Seen and heard
Weird and wonderful stories from the world of physics
Sandwich science
Physicists can be found in many walks of life and Peter Buck, who died on 18 November aged 90, was certainly someone who followed an unusual career. Following a PhD in physics at Columbia University working under the Nobel laureate Isidor Rabi, in 1957 Buck began working in the nuclear industry at General Electric. So far, so conventional. But in 1965 Buck’s life was about to change when he lent a friend $1000 to open a sandwich shop – Pete’s Super Submarines – in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Success followed, and three years later the duo renamed their shop “Subway” and turned it into a chain by franchising. As they say, the rest is history and today there are more than 37,000 Subway outlets in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2016 Forbes estimated that Buck was worth $1.7bn, some of which he used for philanthropy. He still, though, had time to eat at least five Subway sandwiches a week and, while we don’t know whether he regretted all those Meatball Marinaras, it’s unlikely he had qualms about quitting physics for fast food.
Relatively expensive
“Without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever to come to auction,” is how Christie’s described 54 pages of handwritten notes on relativity that went up for sale in late November. With an initial estimate of €2–3m, the notes were made by Einstein and his colleague Michele Besso in 1913–1914. Containing preparatory work for Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the notes concern the precession of the perihelion of Mercury’s orbit, which Einstein subsequently put forth as a test of general relativity. The manuscript contains several errors, which caused it to be abandoned, but instead of tossing it away, Besso saved it for posterity. It was fortunate he did. While Einstein’s letter about the secret to happiness went for $1.56m at auction in 2017 and his so-called “God letter” got snapped up for $2.8m a year later, this new one fetched a whooping €11.6m (£9.7m).
Snowpack physics
While some of us may be enjoying the snow at this time of year, researchers in Quebec have been working hard developing a new way to continuously track the depth of snow as it accumulates. This could be useful to protect buildings from heavy snowpack as well as predicting spring meltwater, which can trigger flooding (Remote Sens. 13 4089). Created by Anas El Alem, Karem Chokmani and colleagues at the INRS research centre, the technique involves measuring the infrared reflectance of snow lying on the ground, which the team has related to the density of the snowpack. By making regular measurements, the system can track the changes in density that occur over time and also send data via a mobile or satellite phone connection. At the very least it may help protect snow-packed roofs from collapsing when going beyond the point of, er, snow return.
Perfect skin
When snapping your fingers to the beat of your favourite tune – perhaps even protein-inspired music (see ‘A matter of sound’) – you may have missed some fascinating mechanics at play. Thankfully, though, US researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Harvey Mudd College have now studied the humble finger snap using dynamic force sensors and high-speed cameras. They found that a single snap can be performed in a blistering 7 ms, which is about one twentieth of the blink of an eye (J. R. Soc. Interface.18 20210672). The researchers also measured the angular acceleration of a snap to be 1.6 million degrees per second squared – about three times greater than the acceleration of the arm of a professional baseball pitcher. That, they claim, is the highest angular acceleration that the human body can perform. The team also looked at the role friction plays in snapping by covering fingers in various low- and high-friction materials. They suggest that there could be a “Goldilocks zone” where friction is neither too high nor too low, making our skin perfect for snapping.