Developments from World War II

I think I’ve posted on this before, but it’s just so striking. Wikipedia’s article on the Manhattan Project says:

Together with the cryptographic efforts centered at Bletchley Park and also at Arlington Hall, the development of radar and computers in the UK and later in the USA, and the jet engine in the UK and Germany, the Manhattan Project represents one of the few massive, secret, and outstandingly successful technological efforts spawned by the conflict of World War II.

Don’t you want to be a part of this sort of thing? Let’s not always depend on war for great stuff to happen.

By the way, I find it really amusing that there is a page dedicated to a “List of people known as father or mother of something“. Really, it gives me a big smile.

Igor Kurchatov led the Soviet atomic bomb project, and he has a ridiculous beard.

During the A-bomb programme, Kurchatov swore he wouldn’t cut his beard until the program succeeded, and he continued to wear a large beard (often cut into eccentric styles) for the remainder of his life, earning him the nickname “The Beard”.

When the Axis scientists heard about the bomb dropped on Japan, they were surprised because they didn’t think it was possible. They had been convinced rumors of the US developing an atomic bomb were all propaganda. Well, I guess that goes to show some things we think are false, may be true.

This is what great physicists look like when they debate quantum theory. Haha, great photo.

Here’s a funny answer to the Barometer question: Measuring the barometer, then placing the barometer against the building, marking the top, placing the barometer above the mark, marking the new top, and so on until the building has been measured in baro-meters.

Here’s a good social engineering solution, very relevant to recent times: Finding the building custodian and offering them the barometer in exchange for information about the height of the building.

Wikipedia notes that “Asking the custodian is thought by purists to be invalid, since at no point is a measurement made.”

Magnetohydrodynamics sounds cool. I could read all day. Better not to.