Physics

Emeritus Associate Professor of Physics

 

After retiring from full-time teaching in 1997 I continued the May Term course, created in 1979, Physics 239 - Problems of Nuclear Disarmament, until 2012. Others now continue that course. I could not have taught that course over that many years, repeatedly going over such disturbing material, if I was not an optimist, and if in spite of it all, I didn't enjoy the classroom encounters and think that students found the knowledge gained, valuable, and sometimes, believe it or not, fun. The material related to the course's Global Diversity flag credit can be a pleasant experience for all students.

The IWU Magazine (Winter 2005) has a highly readable article "Nuclear Options" by Nancy Steele Brokaw '71  that presents Professor Wilson's work in this area.:  https://www.iwu.edu/magazine/2005/winter/nuclear_winter05.html

Hiroshima Panoramas:   https://sun.iwu.edu/~rwilson/hiroshima/

Professor Wilson's web page (including a link to his book, Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and
A Workable Moral Strategy for Achieving and Preserving World Peace)

Atomic Bomb Museum Web site
http://www.atomicbombmuseum.org/

A Workable Moral Strategy for Achieving and Preserving World Peace: It has become clear that nuclear weapons are only a symptom of an all-pervasive malignancy of the spirit of the world and of humankind. Some Japanese have an expression for this period of human history in which we find ourselves; they call it “the era of nuclear madness.” We propose here a workable moral strategy that would put “everyone” back to work; bring peace and stability; end war-sacrificed lives; and ensure corporate profits, growth, and cooperation; and would allow people to return to peaceful opportunity-laden homelands.

Paper presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Peace Research Association (CPRA), at the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan. Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and A Workable Moral Strategy for Achieving and Preserving World Peace

 

The Nuclear Weapons Dot Chart. Did we have enough?
To be shared with the Public
Note the date on this included chart is 1982.
There are qualitative inaccuracies in the "nuclear dot chart" but they have little meaning for the point the chart tries to make.
One dot represents the total combined firepower used in WWII. That is often expressed as million tons of TNT, i.e. 3 megatons. There are now megaton size nuclear bombs. The Hiroshima bomb was the equivalent of about 16 thousand tons of TNT, 16 kilotons.
READ THE FOLLOWING DOT CHART, page 1 and 2.
THEN LISTEN TO THE DOT CHART via THE VIDEO. Close your eyes; you don't need to watch it. (I was preparing for a trip and did not wish to take “the equipment” with me, hence the video.)

Video URL	Caption	Width - defaults to 340px	Align (left, center, right) defaults right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_FafC2lgQo	Professor Ray Wilson - BB demo	340	right

Each BB, 3 Megatons, a WWII.
Listen.
Did we have enough?