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From: knutsen%SRI-UNIX@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: physical laws of freeway traffic?
Message-ID: <2182@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Jun-83 15:52:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.2182
Posted: Wed Jun 15 15:52:00 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jun-83 07:40:47 EDT
Lines: 15

From:  Andrew Knutsen 

	I would think that a lot of the work done on gasses could be
applied here.  The analogy that popped into my mind was the plasma in a
tokomak, and the instabilities that form there.  Also the beam in an
intersecting storage ring accelerator, where you also have onramps and
accidents, and even maybe a fast lane where the accelerating fields are
stronger. Neither of the latter two are really very well understood though --
at a tour of SLAC PEP I learned that they rely pretty heavily on
the intuition of the operator to stablize the beam.

	The interactions between the "particles" (cars) arent as
regular as with electrons and protons, but they are there.  The force
is usually repulsive (for safety), but the "herd instinct" results in
some long-range attraction too, I think.