Knoedler, Molly Riley (Author)
Kostas, Julianna C. (Author)
Hogan, Caroline Mary (Author)
Kerkhoff, Harper (Author)
Topaz, Chad M. (Author)
We report on an unpublished and previously unknown manuscript of John von Neumann and contextualize it within the development of the theory of shock waves and detonations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Von Neumann studies bombs comprising a primary explosive charge along with explosive booster material. His goal is to calculate the minimal amount of booster needed to create a sustainable detonation, presumably because booster material is often more expensive and more volatile. In service of this goal, he formulates and analyzes a partial differential equation-based model describing a moving shock wave at the interface of detonated and undetonated material. We provide a complete transcription of von Neumann’s work and give our own accompanying explanations and analyses, including the correction of two small errors in his calculations. Today, detonations are typically modeled using a combination of experimental results and numerical simulations particular to the shape and materials of the explosive, as the complex three dimensional dynamics of detonations are analytically intractable. Although von Neumann’s manuscript will not revolutionize our modern understanding of detonations, the document is a valuable historical record of the state of hydrodynamics research during and after World War II.
...More
Book
Neer, Robert M.;
(2013)
Napalm: An American Biography
(/isis/citation/CBB001213234/)
Chapter
Aspray, William;
(1989)
The transformation of numerical analysis by the computer: An example from the work of John von Neumann
(/isis/citation/CBB000058199/)
Book
Balazs Hargittai;
István Hargittai;
(2015)
Wisdom of the Martians of Science: In Their Own Words with Commentaries
(/isis/citation/CBB739484002/)
Article
Anderson, K. D.;
(2009)
Weather Services at War
(/isis/citation/CBB001321068/)
Book
Morse, Phillip McCord;
Kimball, George E.;
(2003)
Methods of Operations Research
(/isis/citation/CBB000471254/)
Book
Buchanan, Brenda J.;
(2006)
Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological History
(/isis/citation/CBB000610322/)
Book
Paolo Bevilacqua;
Marzia Gallo;
Francesco Marconi;
Andrea Thum;
Fabrizio Zannoni;
(2018)
I rifugi antiaerei di Torino
(/isis/citation/CBB997017439/)
Book
Markus Oehrli;
Martin Rickenbacher;
(2014)
Deutsche Kriegskarten der Schweiz 1939–1945: Ein Vademecum
(/isis/citation/CBB725720055/)
Article
Thomas Webb;
Penny Summerfield;
Mark Riley;
Chris Pearson;
(2022)
‘We Cows are in a Very Serious Predicament’: Constructions of Land Girls and Cattle in Britain in the Second World War
(/isis/citation/CBB437823292/)
Book
Martijn van Calmthout;
(2018)
Sam Goudsmit and the Hunt for Hitler's Atom Bomb
(/isis/citation/CBB517609321/)
Book
Price, David H.;
(2008)
Anthropological Intelligence: The Deployment and Neglect of American Anthropology in the Second World War
(/isis/citation/CBB001030066/)
Book
Galison, Peter;
(2001)
Physical Science and the Language of War
(/isis/citation/CBB000102143/)
Book
Ryan, Joseph W.;
Stouffer, Samuel A.;
(2013)
Samuel Stouffer and the GI Survey: Sociologists and Soldiers during the Second World War
(/isis/citation/CBB001550261/)
Article
Rau, Erik P.;
(2005)
Combat Science: The Emergence of Operational Research in World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB000630810/)
Article
Velleman, Barry L.;
(2008)
The “Scientific Linguist” Goes to War: The United States A.S.T. Program in Foreign Languages
(/isis/citation/CBB001211635/)
Article
Lorencová, Ivana;
(2007)
Chemistry and Society in the 20th Century: Science, Engineering and Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB001021440/)
Article
Christen, Arden G.;
Christen, Joan A.;
(2004)
Dr. Lytle Adams' Incendiary “Bat Bomb” of World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB000932373/)
Book
Elisabetta Bini;
Elisabetta Vezzosi;
(2020)
Scienziati e guerra fredda: Tra collaborazione e diritti umani
(/isis/citation/CBB957549150/)
Article
Reinhardt, Klaus;
(2013)
The Entomological Institute of the Waffen-SS: Evidence for Offensive Biological Warfare Research in the Third Reich
(/isis/citation/CBB001213637/)
Thesis
Robertson, Andrew John;
(cited 2000)
Mobilizing for war, engineering the peace: The state, the shop floor, and the engineer in Japan, 1935-1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001562680/)
Be the first to comment!