In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking …
Author Archives: saemiller
Mythologists and Theologians
“Mythologists and experimental theologians are needed for the development of a new method of attack” Telegram to Meyer while in trenches after recovery which was mistranslated from “Meteorologists and experimental physicists,” where Meyer then traveled and met Fritz Haber (german gas warfar pioneer)
Ode to Eddies
Many eddies form a cascade,Glance with the fresh wind at autumn,Ere the south wind’s enchanted shade,O, it stretches toward the water!
Prandtl and Meyer
It would be difficult to create the right mood under the present circumstances, but perhaps by accident another beautiful differential equation will come along again, as it once did when I worked with you. Letter from Meyer to Prandtl, May 5, 1918. Ref. no. GOAR:2647, DLR-Gottingen Archives
The prediction of cross-spectra from first mode instability waves within high-speed flow over sharp and blunt cones with plasma actuation
Abstract: Leading edge geometries, such as cones, moving at high-speed undergo intense loading due to the growth of instability waves and turbulent transition. These instability waves are highly spatially coherent. Aerodynamic loading related to instability waves and transition cause large-amplitude vibrations within the underlying structure, which may lead to flight-vehicle failure. We examine the effect …
On Challenges in Turbulent Flow Theory and Experiment
Research in macroscopic classical physics, such as fluid dynamics or aspects of condensed matter physics, continues to confront baffling challenges that are by no means less demanding than those at the post-Newtonian frontiers of physics that have been explored since the beginning of this century. This is so even though the basic equations of macroscopic …
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On Lift
It’s easy to explain how a rocket works, but explaining how a wing works takes a rocket scientist Philippe Spalart, Boeing Technical Fellow
Mach Experiment
Syzygy
Would you like to know the best possible method for solving a Syzygy problem? It is this. Having ascertained from your doctor that you are in a state of health to bear, without risk, severe brainwork and keen intellectual excitement, from the most candid of your intimate friends that you are in a pleasant temper, …
On the On-Set of Hypersonics
Almost everyone has their own definition of the term hypersonic. If we were to conduct something like a public opinion poll among those present, and asked everyone to name a Mach number above which the flow of a gas should properly be described as hypersonic there would be a majority of answers round about 5 …