update.344 (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

Forwarded message:

> From physnews at aip.org Fri Oct 31 12:24:51 1997
> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 97 09:57:13 EST
> From: physnews at aip.org (AIP listserver)
> Message-Id: <9710311457.AA04491 at aip.org>
> To: physnews-mailing at aip.org
> Subject: update.344
> 
> PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE                         
> The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
> Number 344  October 31, 1997   by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben
> Stein
> 
> THE PHYSICS OF TRAFFIC JAMS.  German scientists have
> shown that the changeover from free-flowing traffic to a traffic jam
> (in which cars on a highway are greatly slowed or halted, at least
> temporarily) conforms to the well-known physics of phase
> transitions, an example of which is the transition from water to ice. 
> In other words, traffic jams are not random patterns, but are
> deterministic in nature; that is, when a parameter exceeds a
> threshold value---such as the flux of cars---then local perturbations
> can grow, possibly leading to jams, analogous to the nucleating
> effect of tiny ice grains in a body of water being frozen.  Once
> formed the jam moves along the highway as if it were a kind of
> "solid," with identifiable edges and with a "vapor" of comparatively
> free cars in front of and behind it.  The information gained in this
> sort of research, the researchers believe, might lead to more
> accurate traffic forecasts and could be used in future "intelligent"
> transport systems.  (B.S. Kerner and H. Rehborn, Physical Review
> Letters, 3 Nov. 1997; contact Boris Kerner, Daimler-Benz AG,
> kerner at dbag.stg.daimlerbenz.com.)

> INDUCED TRANSPARENCY IN A SOLID OBJECT.

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> PRODUCING ELEMENT 114

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> THE MOON FORMED IN ABOUT A YEAR

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