Category Archives: History
Note on Research and Ethics in the Age of Publish or Perish
Diogenes, when once questioned about his curious act of wandering the city in broad daylight with a lamp, replied, “I am looking for an honest man.” (Plutarch, Life of Alexander, XIV.1-5). Honesty in scientific and mathematical research is central to human progress. Recently, a series of disturbing events have changed the academic community. The President …
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Edward Teller Interview
Interview with Professor Teller, June 1996.
Euclid’s Elements in China
The AMS this month has a wonderful article on Euclid’s work and journey through the east. The famous mathematical text ‘Euclid’s Elements’ has a long and fascinating translation history in China. In the early 1600s, Italian priest Matteo Ricci brought a copy to China and collaborated with scholar Xu Guangqi to translate the first six …
Reflection on Twenty Years Since the Loss of Columbia
Graduate Student Garrison S. Osborne and Steven A. E. MillerUniversity of Florida Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Well before the loss of Columbia, the NASA Office of Technology Assessment wrote, “Shuttle reliability is uncertain, but has been estimated to range between 97 and 99 percent. If the Shuttle reliability is 98 percent, there would …
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MLK Day 2023
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want …
APS Presentation – Alternative Analytical Solution for Planar Oblique Shock Waves
Abstract: One now famous analytical solution for shock waves was developed by Dr. Theodore Meyer within his Ph.D. dissertation under advisement of Professor Ludwig Prandtl. The original solution relies on analysis via control volume of the equations of motion. This approach has limited future development of analytical solutions for more complex flow-fields. In this presentation, …
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APS Presentation – A New Course: Modeling Inhomogeneous Turbulence with a Historic Perspective
Abstract: A new graduate class is developed at the University of Florida called Modeling Inhomogeneous Turbulence with a Historical Perspective. The course covers in-depth concepts of the science and mathematics of turbulence modeling. Major topics of the class include statistics for modeling, the Russian school, law of the wall, chaos, compressible Navier-Stokes equations, mean kinetic …
History of the Florida Aerospace Department
Professors Richard L. Fearn and Wei Shyy wrote a short history of my department [link] – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Florida. Previously, it was a stand-alone aerospace department that merged. It is worth reading and sharing if you have a connection to UF Aerospace. [link]
On Living In An Atomic Age, Lewis
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 …