Science for Democratic Action Vol. 4 No. 2

1. hydrodynamics

1. water ballet gone awry
2. the legendary 1950s rock-n-roll group submerged under water
3. the study of the flow of fluids under various physical conditions.

2. one point safety

1. the "just say no" approach to birth control
2. a little known, but highly effective, point rule used in high school football
3. determining whether a nuclear explosion would result if any point on the conventional explosive that surrounds the fissile material were accidentally detonated.

3. supercritical mass

1. what your relatives become upon meeting your future spouse
2. CENSORED
3. a mass of fissile material which can sustain a growing chain reaction. If the chain reaction grows fast enough, an explosion results. Fissile materials are compressed to form supercritical masses in all nuclear weapons. Conventional explosives are used to initiate this process.

4. "zero yield" test

1. a weapons designer's worst nightmare
2. what your final exam looks like after an all night party
3. a nuclear test in which there is no nuclear yield. Some zero yield tests have explosion yields greater than zero but small enough to be contained in a fabricated container. Such zero yield tests can be carried out in a laboratory or building without destroying it, in contrast to the full-scale test of a nuclear weapons which cannot. Note: there is no official definition of a nuclear explosion.

5. NIF

1. National Institute of Fungus
2. An expression of excellence (i.e. niftiness) used in the San Fernando Valley (as in, don't you think my new jeans are just like totally NIF?!)
3. National Ignition Facility - a billion dollar machine in which lasers are to be used to trigger tiny thermonuclear explosions, proposed to be built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Don't scroll down here
unless you are ready to see the answers!

Comments to Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Last updated: August, 1996