Yardsticks Almost Vanish As Science Seeks Precision
Reporting in the July 15 issue of the British journal Nature, Dr. Robert D. Stevenson of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Dr. Richard J. Wasserung of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, say experiments on muscle tissue have shown that animals in general are able to produce about 100 wa...
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Published in | The New York times |
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Main Author | |
Format | Newspaper Article |
Language | English |
Published |
New York, N.Y
New York Times Company
23.08.1993
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Edition | Late Edition (East Coast) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Reporting in the July 15 issue of the British journal Nature, Dr. Robert D. Stevenson of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Dr. Richard J. Wasserung of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, say experiments on muscle tissue have shown that animals in general are able to produce about 100 watts of power with a kilogram of muscle. Allowing for the fact that only certain skeletal muscles of a horse produce useful "horsepower," the scientists' calculation showed that a 600-kilogram horse should be able to produce about 18,000 watts, which is equivalent to 24 horsepower. "There are grounds for hoping that Dr. [Bryan Kibble] will reduce the uncertainty of the value of Planck's Constant to just one part in 10 to the 8th power," Dr. [Barry N. Taylor] said. "This will greatly improve the Avogadro Constant, and, we hope, it could lead to a new kilogram based on the mass of an atom." "No, not really," Dr. Taylor said. "But to improve our measuring systems we have to increase our knowledge of fundamental constants, and that is something that has a significant impact on physics. It's well worth the effort." |
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ISSN: | 0362-4331 |