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University Daily Kansan Thursday, April 4,1963
Strassenburg Sees No Need For Physics, Engineering Split
There is no reason for the dichotomy between physics and engineering, A. A. Strassenburg, associate professor of physics, said yesterday at the Faculty Forum.
Strassenburg, speaking on "The Role of Physics in Modern Society," discussed primarily the relationship between physics and engineering.
HE FIRST mentioned two points made by Ross McKinney, professor of civil engineering, at the preceding Faculty Forum:
- Engineering has fallen behind in relation to science, has become too conservative. It needs to be revitalized by making use of recent knowledge. (Strassenburg agreed with this point.)
- Engineers, in the process of revitalization, need to maintain a distinct identity by finding and inductinating those dedicated to an "engineering approach."
Strassenburg disagreed with the second point, saying that it is good that the distinction between science and engineering is disappearing.
"It PROMISES better future technological progress as the boundary between finding and using facts vanishes. The role of the physicist, then, is not only to provide an understanding of the physical world, but also to provide leadership in our technological growth," he said.
He pointed out that physicists are increasingly needing engineering skills and knowledge of what is feasible, and that engineers are increasingly finding that to keep abreast of modern practice, they must know more modern science.
ENGINEERING as a major profession, Strassenburg said, was developed during the industrial revolution. The theories then used by engineers were already known — most of the important facts of classical physics had been discovered.
This knowledge included Newton's laws of mechanics, Young's laws of optics, Dalton's molecular theory, the knowledge of heat and energy worked out by Mayer and Joule, Gibbs' work with thermodynamics, and the work of Faraday and Maxwell on electricity and magnetism, Strassenen said.
THEN CAME A short fallow period for physicists at the end of the nineteenth century, when they became smug. They thought they knew almost all there was to know about the world and that all they had to do was tie up the loose ends, Strassenburg said. Meanwhile, engineers were developing their skills rapidly.
Humanities Forum Set For April 16
Wilson Martins, visiting associate professor of Brazilian and French literatures, will speak on "French-Brazilian Cultural Relations" at the Humanities Forum April 16.
Prof. Martins, who is the author of three books on literary criticism and history, is a professor of French literature at the Universidade de Parana, Curitiba, Brazil. He is also a literary critic for Brazil's leading newspaper, O Estado de S Paule.
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Then, while engineers rested on their successes, physicists discovered many new, unexplainable phenomena. Here came the distinction between classical and modern physics. (Classical physics describes the properties and principles of microscopic interactions: modern physics describes sub-atomic activities.)
IN HIS NOTES, Strassenburg said, "At first it may have seemed that the new physics was too far removed from practical problems to be useful. Atomic power and other recent developments such as application of solid state principles to development of the transistor and other devices have proved otherwise."
When engineers realized the implications of modern physics for engineering, they wished to use principles which were not all thoroughly understood. They then began to take part in fact finding and theory construction themselves.
Simultaneously, physicists found an increased need for engineering skills for manipulation of large equipment and for designing complex equipment.
"BECAUSE OF the things physicists want to do, engineers are involved in unusual projects . . . the physicists have actually led the engineers into this activity." Strassenburg said. "... Physicists are urged to become engineers. . . ."
The kinds of people needed for systems engineering, or systems control, are people who have been trained broadly, who can see the over-all picture. "It seems physicists . . . are drawn more and more to be engineers, and on the other side of the coin, engineers are drawn more and more to be psysicists," he said.
"I see more and more engineers in physical sciences, and more and more physical scientists in engineering, and I see this as a benefit to both."
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Council to Study Sex Education
Problems of sex education in the schools will be studied at a public conference of the Kansas School Health Advisory Council April 25 in Emporia.
Cloy S. Hobson, professor of education at KU and council chairman, said school administrators, supervisors, teachers, parents, school board members and others responsible for making and accepting curriculum are invited to attend the meeting.
"MANY FACTORS, some of long duration and some of recent origin, have combined to create situations which make the offering of sex education in the schools particularly urgent today," Prof. Hobson said. These situations will be reviewed at the conference in order to understand the need for sex education, he said.
Descriptions of some "relatively successful experiences" with sex
education in the schools also will constitute part of the conference, Prof. Hobson continued.
The meeting is open to all interested persons. It will be held on the campus of Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia.
THE KANSAS School Health Advisory Council, is made up of 30 state organizations and agencies interested in school health.
Besides Prof. Hobson, program planning committee members are Dr. Evalyn Gendel of the State Board of Health, Topeka; Dr. Carl Knox, of Lawrence, representing the Kansas Association of School Administrators, and Carl Haney of the State Department of Public Instruction, Topeka.
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