pope could make an enormous contribution to mankind by rescinding the Church's ban on birth control.

     Speaker for our April meeting is to be Dr. Mark D. Foster, Assistant Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron -- formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, A chemical engineer, Dr. Foster will speak to us on:


NEUTRON SCATTERING


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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, April 22. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, April 26, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Speaker for our April meeting is to be Dr. Mark D. Foster, Assistant Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron -- formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, A chemical engineer, Dr. Foster will speak to us on:

NEUTRON SCATTERING

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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, April 22. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!


Minutes, April 26, 1993

     In attendance at our April meeting were Aggie Aggarwal, Georg Bohm, Mark Dannis, Dan Galehouse, Jack Gieck, Bob Hirst, John Liska, Dan Livingston, Leon Marker, Irv Prettyman, Darrell Renecker, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, and Don Wiff.

     At our April meeting we were privileged to be visited by two chemical engineers (bringing the total in attendance to three!). They were our speaker, Dr. Mark Foster, Assistant Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron (formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research) and his wife Dona. With an abundance of excellent graphics, Mark presented the basics of neutron scattering technology, as well as some of his and his associates' results in their studies of polymer structure utilizing neutron beams.

     We learned that one of the advantages of neutrons over X-rays in studying structure is their extremely low energy: of the order of 3 milli- electron volts, in contrast to the 8.3 kilo-electron volts of X-rays. Even so, most neutrons sail blithely through a sample. But by selectively tagging certain features of a polymer with deuterium, a great deal of information about structure can by ascertained by measuring the intensity of the scattered neutrons at different angles -- in two dimensions.

     In studying thin films deposited on thick substrates, the dominant option is to shoot the neutrons straight through the sandwich at 90 degrees, measuring neutron scattering of the transmitted signal. But with extremely thin (e.g. spin-cast) films, or when the goal is to study the surface, the trick is to aim the neutron beam at the surface below the critical angle -- just grazing the surface as it were -- so that penetration of the substrate does not produce a signal that overwhelms that of the film. Exemplifying the sophistication of the requisite instrumentation, the reflected signal is seven orders of magnitude lower than than the incident energy.

     The results of Dr. Foster's studies demonstrated that material projections depend on structure; and, thus, that neutron scattering is uniquely effective for studying polymer systems.

     In a brief business meeting, it was revealed that our next meeting as scheduled (which would have been May 24) fell on the same night as the Annual Akron Polymer Conference, thus eliminating half the membership. But the group agreed that if our speaker could accommodate us, we could probably all make it on either Tuesday or Thursday of that week. Leon Marker and I have now sequentially contacted him (because Tangier had problems of its own); and we are delighted to announce that:

     Long awaited, our speaker will be Prof. William Doane, Director of Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute. His topic will be:


LIQUID CRYSTALS UNDER CONFINEMENT AND APPLICATIONS FOR FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS


     Our schedule change to THURSDAY not withstanding, we will meet as usual, 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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) this time by Tuesday afternoon, May 27. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!


Jack Gieck

P.S.: Georg Bohm reports that he has received a grand total of ONE (1) CURRICULUM VITAE from the membership! Please throw modesty to the winds and get yours to him so Georg can edit a set for distribution to the club:

Dr. Georg G. A. Bohm, 1212 Sunset View, Akron, OH 44313

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, May 21, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Long awaited, our speaker will be Prof. William Doane, Director of Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute. His topic will be:

LIQUID CRYSTALS UNDER CONFINEMENT AND APPLICATIONS FOR FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS

Our schedule change to THURSDAY not withstanding, we will meet as usual, 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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) this time by Tuesday afternoon, May 27. And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!


Minutes, May 21, 1993

     Members lucky enough to be at present for the really outstanding program at our last spring meeting in May were Mark Dannis, Tom Dudek, Dan Galehouse, Jack Gieck, Bob Harrington, Bob Hirst, John Liska, Dan Livingston, Leon Marker, Irv Prettyman, Darrell Reneker, Jack Strang, and Ernst von Meerwall. We were privileged to have two guests in attendance, Victor Burke and Vladi Tsukruk.

     Our speaker, Prof. William Doane, Director of Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute, educated and entertained us with the fascinating properties and abstruse physics of liquid crystals and their applications for flat-panel displays. These strange and interesting materials flow like a liquid but behave like tiny springs. Indeed, our speaker confessed that a lengthy equation he displayed describing their behavior in this regard (pointing out that since ours is a physics club he needed to present at least one equation) could be recognized as a disguised version of Hooke's Law.

     Sandwiched between very flat glass plates in molecular slices only ten layers or so thick -- half a micron apart -- these transparent, birefingent liquid springs can be twisted (e.g., by revolving the adhering glass "bread" layers 90o, 180o, or 270o) or otherwise mechanically deformed. When the (approximately light-wave thick) sandwich is placed between crossed polarizers, the polarized light rays twist to follow the deformation of the crystal -- for arcane reasons that Bill, mercifully, did not get into.

     The practical bottom line is that a grid of crossed rows and columns of (also transparent) conductors can be made to create a pattern of tiny electric fields at each energized intersection -- which fields locally change the direction of the crystal elements -- thereby interrupting the polarization, and giving rise to the familiar clusters of pixels that form flat-panel computer screen displays, Seiko watch faces, etc. These twisted nematic cells may be backed up by a mirror or by a back-light. With red-green-blue filters covering the transparent conductors, a liquid crystal light valve can be formed in a projector gate, giving rise to such innovations as single-lens Sharp color television projectors and, no doubt, more sophisticated inventions yet to be conceived. Bill treated us to several demonstrations, including the instant change of a static display of a green-and-black (Bragg reflector) checkerboard to another permanent pattern by means of a small electric current.

     One associated problem that Dr. Doane's institute is working on is the sequential subtraction of transmitted light by the polarizing and color filters, which results in only 4 percent of the back light or projection light source finding its way through the sandwich. Undaunted in this regard, the Japanese think that cathode ray tubes will be scrapped in favor of high- resolution flat panels by the year 2000. Bill thinks that 6 million pixels (the resolution of motion picture theater screens) is an easy potential (our present NTSC video screens have a maximum of 340,000 today -- a single 16mm film frame has 1.5 million. It is no accident that inherent defects in liquid crystals have been given names out of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

     To our temporary dismay, Bill ran out of time just before getting to the announced subject of his talk, "Liquid Crystals Under Confinement." Which leaves him no choice, we fervently hope, but to accept our open-ended invitation to return for Act II.

     To remind the membership of our usual logistics, 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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, September 23rd (because I must call them in Friday morning). And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows!

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



Albeit out of phase with Lepidoptera* (and assorted other fauna), the Akron Physics Club is once again emerging from its pupal* stage just in time for the autumnal equinox. To this end our own Dr. Tom Dukek of GenCorp Research will tell us about

POLYMER COMPOSITES FOR AUTOMOTIVE EXTERIOR BODY PANELS


Minutes, September 27, 1993

     In attendance at our first meeting of the new season were Mark Dannis, Tom Dudek, Ron Eby, Dan Galehouse, Jack Gieck, Bob Harrington, John Liska, Leon Marker, Wayne Mattice, Pad Pillai, Darrell Renecker, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, Joe Walter, Don Wiff, and Charlie Wilson.

     Club stalwart/colleague Tom Dukek kicked off our new year with some magnificent slides to illustrate his state-of-the-art briefing on "POLYMER COMPOSITES FOR AUTOMOTIVE EXTERIOR BODY PANELS" (as seen through the eyes of a GenCorp polymer scientist). Tom introduced us to such sheet molding (SMC) physical criteria as "specific strength" (tensile strength/density) and "specific stiffness" (modulus/density), and showed us plots of these parameters that demonstrated the outstanding properties of graphite HM and graphite HS composites -- both of which are substantially more costly than the more commercially practical PE resin/styrene reinforced with glass fibers, out of which GenCorp has obviously made a substantial business.

     All of the above are lighter than steel, which is the driving economic force for this technology. Some products made therefrom are superior to steel in bending stiffness, which is why they are finding success in such applications as bumpers, passenger car hoods (replacing aluminum in the Lincoln Mark VIII hood), and other automotive body panels on such vehicles as the GM Minivan, Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Camaro -- and on Ford pickup fenders and Volvo truck hoods. The body of today's Corvette (in this 1993 40th anniversary of that very successful GM model) is 90% SMC. All of these are PE/styrene-glass composites. Other developing applications include filament-wound glass/expoxy leaf springs, which are 30% lighter than steel.

     The advantages of such composites, in addition to their lighter weight (with its impact on fuel economy) include toughness and flexibility, dent resistance, the ability to plan more radical aerodynamic styling than can be easily accomplished with steel, lower tooling cost (particularly when amortized over runs of less than 100,000), and the ability to consolidate parts -- especially in truck applications.

     Interesting to this audient was the fact that the single largest ingredient of sheet molding compound is calcium carbonate -- more CaCO3 than the total of resin and glass combined (thus suggesting clamshell styling). To make Class A finish parts from SMC on a cycle of 60 to 90 seconds without thermal distortion on cooling has been a breakthrough made possible by the addition of very small amounts of low-shrinkage saturated polymer additives that include polyvinyl acetate and even polyurethanes. Although the morphology accounting for the success of of these additives is not completely understood, Tom showed us a photomicrograph of typical microvoids in the resulting structure -- suggesting that these permit the relaxation of residual stresses in the part.

BULLETIN: Treasurer Dan Galehouse reports that our treasury balance is $27.24!

     Hoping to see you for Prof. Manley's program on October 25th, we remind the membership of our logistics: We 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) OR REGRETS to me or my friendly answering machine (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, October 21st (because I must call them in Friday morning). And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, October 25, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



For our October meeting, Program Chairman Leon Marker has persuaded, PROF. MARK MANLEY, of Kent State University's Physics Department to speak on

THE NUCLEON AND ITS EXCITED STATES


Minutes, October 25, 1993

     One of the reasons your secretary keeps fooling around with the format of this document is in the hope of finding a formula that will actually inspire the membership to call in their reservations (or regrets) for the next meeting. [Of course, we all know that a creative mind is not necessarily an orderly mind, BUT!]

     At our October meeting, guest speaker Mark Manley revealed some of the arcane nuances of the very small world of subnuclear physics, specif. pion/ nucleon resonances -- orbital events that travel through all of 10-12 mm of space before coming apart. Since some of us tend to perceive this abstruse sphere of knowledge through a glass darkly (after all, everything in it is smaller than a light wave), "revealed" (above) turns out to be too strong a verb for this engineer -- even "the simplest possible" case with regard to the "conservation of probability." Accordingly, he asked colleague Dan Galehouse to write a summary for these minutes. (That'll teach him to ask intelligent questions!) Following is a summary of Dan's sometimes lyrical summary:

     "Dr. Manley has given us an expert's view into the field of subnuclear interactions. It seems that at collision energies around 1000-1500 mev, neutrons and protons with rest masses of 940 mev are just beginning to fly apart. Unfortunately, a complete prediction of what happens from first principles still awaits an acceptable verified set of those principles as well as the computational capacity to use them.

     "The spinning bolas of top-like quarks interpenetrate and rearrange themselves. The subparticles choose new partners and mingle in the length of time it takes light to traverse an atomic nucleus. It is a square dance of penultimate speed. Depending upon energy thresholds and the synchronization of quantum waves with the gyrations, the resulting bundles of self-orbiting objects depart in different directions.

     "Timing is critical, and the energies and frequencies couple to the characteristic times of the primitive interactions. These resonances, representing evanascent but compatible groupings of fundamental particles, quarks or otherwise, can be modeled with a bit of understanding as to what characteristic signatures are to be expected."

     [Dan then likens an Argand diagram describing these resonances (born of the Britt-Wigner description, which plots the amplitude and phase of a wave function) to the Smith chart of electrical engineering, which describes the phase and amplitude variations of a power transmission line. But, unfortunately, "because the system is nonlinear, each possible transient intermediate combination (as specified by quantum numbers) must have its own personal Argand diagram."]

     "All of these simultaneously occurring intermediate states can, in principle, be separated from each other by characteristic scattering patterns described by the mathematical theory of partial waves. These are no more than fragments of wave functions selected to correspond to the quantum numbers of the happy combinations."

     [If he is getting a little light headed, the reader is urged to take a deep breath and plunge on, for the Minute Man's next paragraph is a gem.]

     "I believe it was Feynmann who explained that particle physics is like an experiment performed on a large box of precision watches. These are smashed against each other at great speed with fragments dispelled in all directions -- the object of the experiment being to understand not just what is inside, but how they work. It is the puzzle of existence, eternity, and reality, all rolled together. What are quarks? It is beyond belief to suppose that we will really understand in an evening, or, for that matter, a lifetime. But the attempt is real physics, and, in this case, phenomenology at its best."

     In attendance at our October meeting for the experience Dan has described were Mark Dannis, Tom Dudek, Dan Galehouse (fortunately!), Jack Gieck, Bob Harrington, Bob Hirst, Dan Livingston, Leon Marker, Irv Prettyman, Darrell Renecker, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, Don Wiff, and and Charlie Wilson.

     In the only club business of the evening, Treasurer (and essayist) Dan Galehouse advised the membership that our treasury was essentially bereft. Accordingly, Chariman Charlie, for the first time in two years, declared it was once again dues time. Most of those present chipped in the requisite $5.00 (to pay for visiting speaker dinners and postage for the foreseeable future). The rest are requested to do so by the next meeting.

NOW THEN:

     By popular demand and after much encouragement, our own DARRELL RENECKER will present our November program -- the last meeting we have scheduled for 1993. His topic (without a single Argand diagram during the entire evening) will be:

GOLF BALLS FOR GOLFERS

     Now, please, esteemed members, before we resort to drastic measures, CALL IN YOUR RESERVATIONS OR REGRETS BY THURSDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 18, to me or my friendly answering machine:

867-2116

     Since you all know by now where the Tangier is, that some of us will order a drink sixish -- before dinner at 6:30 -- I won't repeat the possibly off-putting boiler plate. See you the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Jack Gieck 
Secretary

 

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Akron Physics Club

Newsletter


Meeting Announcement: MONDAY, November 22, 1993 - TANGIER, 6:00 PM



By popular demand and after much encouragement, our own DARRELL RENECKER will present our November program -- the last meeting we have scheduled for 1993. His topic (without a single Argand diagram during the entire evening) will be:

GOLF BALLS FOR GOLFERS


Minutes, November 22, 1993

     Appropriately for our first bulletin of the new year, Chairman Charlie has prepared the enclosed summary of our sometimes stellar programs of the past three years, and a prophetic glimpse of things to come.

     Our last meeting of the year may have produced a new attendance record -- sending the Tangier kitchen into a flurry of cooking extra meals (sorry) exceeding our guarantee, with its built-in "AMP" [Absent Minded Professor] safety tolerance of -2 +0 (we are, unfortunately, limited to integers). Present were Aggie Aggarwal, Tom Dudek, Dan Galehouse, Alan Gent, Jack Gieck, Bob Harrington, Bob Hirst, John Liska, Dan Livingston, Leon Marker, Pad Pillai, Irv Prettyman, Darrell Reneker, Jack Strang, Ernst von Meerwall, Joe Walter, Don Wiff, and Charlie Wilson.

     Darrell Reneker had the balls to present a delightful program on this ancient toy, centering on one of our oldest ball games (tied with the Mayans' tlachtli), GOLF -- which, he said, dates back to the days of the Roman Empire. The earliest golf balls, Darrell explained, had a leather cover, sewn around a center of wet feathers -- which was, no doubt, a mercy for the targets of those centurians having the skill of a Gerald Ford.

     We learned about the three basic structures of golf balls: solid -- molded from a single elastomeric polymer (beginning historically with natural gutta percha); those with a bouncy core and a harder cover; and the tournament standard -- a solid or liquid center covered by stretched rubber thread, inside a tough (balata) cover containing as many as 418 dimples of various shapes.

     The last was made possible by automatic tension-winding equipment designed by the innovative (and eccentric -- in a different sense) Goodrich master mechanic John Gammeter -- who also liked to shoot alligators in the Everglades from a hydrogen-filled balloon. The elongation in the wind substantially increases the modulus of the rubber thread, increasing the mysterious "compression" property of the ball (which seems to be related to resilience), and, more important to golfers, its flight when struck.

     Numbers to remember (in a duke's mixture of units): the maximum weight of a (U.S.) tournament golf ball is 45.93 gm; minimum diameter, 42.67 mm; when struck at 250 ft/sec [170 mph], the maximum flight plus roll permitted is 280 yds (with a generous 6% tolerance). The club face of a well-hit drive by a good golfer is travelling 100 mph, sending off the ball at twice that velocity with a spin of 3800 rpm. An eight-iron, by contrast, can impart a dizzying 9000 rpm. All of this kind of thing takes place in less than a millisecond.

     We were treated to an array of Reneker inventions unlikely to catch on in the golf world, including one ellipsoid designed to screw its way to the green. Golf balls, it turns out, move much faster than the object of other ball games we play, e.g. (in decreasing order of velocity) baseball, tennis, ping pong, soccer, and crystal gazing.

     FOR THE FIRST MEETING OF THE NEW YEAR, our own BOB HIRST will speak to us on a topic that was the subject of the Nobel Prize in the 1950s. For corporate reasons, he is obliged to use the longest title in our club's history:

DETECTION OF SULFUR CROSSLINKS IN CURED NATURAL RUBBER USING SOLID STATE CARBON-13 NMR SPECTROSCOPY

     PLEASE!! CALL ME with either your RESERVATIONS OR REGRETS (867-2116) no later than Thursday afternoon, January 20th (because I must call them in Friday morning). And please don't forget to cancel if you must. The club gets charged for no-shows.

Jack Gieck
Secretary