Harvard Project Physics pulse divider
Date: 1962-1972
Inventory Number: 2006-1-0085
Classification: Pulse Generator
Subject:
Maker: Damon Engineering, Inc. (fl. 1962 - 1972)
Maker: Harvard Project Physics (1962-1972)
User: Harvard College (founded 1636)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
without cord: 22.2 × 10.5 × 13 cm (8 3/4 × 4 1/8 × 5 1/8 in.)
Description:
Pulse divider in aluminum housing with green anodized sides.
From the Project Physics Handbook: "The Pulse Divider is a scaling circuit designed to take the output of the Geiger-Muller tube and scale it down so that students can count the output pulses conveniently, thus measuring radioactivity with very high count rates. As a radioactive sample decays, the count-dividing factor can be changed from - 100 to -10 to 1, allowing optimum counting rates throughout many half-lives."
From the Project Physics Handbook: "The Pulse Divider is a scaling circuit designed to take the output of the Geiger-Muller tube and scale it down so that students can count the output pulses conveniently, thus measuring radioactivity with very high count rates. As a radioactive sample decays, the count-dividing factor can be changed from - 100 to -10 to 1, allowing optimum counting rates throughout many half-lives."
In Collection(s)
Signedon face: [crossed-ovals logo] DAMON
on face: Project Physics
on face: Project Physics
Inscribedon face: Pulse Divider
Historical AttributesThis apparatus was designed to be used with Project Physics, a national physics curriculum developed in the 1960s. Project Physics materials included teaching aids, apparatus for student experiments, and books.
The Project Physics Course grew out of a Harvard University initiative to teach all students physics, not just those who would go on to careers in science. The course aimed to be a "humanistically oriented" introduction to "science at its best."
Damon Engineering produced and marketed a set of Project Physics laboratory equipment in coordination with the curricular work of Harvard physics professor Gerald Holton, California high school science teacher F. James Rutherford, and Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Fletcher G. Watson.
The Project Physics Course grew out of a Harvard University initiative to teach all students physics, not just those who would go on to careers in science. The course aimed to be a "humanistically oriented" introduction to "science at its best."
Damon Engineering produced and marketed a set of Project Physics laboratory equipment in coordination with the curricular work of Harvard physics professor Gerald Holton, California high school science teacher F. James Rutherford, and Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Fletcher G. Watson.
Primary SourcesThe Project Physics Collection of course books is archived online here.
Linda J. Greenhouse, "Gerald Holton: The Discovery That Scientists Are Also Philosophers Should Not Depend On Accidents," The Harvard Crimson, December 12, 1966; found online here.
Linda J. Greenhouse, "Gerald Holton: The Discovery That Scientists Are Also Philosophers Should Not Depend On Accidents," The Harvard Crimson, December 12, 1966; found online here.
ProvenanceScience Center Physics Lab