摘要:

The use of units such as the foot and the mile, which are obviously of physiological origin, indicates that physical measurements are based on direct human experiences. The definitions of many fundamental physical quantities have resulted from attempts to quantify direct sensory experiences. Thus, our scale of masses has grown from the distinction “heavier‐lighter”; our temperature scale from “hotter‐colder”; our light intensity scale from “brighter‐dimmer”. It is true that the physicist has, to a large extent, replaced these personal judgments by the pointer readings or the counts given by quantitative instruments, but surprisingly accurate quantitative measurements may be made by the human organism without the aid of such instruments. In comparing the human meter with devices which the physicist is more inclined to trust, we shall find it advisable to set up a parallelism between the terms used by the physicist and those used by the psychologist. The signal supplied to a meter is exactly analogous to the stimulus to which the human reacts. The ordinary meter yields its measurement in terms of a pointer reading, the human meter indicates the magnitude of the stimulus by some sort of a motor or verbal response.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061369

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The Atomic Energy Commission and the members of the American Physical Society have many mutual interests. For several years, their affairs have been closely interwoven. The atomic energy project, comprising activities formerly administered by the Corps of Engineers, and now under the Atomic Energy Commission, is a product of physics and physicists had a great deal to do with getting it started. I can think of no other industrial project of comparable size which relies as much on the wisdom of physicists for guiding its operations. Moreover, the growth of American physics and the welfare of American physicists owe a great deal to the Commission and its contractors. This agency gives employment to a large percentage of the membership of this Society; it also budgets for U.S. Treasury support for essential research facilities. Much of the work reported at this meeting, I note, has been financed by the AEC.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061370

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Although the number of American physicists has increased during the last twenty years, the demand for them has increased even more so. The field of atomic physics alone has consumed a major portion of the physicists this last decade. The nation needs all the physicists it can produce, and the critical problem is how to induce students to enter this highly specialized field. In attacking the problem it would be well to consider the physicists we now have and how they entered a career in physics. Who are the physicists? What backgrounds, what training, and what experiences do they have and how have these influenced their decisions to become physicists?

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061331

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061332

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061334

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061335

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061337

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061342

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The proposed European Nuclear Physics Laboratory moved a step closer to reality last month when it was announced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) that nine countries have signed a convention providing for the laboratory's establishment. These include Belgium, France, Britain, West Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. Three other countries (Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland) are reported to have approved the plan and to have announced their intentions of signing the convention in the near future. The convention will enter into force when seven states have ratified or adhered to it.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061343

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Last April, Senator Edward J. Thye of Minnesota, chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, announced that he was cancelling some previously‐planned committee hearings on the battery additive AD‐X2. In view of plans to establish an independent committee of scientists to investigate the case, he said, any committee hearings “might well becloud the issue at this time rather than clarify it”. In June Senator Thye abruptly cancelled the cancellation and for two weeks the issue was beclouded and testimony was heard from a parade of witnesses (most of them favoring AD‐X2). On July 1st, the Senate committee met in executive session and just as abruptly adjourned the hearings. A letter was then sent to Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield asking why and on the basis of what information had a fraud order been issued against the manufacturer of the additive and why had the order later been suspended. Senator Thye has made it clear that he believes the fraud order should be killed to permit the manufacturer to continue in business during the time his product is being investigated.

ISSN:0031-9228    

DOI:10.1063/1.3061344

出版商:AIP    

年代:1953

数据来源: AIP