HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wilde@husc8.harvard.edu (Robert Wilde)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Dynkin diagrams and group theory
Date: 9 Apr 92 16:05:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Apr9.120545.10878
Distribution: world
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

When classifying Lie algebras used in physics the only possible choices,
I believe, are An, Bn, Cn, Dn, G2, F4, E6, E7, and E8 for the Dynkin diagrams.
If anyone can tell me, I'd like to know on what assumptions this conclusion
is made.  Is it only that the group is compact, or are there any additional
conditions?  Also, if the restriction of compactness is dropped, what type
of Dynkin diagrams are legal?
If there are any string theorists out there, could you recommend a good book
on the subject (string theory is based on a representation of E8, or am I
mistaken?). Thanks.
Bob
From: shaw@s119.es.llnl.gov (Henry Shaw 510 423-4645)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: simple question
Date: 9 Apr 92 00:06:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: lll-wink.122040
Organization: Earth_Sciences_Dept.,_LLNL

In article <Apr.8.19.08.07.1992.26174@ruhets.rutgers.edu>, bweiner@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Benjamin Weiner) writes:
|> According to my Nuc. Phys. book, one must be careful to compare
|> C14 ratio to atmospheric C14 ratio of ~ 1940-50, as since then
|> atmospheric nuclear tests have put sufficient C14 into the air
|> to screw things up.
|> 
|> Kind of sad, don't you think?  Although possibly future
|> archaeologists will be able to deduce our weapons capabilities
|> from spikes in C14 (or thorium, or whatever) abundance ...
|> 
|> - Ben Weiner
|> 
|> If there ARE future archaeologists ...


On the other hand, the bomb-pulse C-14 makes a wonderful tracer for chemical oceanographers.  
By measuring the concentration of C-14 in seawater as a function of position (lat, long, and 
depth), one can "watch" the penetration of surface waters into the deeper oceans and map out 
circulation patterns.  

In addition, the decline in atmospheric C-14 since the end of large-scale atmospheric 
testing provides a measure of CO2 exchange rate between the atmosphere and oceans...an 
important parameter in global carbon budget models that are used in greenhouse warming studies. 


-- 
Henry Shaw, Earth Sciences Dept., LLNL |    All opinions are my own.
Internet: shaw4@llnl.gov               |  
CIS: 76347,2523                        |
Fidonet: Henry Shaw at 1:161/55        |
From: dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley)
Subject: Re: "what's new" Apr-10-1992
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 15:12:52 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.012809.8562@hsv3.uucp> mvp@hsv3.uucp (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
>Those who don't subscribe to the "What's New" column's brand of
>Politically Correct Know-Nothingism might consider it relevant that....

I know that we are all supposed to cringe in horror at the words 
'Politically Correct' and not speak against anybody who utters those
words (in fact, in my small experience, the most politically correct
movement of all is the anti-politically correct backlash), but I
happen to enjoy the "What's New" column.  Perhaps you should consider
lightening up, the remark you were referring to was a JOKE!!!!

	Kevin
From: pauls@trsvax.tandy.com
Date: 06 Apr 92 12:33 CDT
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: SSC humor
Message-ID: <8400008@trsvax>
Nf-ID: #N:trsvax:8400008:000:110
Nf-From: trsvax.tandy.com!pauls    Apr  6 12:33:00 1992


 SSC quote of the day:

 "Basic research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."

 W. Von Braum


Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: cwlie@Uz.nthu.edu.tw (Wei-Lie Chen (EE U770912))
Subject: How to Measure Beat-Length?
Organization: National Tsing Hua University (HsinChu)
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 10:23:51 GMT
From: matas@utkux1.utk.edu (04464PMS)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: re: mass definition in particle physics
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:16:27 GMT
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center

>Article 7945 of sci.physics:


>Dear fellow,  I want to share ideas about one of the 
>fundamental physics problem. What is the mass ?
>
>                                           Seoktae
>                                           Univ. of Massachusetts



       Seoktae,

              If hubble's constant were energy density dependent,

     the isotropic expansion of space would 'drag' massless particles
at the speed of light since massless particles suffer no inertia
resistance.   (there must be some driving force behind the speed of
light)

       systems composed of similar energy densities would observe no
effect due to the expansion of space,     unless separated by large
distances or by large differences in masses (i.e. black holes)

      this is the only part that i find hard to swallow... if every
thing in the same room expanded at the same time   could you tell
...............that's the same thing as saying ..systems composed of
similar energy densities would observe no effect due to the expanse.

   BUT if you can accept that,.. it provides a very intuitive glance at
special relativity and the fact that accelerated matter gains mass at
speeds approaching the speed of light....  since matter is expanding at
a rate considerably slower than the speed of light, whenever it(matter)
approaches the rate of its own expanse it gains mass (it expands onto
itself)
        )) note ((
  this is in contradiction with SR but in agreement with accelerated
particles.  SR says particles should gain mass at or near the speed of
light


         anyway i see mass as a resistance to the expanse of space
where energy and mass are related by the maximum rate of expanse ..C.

 aaron   matas@utkux1.utk.edu
From: steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Neutrino Shortage Solved?
Date: 12 Apr 92 19:31:04 GMT
Organization: Lick Observatory/UCO
In-reply-to: daryl@oracorp.com's message of 9 Apr 92 15:28:03 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.152803.9171@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCullough) writes:


   I read in a recent New Scientist (a British science magazine that is
   about at the Scientific American level of technical detail) that there
   is a new explanation for the missing solar neutrinos. The explanation
   wasn't given in any detail in the article, but the rough idea is the
   following:

   The usual theoretical calculations done for nuclear fusion treats the
   case of collisions of bare nuclei. That is, only protons and neutrons
   are considered. However, in an actual nuclear reaction in the center
   of stars, there are huge numbers of electrons floating around. The
   electrons have an influence on the fusion reaction, because the
   negatively charged electrons to a certain extent shield the protons
   from the full effect of their electrical repulsion. Thus, the
   electrons can act as a kind of catalyst for fusion reactions, thus
   lowering the temperature necessary to achieve a sustained reaction.

   I don't know enough about fusion to understand how the temperature
   enters into neutrino calculations, but in the article it was claimed
   that the effect of the electrons would explain the missing neutrinos.

   Is there anyone familiar with this explanation who can give a more
   complete explanation (or explain why it is nonsense)?

I assume this is referring to the screening mechanism proposed by
Kurucz at the CfA. 
Bahcall and Salpeter have circulated a preprint pointing out that
the effect was known and calculated decades ago, using a full
quantum mechanical treatment (I believe the paper referred to
used a (semi???)classical approximation) and is not important.

|  Steinn Sigurdsson	|I saw two shooting stars last night		|
|  Lick Observatory	|I wished on them but they were only satellites	|
|steinly@helios.ucsc.edu|Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?		|
| "standard disclaimer"	|I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care - B.B. 1983	|
From: jarlo@ifi.uio.no (Jarl Magne Michael stensen)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Time
Date: 8 Apr 92 07:10:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: ifi.1992Apr8.071015.17512
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Originator: jarlo@kolsaas.ifi.uio.no



Phu! At last my XRN is working.....!


Let me throw a rather large rock in the physical waters, hoping that it will create
waves that perhaps can go all the way around the lake and back.

I would want to ask all of you this wery simple (?) question: what is time?

Let me first try to recap the basic knowledge and ideas in physics today about this
subject. 

First of all, time is not absolute. At least this is what SR and GR states. There is 
no absolute past and present, or absolute clock ticking somewhere in the heavens.
Newton assumed this to be correct, after all muons and other strange beasts did not
run around with big signs on them in his time either. But today we safely (?) assume
that there is no absolute time.

Time is closely related to the curvature of space and thus is a geometrical object. 
We know that the picture of the slowing of relative time in a strong gravitational
well relates to the "dip" in space at the point. (In pictures)

Ok, we could rest with these simple explanations, which only describe time as a
fundamental part of space, being governed by shapes. But this does not 
describe (at least not to me) WHAT IS TIME?

Why can we say that time is not absolute? Just because it takes on various forms
depending on where we measure it? Is it not possible that there does exist an absolute 
time, a sort of "time-quantum" that can be in perfect harmony with relativity?
Is it impossible that time could NOT be continous?

After all, we have defined time and the methods of measurement using the "time-meter-
stick" prinsiple, and must this not be finite? There is also a limit in our basic
knowledge of any system, defined by quantum relations. 

Please send some of your own ideas, and remember: I KNOW this sounds crazy.....! :-)

M&M

I asked Him what Time was, He just looked at His watch and asked me to come back
tomorrow.
 


 
Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: s5169180@deimos.ucc.umass.edu (S5169180)
Subject: mass definition in particle physics
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  mass, particle physics
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:20:00 GMT

>Brahm at Caltech wrote :
>Mass is the pole of the propagator. ...

I absolutely agree with that argument. Therefore finding mass is same to
finding bump in the cross section. It has a very useful meaning
phenomenologically. However it can't give the reason how or why a particle has
a specific physical(or numerical) value. My question is if we can predict
masses of quarks or leptons purely in theoretical way, instead of experiments.

thanks for your reply.

>Aaron at UTK posted curious article
>Mass can be interpreted as drag resistance of the expanding universe. ..
I heard a similar idea. This idea is very interesting and curious to me.
But Frankly I do not understand enough to critisize or agree. I understand
SR, GR ,and some of cosmology. Coud you explain your idea a little bit more
in details or introduce something to read .. maybe books, articles ?

                                Thanks for all your responses.

                                         Seoktae, Physics Univ of Massachusetts



Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: mab@wdl39.wdl.loral.com (Mark A Biggar)
Subject: Re: Time
Organization: Loral Western Development Labs
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 17:50:23 GMT

In article <1992Apr8.071015.17512@ifi.uio.no> jarlo@ifi.uio.no (Jarl Magne Michael stensen) writes:
>I would want to ask all of you this wery simple (?) question: what is time?

I believe Einstein defined time and space as follows:

Time is whatever it is that you mesure with a clock.
Space is whatever it is that you measure with a ruler.

--
Mark Biggar
mab@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
Organization: HAM - Hackers Against MUDs
X-Subliminal-Message: IBM/370 assembler is your friend.
Date: Monday, 13 Apr 1992 12:31:38 EDT
From: <CCB104@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Electrical Conductivity an Intensive Variable?

Is electrical conductivity considered to be an intensive variable? Please
explain briefly why or why not if you decide to say yes or no! Thanks!
Carey
From: rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Date: 16 Apr 92 05:50:05 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

No, my next question is how is the work coming on the very high gradient
desktop accelerators? :-)  A summery of theory and progress would be
greatly appreciated.  Enquiring minds wish to know.

Thanks,

Bob
-- 
Bob Cain    rcain@netcom.com   408-358-2007

"There are some strings.  They're just not attached."
                                                    Victoria Roberts
Xref: sparky sci.physics:6700 sci.research:497
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Friday, 10 Apr 1992 11:24:19 CDT
From: <U58603@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.research
Subject: science teaching

 The Chicago Academy of Sciences, a museum and educational
institution seeks information and resources available by the
Internet or otherwise for help in improving two of its programs:

Environmental Issues Forum (EIF) and Science Teaching Network
(STN).

EIF is a series of courses for Chicago Public School teachers on
ecological principles and global environmental problems and
issues.  The four courses--Air Quality Issues, Water Quality
Issues, Land Use Issues, and Solid Waste and Recycling--correlate
with the Academy outreach program, Ecological Citizenship, (Eco*Cit)
for grades  K-8 on environmental issues.

STN is a series of week-long workshops for Chicago Public School
teachers on four science topics--Hands-on Biology, Hands-on
Physical Science, Hands-on Chemical Science, and Hands-on Earth
Science--that correlate with the Academy outreach program,
Science on the Go, (SOG) for grades K-8.

The two programs are designed to produce better science teachers
by showing teachers how they can approach various science topics
in exciting, imaginative ways.  They use everyday, inexpensive,
easy to find items for the experiments.  The teachers don't sit
back and watch demonstrations--they get involved and do the
experiments themselves.

The CAS Education Department would be interested in the following:
What kind of research is being done with teachers--
  to change their attitudes toward teaching science?
  to enhance their abilities to teach science?

What kind of research is being done on outreach programs like
Eco-Cit and SOG?
  What are the ingredients for successful outreach programs?
  How many contacts of outreach educator with school work best?
  Who determines the curriculum?
  How are teachers encouraged to buy in?

What research is being done about Urban Environmental Education?
  What works?
  What are the needs of the audience?
  What programs exist now?

Any and all comments from interested persons and institutions
would be helpful.
Please respond to: U58603@UICVM.UIC.EDU
Thank you !
C. Dunn  Technical Operations Manager
The Chicago Academy of Sciences
2001 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 549-0606
From: jarlo@ifi.uio.no (Jarl Magne Michael stensen)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: DESPERATE TEST
Date: 8 Apr 92 06:36:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: ifi.1992Apr8.063618.16707
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Originator: jarlo@kolsaas.ifi.uio.no


I'm sorry to post this as a followup, but there is something WERY WEIRD going on
with my net connection here. If this gets out on the net at all, PLEASE RESPOND!

M&M
From: jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Help--quotations of physicists
Date: 17 Apr 92 01:46:56 GMT
Reply-To: jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr)
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

Quoting from Paul Arthur Schilpp's translation of A. Einstein's autobiography:

"Even when I was a fairly precocious young man the nothingness of the hopes 
and strivings which chases most men restlessly through life came to my 
consciousness with considerable vitality.  Moreover, I soon discovered the 
cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered 
up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today.  By the mere 
existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. 
Moreover, it was possible to satisfy the stomach by such participation, but 
not man in so far as he is a thinking and feeling being. 

"A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises 
is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended 
is its area of applicability.

"It [thermodynamics] is the only physical theory of universal content 
concerning which I am convinced that, within the framework of the 
applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown....

[discussing the origins of special relativity in his search for a universal 
priciple as basic as that behind thermodynamics] "After ten years of 
reflection such a principle resulted from a paradox upon which I had 
already hit at the age of sixteen: If I pursue a beam of light with the 
velocity c (velocity of light in a vacuum), I should observe such a beam 
as a spatially oscillatory electromagnetic field at rest.  However, there 
appears to be no such thing, whether on the basis of experience or 
according to Maxwell's equations. 

"Physics is an attempt conceptually to grasp reality as it is thought 
independently of its being observed.

"It is my opinion that the contemporary quantum theory by means of certain 
definitely laid down basic concepts, which on the whole have been taken 
over from classical mechanics, constitutes an optimum formulation of the 
connections.  I believe, however, that this theory offers no useful point 
of departure for future development.

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp)
Subject: What Are Photons?
Organization: Division of Biostatistics, WUMS, St. Louis, MO
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 01:46:22 GMT

Which of the 12 fundamental particles are photons?
Is the photon a clump of 2 or more particles?

What kind of radiation is emited by the interference pattern of
magnetic fields?

Please reply directly to me.  Thanks,  -David-

# david@wubios.wustl.edu             ^     David J. Camp                #
# david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu    < * >   +1 314 382 0584              #
# ...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david      v     "God loves material things." #
#        "I am a Member of the League for Programming Freedom."         #
Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll)
Subject: Re: Super-Super Bomb
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 03:01:39 GMT

In article <1992Apr1.212526.22947@ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
>jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes:
>
>|	There was a study in the early 60s (I think) which put the 
>|cost of a cobalt-clad Very Large H-Bomb (VL being big enough that the
>|rather nasty fallout you get from cladding the Device in cobalt would
>|be enough to eventually sterilise the Earth*) at around 100 billion current
>|US dollars. Kahn talks about it one of his books on the subject. I
>|think in either 'On Thermonuclear War' or 'Thinking About the Unthinkable'.
>
>The purpose of cladding it in cobalt being to disperse cobalt
>isotopes?

	Yes, although it occurs to me that the cladding might not be
cobalt but whatever one bombards to get cobalt 60. I don't have my 
CRC handy .... 

	I don't know how exhaustively they looked at the choice of isotopes
to enrich the fallout with, either. I imagine you need something with a long
enough half-life to last long enough to be dispersed around the globe and
short enough to emit significant amounts of radiation in ashort time. It
helps if the fallout radioisotopes are chemically similar to elements normally
used in the human body, too. Nothing like getting right into the cell structure
to increase the chance of radiactive breakdown causing significant damage to
an organism. This destroying life as we know it stuff looks to be complicated...

								James Nicoll 
Newsgroups: sci.physics,alt.sci.physics.new-theories
From: mlstocku@descartes.waterloo.edu
Subject: Re: The Speed of Gravity Waves
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 16:47:37 GMT


Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan)
Subject: Re: Why it is either religion OR science
Organization: Johns Hopkins Computer Science Department, Baltimore, MD
Distribution: sci.physics
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 16:32:37 GMT

srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes:

>    God needs another 50 years to decide women have eqaul rights with men?
>If Dr. Muto is serious, her statement illustrates how different the religious
>and scientific mind is, and why you have to choose between them.  

Who says rights are invariant with time?  Honestly, I don't think science
has any more to say about the existence of rights than it does about the
existence of God.  I've never seen a right, or smelled it, or weighed it.
Why should I believe they exist at all?

Now, I might add that I personally believe in rights, and particularly in
equal rights between men and women.  However, I don't think this has a 
damn thing to do with science.  A true follower of Occam's razor would
probably say that my rights exist only insofar as I have the power to
protect them, either through personal means or through some contractual
arrangement with my government.

--
Paul Callahan       | "... the 'spineless prickly pear' ... this long-neglected 
callahan@cs.jhu.edu | gift of nature, which now promises to be of as great or 
                    | even greater value to the human race than the discovery 
BIFF WHERE ARE YOU? | of steam."                      -- Luther Burbank, 1911
From: toon@moene.uucp (Toon Moene)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Asimov
Date: 7 Apr 92 14:12:54 GMT

In article <8047@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr)  
writes:
> I heard on the news that Isaac Asimov died today.  Obit in Tuesday 
> NYTimes?

There was one in "Trouw", a nationwide newspaper in the Netherlands today  
(7th of April, "Trouw" is a morning paper).  It mentioned both his  
'popular' science books as well as his 'sf' works and the 'Laws of  
Robotics'.  As I'm mainly a fan of his sf work - the last twenty years -  
my first thought was: 'Now we'll never know how what the sequel is to  
'Robots and Empire' ...

--
Toon Moene (toon@moene.uucp)
Kantershof 269, 1104 GN  Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel.: + 31 20 6982029; Fax: + 31 20 6003411
No Disclaimers; a NeXT at home protects against this occupational hazard.
From: meuwly@urz.unibas.ch
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: cluster-integrals
Date: 14 Apr 92 14:35:42 MET
Organization: University of Basel, Switzerland

hello there,
i'm looking for an evaluation of cluster-integrals. i need it for the
partition-function of a real gas in the mayer-cluster-expansion.

i know that there must be an explicit formula for at least the 
first 4 cluster-integrals. the first 3 ones are

 b  = 1
  1

          infinity
     2*Pi  /                    2
 b = ----  | ((exp(-V(r)/kT)-1)r  dr
  2  L^3   /
           0

                infinity
       2     1   /  3    3
 b = 2b  +  ---- | d r  d r   f  f  f
  3    2    6L^6 /    12   13  12 13 23
                 0


L is the de broglie-wavelength and f   are the [ik] clusters of the molecules
                                    ik

there must be a phd-thesis by harrison: john hopkins-university 1938 on that
subject whee the first 4 clusterintegrals are computed. who knows something
about this subject?



thanks for your help    markus
Newsgroups: sci.physics