Kinetic Theory and the Blitz...

Credit: Thomas Fuchs

Topics: History, Humor, Kinetic Theory of Gases, Mathematical Models, Stochastic Modeling

This happens at 10:00 am EST. There are two things I thought I'd never see growing up in the south: 1) an African American president; 2) retiring the old Virginia battle flag Mr. Roof admired as the Confederate Flag. My first encounter with it was April 5, 1968: this was the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King. I was five and at Bethlehem Community Center, my kindergarten. I remember the tears when we were told Dr. King had died; I remember the flag and the jeers from the streets outside, the honking and gunshots celebratory of his death. Like I said: two things from personal experience I thought I'd never see. It took no less than the magnum opus, thunderous crescendo of the descendant of Jefferson Davis - Jenny Horne to drive the point home.

Okay, this was a bit of a stretch but it APPEARS in Scientific American. I mean a stretch applying theory meant for essentially micro environments to macro environments. They apply the fact that armies and gases have densities and a little imagination. There have been other models of war using either known mathematics or natural phenomena. I was also mildly entertained by the credits for the author of the article and the photo credit. I'll let you discover without mention. I hope I'm not in trouble with too many high school physics teachers, and it makes your Friday.

I just found this smiley face funny:

In 1939 Nazi Germany debuted the “lightning war,” or blitzkrieg, in Poland. This deadly military offensive involved mounting a burst of firepower-heavy attacks to cause confusion and break through an enemy's lines unexpectedly. Nearly 80 years later Russian physicists have found they can model this surprise tactic with a scientific law: the kinetic theory of gases.

The parallels are obvious enough, with some creative thought. Both armies and gases have densities—troops per square kilometer or atoms per cubic meter. Basic units also have measurable cross sections that define territorial coverage—for troops, average weapon range, and for atoms of gas, electron orbital reach. And for both entities, when cross sections overlap, confrontations occur. Further, in the case of a blitzkrieg, defenders' dispersion can be seen as resembling the widely separated atoms of a gas.

Scientific American:
The Kinetic Theory of Gases Accurately Predicts Nazi Blitzkrieg Attacks, Tim Palucka