Quantum Calorimetry

AUG 01, 1999

Novel detectors that operate at 60 millikelvin are now being used to study cosmic gas at millions of kelvin

Caroline Kilbourne Stahle

Dan McCammon

Kent D. Irwin

Your opponent’s serve was almost perfect, but you vigorously returned it beyond his outstretched racquet to win the point. Now the tennis ball sits wedged in the chain‐link fence around the court. What happened to the ball’s kinetic energy? It has gone to heat the fence, of course, and you realize that if the fence were quite a bit colder, you might be able to measure that heat and determine just how energetic your swing really was.

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References

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More about the Authors

Caroline Kilbourne Stahle. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Dan McCammon. University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Kent D. Irwin. National Institut of Standards, Technology, Boulder, Colorado.