dis2@houxm.UUCP (A.NESTOR) (12/09/83)
Lambda as resistance: Raleigh has quite correctly pointed out that the omega is the symbol in modern physics for electrical resistance. I should have said lambda was used as a symbol of resistance as physics developed from alchemy. The difference in movement of particles in various media has been long observed. It was thought that each medium had an inherent resistance. Attemps were made to measure this resistance, and a lambda value was given to sub- stances as a measure of their resistance to passage of particles through them. From this came refractive indices, grating equa- tions, etc. The use of lambda as a wave length developed from this earlier use of lambda. Of course most of the early experi- ments on the resistance of media were with light, so there may also be a connection with the Latin, lampa. Lambda and the Spartans: The people who first used the lambda in 1968 were certainly unaware that the lambda was connected with Sparta. Had they known that, the lambda would certainly never have been used!! While the sentiments expressed in the "LAMBDA CONNECTION" Catalog about Sparta are of the most laudable and unreproachable modern variety, they owe more to Steve Reeves movies than to the actual history and nature of Sparta. Sparta was, at least from the time of Lycurgus, a particuarly cruel military, oligarchic dictator- ship, even by the standards of the ancient world. This was cer- tainly its reputation in the ancient world as testified to by Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch. Male children unsuited for military service were exposed to death. The helots, Messenians and even other Laconians were ruthlessly supressed and destroyed. When the Athenaians committed atrocities later in the Pelopones- sian War, they were stigmatised by their allies as behaving like their enemies, the Spartans. etc., etc. The "spartan" quality of Sparta was self abnegation in subservience of what would now be called an aggressive "garrsion state". The chief admirers of Sparta in the ancient world were the equally militaristic post- republic Romans. In connection with Sparta, there has been for several years talk about Leonidas and his army of undefeatable lovers as emblematic for gay males. Certainly in 1968 during the Vietnam war, there was no enthusiasm to propogate that image! Outside a very few leather groups today, the only serious advocacy of this was by Rohmer and the brown shirts! I have seen banners reading, "An army of lovers (spelt with a lambda) cannot be defeated", at Gay Liberation Day marches. However, I doubt whether this meant as a reference to the Spartan phalanxes. It is just that the slogan nicely combines affection with menace. Creighton Clarke
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (12/11/83)
Hello Creighton Clark! Do people spell your first name as strangly as they spell my last? I have always wondered... It is a long an cherished belief of mine that the phalanx was an invention on Philip of Macedon, who is probably my favourite historical military figure. For those of you who don't know, Philip was Alexander the Great's dad. Thus the phalanx postdates the Spartans. Am I wrong? If so, what were you supposed to call the Spartan military formation? laura creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (12/11/83)
Before you all die laughing or flaming -- that should have been, if *not* not if *so* in that last article... laura creighton utcsstat!laura