On Tuesday night February 25th, the Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC) was treated to 10 high quality Power Point presentations on topics in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology during its annual Rabbi Hershel Solnica Memorial Math-Science Expo 2014.
The evening began with opening remarks from Rosh HaYashiva Rabbi Adler, who spoke of the chochma invested in the building of the Mishkan. Dr. Berman, the Expo coordinator, next read from the Rav’s novel interpretation of Avraham’s eshel and how it relates to scientific attitude. David Berger presented his work on iron oxidation. Next, the Koslowe brothers, Yehudah and Hillel, presented the mathematics behind the game “Spot It.”
This was followed by the 1st place presentation of Jacob Rosenberg on preventing damage to satellites by solar ejections. He convincingly demonstrated how simple magnets could deflect a solar wind. He modeled his approach from the earth’s protected magnetic field. Simcha Wagner and Matan Leff took 2nd place for their smooth presentation about gene transfer. Aviad Sussman and Tamir Felsen took 3rd place for their work into electron-electron repulsion and how it related to the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Yair Knoller and Jonah Ganchow related Boyle’s Law and Hooke’s Law to human lung dynamics. Ben Shelling and Ben Book developed a novel method of hydrolysis via proton seeding. A. J. Book demonstrated how the 40 malkos of the Torah are in great agreement with NASA calculations. Jeremy Rosenblatt solved the pycrete puzzle. Alexander Haberman and Aaron Respler solved a long-standing problem involving the dread of firefighters: flashover.
The judges were Mrs. Arielle Sheinbein (Chair of Sciences, YNJ), Mr. Avi Goldenberg (Esq.), and Dr. Robert Ferlauto (Director of Strategy & Best Practices, Colgate-Palmolive Co., ret.). After the presentations were over, the judges said the high quality of all the presentations made it very difficult to decide on the winners. It was a long deliberation while everyone waited anxiously.
Both Dr. Berman and Mrs. Goldenberg, the Expo co-coordinator, would like to publicly thank TABC for providing an environment where Chochmas HaShem can be so effectively studied.
By Annie Devine
