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William Shurcliff
William Asahel Shurcliff (March 27, 1909 – June 20, 2006) was an American physicist. He published on polarized light and passive solar building designs. An expert on patent application, he served the government during WWII and later with Polaroid Corporation. He was an outspoken critic of supersonic transport in the 1960s and of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s.Wald, M. L. (2006, Jun 28). William A. Shurcliff, 97, dies; helped develop atomic bomb: bituary (obit) ''New York Times'' Early life and education Shurcliff was the son of landscape architect Arthur Asahel Shurcliff and Margaret Homer Shurcliff (née Nichols). He received his BA cum laude in 1930, a PhD in physics in 1934, and a degree in business administration in 1935, all from Harvard University. Career After Harvard, Shurcliff worked as head of the Spectrophotometric Laboratory at the Calco Chemical Division of the American Cyanamid Company. In this role, he was responsible for Calco’ ...
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Polarized Light
, or , is a property of transverse waves which specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the wave. One example of a polarized transverse wave is vibrations traveling along a taut string, for example, in a musical instrument like a guitar string. Depending on how the string is plucked, the vibrations can be in a vertical direction, horizontal direction, or at any angle perpendicular to the string. In contrast, in longitudinal waves, such as sound waves in a liquid or gas, the displacement of the particles in the oscillation is always in the direction of propagation, so these waves do not exhibit polarization. Transverse waves that exhibit polarization include electromagnetic waves such as light and radio waves, gravitational waves, and transverse sound waves ( shear waves) in solids. An electromagnetic wave such as light consists of a coupled oscillating elec ...
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Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (; ; 19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958) was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with his wife, Irène Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. They were the second married couple, after his parents-in-law, to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. Joliot-Curie and his wife also founded the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, part of the Paris-Saclay University. Biography Early years Born in Paris, France, Frédéric Joliot was a graduate of ESPCI Paris. In 1925 he became an assistant to Marie Curie, at the Radium Institute. He fell in love with her daughter Irène Curie, and soon after their marriage in 1926 they both changed their surnames to Joliot-Curie. At the insistence of Marie, Joliot-Curie obtained a second baccalauréat, a bachelor's degree, and a doctorate in science, doing his thesis on the electrochemistry of radio-elements. Career W ...
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Superinsulation
Superinsulation is an approach to building design, construction, and retrofitting that dramatically reduces heat loss (and gain) by using much higher insulation levels and airtightness than average. Superinsulation is one of the ancestors of the passive house approach. Definition There is no universally agreed definition of superinsulation, but superinsulated buildings typically include: * Very high levels of insulation, typically R-40 (RSI-7) walls and R-60 (RSI-10.6) roof, corresponding to SI U-values of 0.15 and 0.1 W/(m2·K) respectively) * Details to ensure insulation continuity where walls meet roofs, foundations, and other walls * Airtight construction, especially around doors and windows, to prevent air infiltration pushing heat in or out * a heat recovery ventilation system to provide fresh air * No large windows facing any particular direction * Much smaller than a conventional heating system, sometimes just a small backup heater Nisson & Dutt (1985) suggest that ...
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Mueller Matrix
Mueller calculus is a matrix method for manipulating Stokes vectors, which represent the polarization of light. It was developed in 1943 by Hans Mueller. In this technique, the effect of a particular optical element is represented by a Mueller matrix—a 4×4 matrix that is an overlapping generalization of the Jones matrix. Introduction Disregarding coherent wave superposition, any fully polarized, partially polarized, or unpolarized state of light can be represented by a Stokes vector ; and any optical element can be represented by a Mueller matrix (M). If a beam of light is initially in the state \vec_i and then passes through an optical element M and comes out in a state \vec_o, then it is written : \vec_o = \mathrm \vec_i \ . If a beam of light passes through optical element M1 followed by M2 then M3 it is written : \vec_o = \mathrm_3 \left(\mathrm_2 \left(\mathrm_1 \vec_i\right) \right) given that matrix multiplication is associative it can be written : \vec_o = \mat ...
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Stokes Vector
The Stokes parameters are a set of values that describe the polarization state of electromagnetic radiation. They were defined by George Gabriel Stokes in 1851, as a mathematically convenient alternative to the more common description of incoherent or partially polarized radiation in terms of its total intensity (''I''), (fractional) degree of polarization (''p''), and the shape parameters of the polarization ellipse. The effect of an optical system on the polarization of light can be determined by constructing the Stokes vector for the input light and applying Mueller calculus, to obtain the Stokes vector of the light leaving the system. They can be determined from directly observable phenomena. The original Stokes paper was discovered independently by Francis Perrin in 1942 and by Subrahamanyan Chandrasekhar in 1947, who named it as the Stokes parameters. Definitions The relationship of the Stokes parameters ''S''0, ''S''1, ''S''2, ''S''3 to intensity and polarization el ...
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Poincaré Sphere (optics)
Unpolarized light is light with a random, time-varying polarization. Natural light, like most other common sources of visible light, is produced independently by a large number of atoms or molecules whose emissions are uncorrelated. Unpolarized light can be produced from the incoherent combination of vertical and horizontal linearly polarized light, or right- and left-handed circularly polarized light. Conversely, the two constituent linearly polarized states of unpolarized light cannot form an interference pattern, even if rotated into alignment ( Fresnel–Arago 3rd law). A so-called '' depolarizer'' acts on a polarized beam to create one in which the polarization varies so rapidly across the beam that it may be ignored in the intended applications. Conversely, a ''polarizer'' acts on an unpolarized beam or arbitrarily polarized beam to create one which is polarized. Unpolarized light can be described as a mixture of two independent oppositely polarized streams, each wit ...
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Stanley S
Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series), an American situation comedy * ''Stanley'' (2001 TV series), an American animated series Other uses in arts and entertainment * ''Stanley'' (play), by Pam Gems, 1996 * Stanley Award, an Australian Cartoonists' Association award * '' Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston'', a video game Businesses * Stanley, Inc., an American information technology company * Stanley Aviation, an American aerospace company * Stanley Black & Decker, formerly The Stanley Works, an American hardware manufacturer ** Stanley Hand Tools, a division of Stanley Black & Decker * Stanley bottle, a brand of food and beverage containers * Stanley Electric, a Japanese manufacturer of electric lights * Stanley Furniture, an American furniture manufacturer * Th ...
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Bibliography
Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography'' as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is "the study of books as physical objects" and "the systematic description of books as objects" (or descriptive bibliography). Etymology The word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for "the intellectual activity of composing books." The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, i ...
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Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The press maintains offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square, and in London, England. The press co-founded the distributor TriLiteral LLC with MIT Press and Yale University Press. TriLiteral was sold to LSC Communications in 2018. Notable authors published by HUP include Eudora Welty, Walter Benjamin, E. O. Wilson, John Rawls, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Jay Gould, Helen Vendler, Carol Gilligan, Amartya Sen, David Blight, Martha Nussbaum, and Thomas Piketty. The Display Room in Harvard Square, dedicated to selling HUP publications, closed on June 17, 2009. Related publishers, imprints, and series HUP owns the Belknap Press imprint (trade name), imprint, which it inaugurated in May 1954 with the publication of the ''Harvard Guide to ...
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Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the ''Post'' had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the List of newspapers in the United States, third-largest among U.S. newspapers after ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer (financier), Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine Graham, Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post ...
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Edwin H
The name Edwin means "wealth-friend". It comes from (wealth, good fortune) and (friend). Thus the Old English form is Ēadwine, a name widely attested in early medieval England. Edwina The name Edwina is a feminine form of the male name Edwin, which derives from Old English and means "rich friend." Edwin was a popular name until the time of the Norman Conquest, then fell out of favour until Victorian era, Victorian times. People ... is the feminine form of the name. Notable people and characters with the name include: Historical figures * Edwin of Northumbria (died 632 or 633), King of Northumbria and Christian saint * Edwin (son of Edward the Elder) (died 933) * Eadwine of Sussex (died 982), Ealdorman of Sussex * Eadwine of Abingdon (died 990), Abbot of Abingdon * Edwin, Earl of Mercia (died 1071), brother-in-law of Harold Godwinson (Harold II) * Edwin Sandys (bishop) (1519–1588), Archbishop of York Modern era * E. W. Abeygunasekera, Sri Lankan Sinhala politi ...
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Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his Polaroid (polarizer), Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948. Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,000 in 1978, and its peak revenue was $3 billion in 1991. Polaroid Corporation declared bankruptcy in 2001; its brand and assets were sold off. A successor Polaroid company formed, and the branded assets changed hands multiple times before being sold to Polish billionaire in 2017. This acquisition allowed Polaroid B.V., Impossible Project, which had started producing instant films for older Polaroid cameras in 2008, to rebrand as Polaroid Originals in 2017, and eventually as Polaroid in 2020. Since the original company's downfall, Polaroid-branded products in other fields, such as LCD televisions a ...
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