Category: Physics

  • Negative Resistance

    John F. Lindner

    I recently coauthored an article in the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos that reports efficiently performing logic with a simple nonlinear electronic device that exhibits negative resistance, something I had previously theorized. At the heart of the device is a single p-n junction, which is formed by a silicon semiconductor crystal doped with impurity…

  • Stokes’ Drag Law

    John F. Lindner

    Introductory physics often assumes without proof that the drag force on an object is proportional to its velocity, at least for smooth or laminar flow. In particular, a sphere of radius falling slowly with velocity in air of viscosity experiences a drag force which was first derived by George Stokes in 1851. Here is a…

  • A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes

    John F. Lindner

    100 years ago, physicist Robert Goddard designed and built the first liquid-fueled rocket. Powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen and launched from his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Massachusetts on 1926 March 16, the first flight lasted 2.5 seconds and reached an altitude of 12.5 meters. 7 years earlier, in 1919, Goddard published the seminal…

  • Guided Flame

    John F. Lindner

    Yuhe Ren, Niklas Manz, and I recently published an article Guided flame: reaction-diffusion of fire pulses in narrow channels in the journal Open Transport. Tim Siegenthaler helped machine the channels. This work had been gestating for a long time but has recently became a hot topic. Fortunately, Yuhe was able to acquire all our data…

  • Chemical Wires

    John F. Lindner

    With Mahala Wanner and Gus Thomas, Niklas Manz and I recently published an article Chemical wires: reaction-diffusion waves as analogues of electron drift in the journal Transport Phenomena. Mahala began the work during our summer 2022 REU, and Gus continued it for his 2025 Senior IS. We used chemical reaction-diffusion waves in narrow channels to…

  • My First Patent

    John F. Lindner

    In last month’s blog post, I described my second patent, which raises the question, What was my first patent? In 1998, my colleagues and I were issued United States Patent No. US 5 789 961  “Nose- and coupling-tuned signal processor with arrays of nonlinear elements”. The work began during my 1994-1995 sabbatical with the Applied…

  • My Second Patent

    John F. Lindner

    Today, about six years after beginning the relevant research, my colleagues and I were issued United States Patent No. US 12 450 468 B2, “Physics augmented neural networks configured for operating in environments that mix order and chaos”. The work began during my 2019-2020 sabbatical at the Nonlinear Artificial Intelligence Lab at North Carolina State…

  • Extreme SI Prefixes

    John F. Lindner

    In the spring of 2020, on my NC State sabbatical, during the initial lock-down for the worst pandemic of my lifetime, I stayed busy in part by writing a text called g = 2: A Gentle Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics. In the text, I tried using SI prefixes to simply express small quantities but was…

  • Wooster Physicists

    John F. Lindner

    I recently discovered that the College’s yearbooks, The Index, are now online, and I spent several days extracting some physics history, supplemented by the Alumni Catalogue 1870-1925 and several Annual Catalogues, also online, as well as the Physics Department’s web site, which for many years I helped build and maintain. I cross checked the online…

  • Growing Neural Networks

    John F. Lindner

    Artificial neural networks are increasingly important in society, technology, and science, and they are increasingly large and energy hungry. Indeed, the escalating energy footprint of large-scale computing is a growing economic and societal burden. Must we always use brute force, or can we get by with less? I just co-authored an article in Proceedings of…

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