Virtual Tokamak, Abdaraxos of Alexandria, Rocket-related planetarium dome

[Nostromics Newsletter]

Nostromics Newsletter

Nostromics science gifts product news, educational resources & science tidbits

Nostromics Newsletter, 12 January 2011 - You are welcome to share this mail

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The Virtual Tokamak plasma physics simulations

The Virtual Tokamak is a collection of online educational plasma physics interactive simulations. They are hosted at The Interactive Plasma Physics Education Experience project. A Tokamak is a device for confining plasma, i.e. a ionized state of matter, by means of magnetic fields. This process can be used for research or for obtaining nuclear fusion, in which atomic nuclei join together and produce nuclear energy.

To use the online simulations you need a Java-enabled web browser. Visit the Virtual Tokamak page and click an application icon. Clicking the "START" button in the application page runs the simulation with default parameters, which you can also change.

Abdaraxos of Alexandria

As Mauro Arpino of Nostromics tells in his free ebook Hellenistic Astronomy - Unexpected traces of a lost science, very little historical records of Hellenistic science exist because most were lost. Our Abdaraxos of Alexandria Sweatshirt, and related Hellenistic T-shirts and apparel in the History of Science section of Nostromics Store, are inspired by one of the few surviving records. The design features a Greek quote meaning "Abdaraxos, builder of the mechanical devices in Alexandria".

The quote is from Latecruli Alexandrini, a 2nd century BC papyrus listing famed people in various crafts or fields. It doesn't tell much about Abdaraxos. But this may implicitly tell more about the state of science and technology in Hellenistic Alexandria. Abdaraxos may have been so well known and respected, that it wasn't necessary to add more to let contemporary readers identify him. What mechanical devices did he build? We don't know, and maybe we never will.

More science gifts and products at Nostromics Store.

A rocket-related planetarium dome

The Von Braun Astronomical Society in Huntsville, Alabama (USA), is an active astronomy outreach and education organization named after rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. It manages a number of facilities such as a planetarium, public observatories and more. Their planetarium dome is a part of a full-scale engineering model of Saturn V, the giant rocket developed by von Braun's team that took man on the Moon in the late 1960s.

The hemispherical von Braun Planetarium dome was the protective cover of the top of a Saturn V second stage engineering model, which was used during stage shipment. The second stage of the Saturn V rocket was a cylinder 10 m wide and 24.9 m tall. Its top cover, with the same diameter as the rocket stage, was so large that, in its new life as a planetarium dome, it can accommodate several tens of people during shows.

-- Paolo Amoroso & Mauro Arpino (Nostromics), science educators - Milan, Italy

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Copyright (C) 2011 by Paolo Amoroso and Mauro Arpino