(TI-59) Cascade Impactor Data Reduction

[SlideRule]

An excerpt from Cascade Impactor Data Reduction with TI-59 Programmable Calculator, EPA, EPA-600/7-78-226, NOV 1978, 112 pgs.

"                                         ABSTRACT
     This report is intended to provide useful tools for obtaining particle size distributions and graded penetration data from cascade impactor measurements. The programs calculate impactor aerodynamic cut points, total mass collected by the impactor, cumulative mass fraction less than for each stage, log-normal size distribution parameters for the data, and graded penetration. These programs are written specifically for the Texas Instruments SR-52 and TI-59 programmable calculators and the PC-lOOA printer. A general discussion of the program, an example problem, program listing, and user instructions are provided for each program. …
…
                                         TI-59 PROGRAM SET
GENERAL DISCUSSION
     The TI-59 program set is contained on five cards. Four cards are used to store program instructions and the fifth card is used to store the impactor stage constants and the constants for the log-normal transformation. The Master Library Module is used as a subroutine in the data reduction program set. … "

BEST!
SlideRule

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

Very interesting. Again it shows what a blessing the appearance of programmable calculators was for the engineers and scientists of the 1970ies.

But I hope that I am not the only illiterate who had to look up what a "cascade impactor" might be ;-) (in German it is the same word by the way - Kaskadenimpaktor - but still unknown to me).
Just yesterday evening our astronomy group held it's weekly zoom meeting - real life meetings are still a couple of months away I fear - and we talked about the latest (local) discovery in astronomy/geology that the two meteorite craters in southwestern Germany, the "Nördlinger Ries" and the "Steinheimer Becken", always thought to be caused by the same asteroid breaking up into two large pieces, could actually have caused by two completely unrelated impacts about a million years apart. So I instinctively assumed that a "cascade impactor" must be an asteroid breaking up into a cascade or shower of small impactors hitting the ground... But it is not!

Regards
Max

[john gustaf stebbins]

My profession is as an industrial hygienist and so measurement of particulates in air is a common part of my work. I live in the Pacific Northwest, along the Cascade Mountain Range, and our local professional society has actually named its newsletter the Cascade Impactor.

We don't use cascade impactors as much in occupational safety these days, there are other devices that are more efficient for the sampling we do now. So I'm not converting the TI code to HP. I wrote several programs for aiding me in the field and lab when I was doing more of the hands on work.

-jgs