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Equations of State

Submitted by Henry Tan on
explosion engineering

An equation of state is a formula describing the interconnection between various macroscopically measurable properties of a system.

In physics and thermodynamics, an equation of state is a relation between state variables. More specifically, an equation of state is a thermodynamic equation describing the state of matter under a given set of physical conditions. It is a constitutive equation which provides a mathematical relationship between two or more state functions associated with the matter, such as its temperature, pressure, volume, or internal energy. Equations of state are useful in describing the properties of fluids, mixtures of fluids, solids, and even the interior of stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_state

USNCCM Invited Session: Stress Evolution at the Nanoscale

Submitted by Edmund B. Webb III on
conference

The U. S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics will be held in San Francisco, CA July 23-26 2007 (see link for conference below). As part of the symposium, "Modeling and Simulation of Nano Materials and Mechanics", an invited session discussing stress evolution at the nanoscale will be held. This session will foster discussion of outstanding computational challenges to understanding and predicting stress evolution during growth of materials at the nanometer length scale. Registration information for the meeting can be found via the link below.

ES 241 Advanced Elasticity Final Examination

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on
final exam
ES 241
Spring 2007
Advanced Elasticity
Spring 2009

Update on 23 May 2009:  I'm adding links to the slides as they are uploaded.

The final exam will take the form of a pedagogical workshop. We have 8 students taking the class for credit. I have divided the lecture notes into 8 parts as follows.

IBM Airgap Microprocessors enabled by self assembly (Video)

Submitted by Teng Li on
video
technology

An earlier post by Xiaohu Liu reported IBM's latest progress in microprocessors. IBM has figured out how to control and perfect the self assembly process to create trillions of tiny, nano-sized holes across a chip, which speed electrons that flow across wires inside the chip and reduce the power consumed by 15 percent.The following short video may help us understand a little bit more about the new technology. More videos, audio and images on this are available here (free, but registration needed)
Enjoy.

-Teng

We must not forget to teach the fundamentals

Submitted by MichelleLOyen on
education
universities
physics

An interesting blog discussion on the disappearance of fundamentals from teaching in Universities was brought to my attention.  It serves as an interesting reminder that we who are educators in the University system must be ever vigilent in planning mechanics curricula and changes to curriculum.  Should we be offering courses in the area of this month's jClub, "Nanomechanics"?  Should we drop classical courses that have stopped being interesting to the majority of students (and thus attract low numbers)?  Should we educate students explicitly in biomechanics without providing them a classical mechanics background?  These are the questions we are likely to face in the next few years as change continues to sweep across the university system, especialy in the US but elsewhere as well.  I believe that we as a community have a responsibility here to ensure that the high standards of the discipline are maintained through teaching of fundamentals and the passing along of these values to future generations!

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