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Article

Congressional interactions at very small impact parameter

DEC 01, 1976
A Scientist Fellow, sponsored by The American Physical Society, evaluates his one‐year term in the Washington maze as adviser, legislative aide and handyman.
Paul Horwitz

THIS IS A REPORT to the members of The American Physical Society on some recent data obtained from the ongoing Congressional Fellow Deep Inelastic Scattering Experiment. This experiment, which was initiated by the APS and other scientific and engineering societies three years ago, represents a first attempt to probe the nature of the US Congress. The concept is very simple: a strongly focused beam of high‐energy Congressional Fellows is directed at the Congress and allowed to interact. An analysis is then made of the final state of the system (which may be either a free Fellow or a bound Fellow‐Congress pair) and, in this way, insight is gained into the nature of the unknown scattering center and its interactions. A more ambitious goal is to learn to use and perhaps even modify these interactions for some practical purpose—this goal is still a long way off, and at present very little is known about the fundamental nature of either the Congress or that larger entity of which it is a part, the Federal Government.

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More about the authors

Paul Horwitz, Avco Everett Research Laboratory.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 29, Number 12

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