The Genius Of Georg Ohm

Much of the genius of Georg Ohm is forgotten.  He is remembered mostly as the scientist who defined the relationship between electrical resistance, electric force and electric current.  Not only do writers generally ignore Georg Ohm's many other contributions to physics: they give an all-too-brief outline of Ohm's law and then move on.   Thus they miss the opportunity to explain the simplicity of the physical reality and the elegance of the mathematics behind Ohm's Law.

Ohm For Christmas

The ohm is the unit of electrical resistance.  It is named in honor of the genius of Georg Ohm, who figured out that the flow of electricity in materials from a 'hot' source might just resemble the flow of heat from a hot source.  Ever since we started measuring electrical resistance in ohms, electricians and engineers have been making up atrocious puns based on that term.  I decided not to make an exception here.

Freedom To Cheat?

Do the laws and constitutional safeguards which guarantee freedom of speech grant a freedom to cheat?  According to a basic principle of common law, freedom of speech ends where cheating begins.

Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, California has falsely claimed amongst other things: “I’m a retired Marine of 25 years.  I retired in the year 2001.  Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor."  That last statement was in direct contravention of the Stolen Valor Act, 2005, a federal law.  Alvarez has challenged that Act as imposing an unconstitutional limit upon freedom of speech.  The matter is to be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Icebreaker Yermak

Vice-Admiral S. Makaroff of the Imperial Russian Navy was primarily an oceanographer.   His paper On some Oceanographic Problems, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Vol. XXII, contains, amongst detailed reports of his oceanographic investigations, an explanation of why the icebreaker Yermak^* was built.  Quite simply, the ship was intended to promote seaborne commerce where Arctic ice had always been a barrier.  It seems that Makaroff had an idea that perhaps, one day, after much experience had been gained, an icebreaker might just possibly reach the North Pole.

Dethinking The Unpossible

A closed mind is totally incapable of being shown real world facts.  Lead a person with a closed mind step by step through a very logical process; show them a simple experiment in actual progress; show them what every kid learns in science class: what happens?  The closed mind, having seen proof that a thing is real, must employ a strange chain of illogic to show that the proof was not merely impossible but unpossible.  A thing which has just been shown to be possible can only be shown to be unpossible by a reverse logic in which thoughts themselves are shown to be unpossible.  It takes a special thinking process to deconstruct a scientific proof and replace it with diametrically opposed dogma.

Arctic Ice October 2011

Ice extent, as measured down to 15% concentration, was only slightly above 2007 levels at the end of this year's melt season.  The ice is now about as thin as in 2007, or thinner, and the age of remaining ice continues to decline.  [edit: inserted missing clause - bolded.]

The summer sea ice melt season has ended in the Arctic. Arctic sea ice extent reached its low for the year, the second lowest in the satellite record, on September 9. The minimum extent was only slightly above 2007, the record low year, even though weather conditions this year were not as conducive to ice loss as in 2007. Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were open for a period during September.