Science: Radar

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Microwaves are still a largely mysterious phenomenon. They flow through a pipe like water, are reflected by the human body, can be "modulated" to carry sound or pictures. Thus microwaves make it possible to point a beam at someone miles away and talk to him privately, or to broadcast television or movies via relay towers or relaying planes (see RADIO).

Most exciting of all to academic scientists is radar's miraculous precision in measuring time. Men can now count time in millionths of a second, and scientists are sure that important new discoveries about man's universe—from atoms to stars—will follow. Some of them already dream of bouncing a radar echo off the moon.

-The man who coined the word "radar" (for Radio Detection and Ranging) was, according to the Navy, Commander (now Captain) S. M. Tucker.

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