The Next Big Idea 10 concepts that could - University of Toronto ...

Leading Edge
The Fallen
Three years ago, unhappy with
Canada’s role in the Afghanistan
war, artist Joanne Tod set herself
a grim task: she would paint a
portrait of every Canadian soldier
who died in the conflict.
The decision reflected her own
mixed feelings about the war. On
the one hand, Tod, who lectures in
U of T’s visual studies department,
wanted to honour the individuals
who had lost their lives. But as a
“staunch pacifist” she also strongly
opposed Canada’s involvement.
The result is “Oh, Canada –
A Lament” – a series of 121 sixby-five-inch
portraits painted on
birch ply and mounted on a freestanding
wall among segments of
a Canadian flag. Tod says the
fractured flag, which appears to
have been blown into pieces,
symbolizes a “weakened state.”
The Canadian Heritage Warplane
Museum in Mount Hope,
Ontario, displayed “Oh, Canada –
A Lament” between June and
November. Tod hopes that a philanthropist
will buy the piece for a
museum – in which case, she says,
she would donate the proceeds
to a fund for families of soldiers
who lost their lives.
– Scott Anderson
Iciclology 101 Most icicles have the same carrot
shape. But differences in temperature, wind conditions
and water composition affect their final form
One morning in January of 1998, residents of eastern Ontario and
southern Quebec awoke to find their world covered in ice.
Icicles hung from everything – homes, trees, electrical wires –
and more than a million people were left without power.
Physics professor Stephen Morris is not interested in the
atmospheric conditions that caused the ice storm, but is
intrigued by the spectacular results – the icicles themselves.
Are there physical laws that cause them to take the shape they
do And are all icicles the same
Morris is attempting to answer these questions in a chilly,
closet-sized laboratory in McLennan Physical Labs. His
interest in the subject is not purely whimsical. He points out
that it’s important to know how ice forms on surfaces such
as airplane wings, and says the physics behind icicle formation
can be applied to other phenomena, such as how roads
get ripples and how stalactites form in caves.
In his lab, Morris and PhD student Antony Chen tested a
mathematical model for the ideal or Platonic icicle (as theorists
call it), an elegant set of formulas that predicts a universal shape
for all icicles. Using a machine with a central rotating dowel,
they created icicles and photographed them as they formed over
10-hour stretches.
While most icicles are carrot-shaped and some are very
close to the Platonic ideal, Morris and Chen found that differences
in temperature, wind conditions and water composition
affect their final form. Curiously, icicles grown in perfectly still
air split at their tips, and water impurities can cause asymmetrical
lumps.
While the wide variety of icicle shapes they created was
surprising, the physicists took greater interest in the mathematical
aspects of the problem and the motion of ripples that form
on the icicles’ surface. Morris added that theories about the
patterns that emerged can be applied in fields as diverse as
economics and, yes, weather. – Daniel Baird
To watch a video of Morris and Chen’s icicle experiments, visit
www.magazine.utoronto.ca.
photo: Michael Cullen, Trent Photographics
24 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA