Abstracts

Article Abstract Instructions

An abstract is a summary, like a book report, of a physics-related magazine or journal article. Two or three may be assigned in a term. These must be typed. They don't need to be long; a single page, double-spaced, will do. There must be a reference section at the top of the first page that is a complete bibliographical reference. there must be at least one paragraph that summarizes the article or book. Your summary should emphasize the physics that you learned while reading the article.

[It's OK to do an abstract on a single chapter of a book, as long as it is not a high school level text book. It is also OK to do an abstract on a Internet article, if both the web address and the page owner are listed. Please do not use an encyclopedia article. Please do not do an abstract of a TV or video program. Please do not use the same book or magazine for more than two abstracts in a year.]

In addition, there should be at least one paragraph that expresses your reactions or feelings about the article. Be sure that your article teaches you something that is science, not just the economics or politics of science. Articles about science education should not be used also.

Abstracts are worth 10 assignment points. This is your opportunity to receive some credit for learning something that you want to learn about.

A proper bibliographical reference will contain the following:

• Author(s) [If none are listed, write "staff". If initials only are given, you will find the staff members' full name on the publication information page.]:
• Title:

For Print Articles, also include:

• Publisher (for books) or Publication name (name of magazine, etc.):
• Issue and Page Numbers [:
• Provider [place that you got the publication (library or store, etc.), by name]:

For Internet Articles, also include:

• Complete Internet Site Address:
• Web Site Owner:
• Date you accessed the article if no publication or posting date is provide (listed as "access date"): 

Abstract Reference Examples

 Magazine Example 

• Author:  John Bolough

• Title:  Searching for the Secrets of Gravity

• Publication:  National Geographic

• Issue:  May, 1989, pp. 563-583.

• Provider:  Father’s subscription

Internet Example 

• Author:  Robert Roy Britt

• Title:  Safety on Mars:  Spacesuits of the Future

• Website:  http://www.space.com/bbuisinesstechnoloty/technology/spacesuit_sensors_010827-1.html

• Site owner:  Imaginova Corporation

• Posting date:  27 August 2001

Book Example

• Author:  Harold Morowitz

• Title:  The Thermodynamics of Pizza

• Publisher:  Rutgers University Press, 1991, pp. 3-6.

• Provider:  Delaware County District Library

 The author starts to tell the story of lunch with a companion and how they got onto the subject of how pizza stays so hot and somehow manages to always burn the roof of your mouth.  So he decided to write an essay on the thermal physics of pizza.

 He surmises that an uncooked pizza is made of three cylindrical disks:  dough, tomato paste, and mozzarella.  “Trace materials”, commonly known as oregano and pepper, etc., factor into surface effects.  The pizza is cooked at 530K.

 Three changes occur.  First, the dough becomes bread, a low water content material with non-connecting air spaces.  Second, the tomato paste dehydrates.  Third, the mozzarella goes through protein denaturation, lipid rearrangement, and changes from liquid crystals to more disordered states.  The transitions in the cheese contribute to the high heat capacity of mozzarella.  [Next the author gives a detailed background of mozzarella.]

 After the pizza is removed form the oven, it is placed in a cardboard box and sliced without separating the slices.  The pizza is modeled as an infinite plane, so that the heat transferal problem is one dimensional and in a vector normal to the pizza’s surface.

Cardboard is a poor conductor of heat, and the bottom layer.  Next is the baked dough which  is a wonderful insulator because of the airspaces.  The tomato paste has a low conductance and a high heat capacity.  It is a “buffer” between the mozzarella and dough.

 The “MML” (melted mozzarella level) is the cause of mouth burns.  It is well insulated by the bread and cardboard layers.  Heat loss is upward towards the cardboard lid. [Note:  cardboard and air are good insulators.  The energy is lost in three processes:  radiation, convection and conduction.  The process of radiation is governed by the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth-power radiation law.  Here, the surface materials might be of importance.  At this temperature range, radiation is of secondary importance.  Convection also plays a minor role, because the air layer between the pizza and lid is so thin. 

The MML retains burning abilities because 1) MML starts at high temperatures.  2) The mozzarella layer is embedded between the insulating dough, thus losing heat very slowly. 

 I have learned from this that some people have far too much time on their hands, especially if they have spent God-knows-how-long researching the thermodynamics of pizza.  I will, next time, let my pizza sit awhile after getting it, so that it can cool.  I, too, have suffered mouth burns, but even worse, I’ve had a large welt burnt into my neck by an extremely hot mushroom.  So, I understand how hot a pizza really is, but I didn’t need an essay to convey something common sense should have told me in the first place.  It was just that this essay was far to intriguing in a horrifying kind of way.

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