Richard L Ropiequet - Revision history

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	\| birth_date = 1920		\| birth_date = 1920
	\| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, United States		\| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, United States
	\| death_date = {{death date\|2011\|4\|25\|~~mf=y~~}}		\| death_date = {{death date and age\|2011\|4\|25\|1920}}
	\| death_place = Grass Valley, California, United States		\| death_place = Grass Valley, California, United States
	\| residence = Dallas, OR, United States		\| residence = Dallas, OR, United States

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	\| image = Richard L Ropiequet 182.jpg		\| image = Richard L Ropiequet 182.jpg
	\| alt = Richard L. Ropiequet		\| alt = Richard L. Ropiequet
	\| birth_date = {{~~birth~~ date\|~~1920~~\|00\|00\|mf=y}}		\| birth_date = 1920
			\| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, United States
			\| death_date = {{death date\|2011\|4\|25\|mf=y}}
			\| death_place = Grass Valley, California, United States
	\| residence = Dallas, OR, United States		\| residence = Dallas, OR, United States
	\| nationality = USA		\| nationality = USA
			\| fields = Electronics engineering, theoretical physics
			\| workplaces = [[Tektronix]]
	\| known_for = [[Particle Physics]], [[Quantum Theory]]		\| known_for = [[Particle Physics]], [[Quantum Theory]]
	}}		}}

	Richard Lincoln Ropiequet ~~<b>Academic:</b>~~		'''Richard Lincoln Ropiequet''' (1920 – April 25, 2011) was an American electronics engineer, inventor and independent theoretical physicist. He was one of the early engineers at [[Tektronix]], where he rose to Chief Engineer and Vice President of Engineering, and later devoted his retirement to developing an independent theory of matter that he called [[Infinite Particle Physics]].

	* University of Illinois: BS, chemistry major, 1946		==Biography==
	* Navy: Electronics Technician Training, 1944-45
	* Instructor SG radar: successive 2-week courses, 1945-46
	* Post Grad, U of Wisconsin: psychology, summer 1949

	~~<b>Industry:</b>~~		Ropiequet was born in 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri, and was educated in Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1946. During the Second World War he served in the United States Navy, receiving electronics technician training in 1944–45 and subsequently teaching successive courses on SG radar as an instructor in 1945–46. He later undertook postgraduate study in psychology at the University of Wisconsin in the summer of 1949.

	* Aluminum Ore Co., E. St. Louis, Ill: routine chemical analysis, 1941-42		Ropiequet died of a stroke on April 25, 2011, in Grass Valley, California, with his family present. In addition to his engineering and scientific pursuits, he was known as a pianist, humorist, poet and gardener.
	* Douglas Aircraft, Santa Monica, CA & Oklahoma City, OK, 1942-44<br />Process engineer - chemical treatments, welding (arc, spot, & flash)
	* Firestone Plastics Co., Pottstown. PA, 1946-49<br />Product Development - formulating PVC for ease of ~~electronic bonding~~, ~~electrical-grade PVC~~, ~~phonograph record molding resins~~
	* Tektronix, ~~Inc~~, ~~Portland, OR & Beaverton, OR, 1949-1963<br />Electronics circuit design: invented wide-range linear time base, dual-trace amplifier, automatic triggering, medical electronics~~. ~~Advanced~~ to ~~Chief Engineer~~ and ~~V.P. of Engineering & CRT Research~~
	* Alta Industries, ~~Inc.~~, ~~Beaverton & Portland~~, ~~OR, Vancouver, WN, 1965-71<br />President & product inventor, plastics - loose-fill, drawer glides, novelties~~

	<b>How it All Began:</b></p> My interest in learning how to visualize the structures of particles & nuclei began in 1936, during a high school chemistry course, when valences were being explained in terms of incomplete electron shells. Those numbers, 2-8-8-18-18-32, for complete shells, seemed to have no obvious rationale, especially when drawn as concentric rings of dots around the nucleus at the center. Surely there was some <em>geometric</em> explanation for these numbers, but my teacher didn?t offered any, and the textbook seemed uninterested in this puzzle! Later, in college courses, ingenious mathematical formulas, based upon Pauli?s Exclusion Principle, were offered to explain these numbers, but these seemed more like mnemonics, rather than explanations. This unsolved problem gnawed at my subconscious throughout my thirty-year career in industry, and I followed avidly the mushrooming activity in particle and nuclear physics in science periodicals and books, always hoping to find someone who considered the why questions of physics worthy of theoretical attention. And, as you might expect, finding no one!		==Career==

	~~My interest~~ in ~~Particle & Nuclear Physics was sharpened during my spell at Tektronix, Inc~~, ~~where my work brought me in contact with Accelerator Engineers & Physicists and Nuclear Power & Bomb Physicists~~ at the ~~annual trade shows~~ in ~~New York, Chicago, Los Angeles / San Francisco & Dallas~~. ~~As I progressed up the executive ladder~~, ~~I was invited to visit the Berkeley Laboratory~~ &~~amp~~; ~~Brookhaven Accelerators~~, and ~~Arnold Engineering Labs,~~ and ~~was also invited to meet with physicists from Oak Ridge~~, ~~Los Alamos~~, and ~~Nevada test sites~~, ~~in which conferences I learned about their goals~~ &~~amp~~; ~~methods~~, and ~~instrument needs~~.		Ropiequet began his working life in industry, performing routine chemical analysis at the Aluminum Ore Co. in East St. Louis, Illinois (1941–42), and then working as a process engineer on chemical treatments and welding at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, California, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1942–44). From 1946 to 1949 he worked in product development at Firestone Plastics Co. in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, formulating PVC compounds for electronic bonding, electrical-grade PVC and phonograph-record molding resins.

	~~Infinite Particle Physics began as a flash of insight while I was reading an article~~, ~~"Photons as Hadrons"~~, ~~by Frederick V. Murphy~~ and ~~David E. Yount~~, ~~in the July 1971 issue of <em>Scientific American</em>~~. ~~This paper described experiments at~~ the ~~Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in which photons billions~~ of ~~times more energetic than visual~~-~~light photons were caused to strike targets of various metals from beryllium to uranium. Rather than being merely reflected or absorbed~~, ~~these energetic photons occasionally reacted with the various atomic nuclei~~ to ~~produce large quantities~~ of ~~pions~~. ~~This led the authors to speculate that perhaps high-energy photons took on a hadronic character~~, ~~and transmogrified~~ on ~~collision with matter into vector mesons~~, ~~which then decayed into pions within a few nuclear diameters. My reaction was that this interpretation~~, ~~while clearly justified, missed an obvious point! Perhaps what had transmogrified~~ was ~~not the impinging photon, but, rather, <em><u>space</u></em>, ''<u>itself</u>''! Perhaps space is composed of the "ingredients" of matter, and energy somehow rearranges these ingredients of space~~ to ~~produce matter. Perhaps matter is simply~~ a ~~pattern~~ of ~~distortion imposed upon~~ the ~~lattice of space, by the presence of lattice defects~~.		In late 1949 he moved to Oregon to join the fledgling [[Tektronix]], Inc., in Portland and later Beaverton, where he remained until 1963. As an electronics circuit designer he contributed to the development of a wide-range linear time base, dual-trace amplifier, automatic triggering and medical electronics, and advanced to Chief Engineer and Vice President of Engineering and CRT Research. Tektronix's first patent, awarded on June 26, 1956, was issued to Ropiequet for a method of magnifying waveforms on a cathode-ray tube and the circuit therefor. He held numerous patents in both electronics and plastics engineering.

	~~Here was the mental tickle from which this elaborate treatise has flowed~~. ~~I was too innocent of~~ the ~~history~~ of ~~particle theory at that time~~ to ~~know that~~ this ~~idea was old~~-~~hat, having been advanced~~, and ~~discarded, many times~~ in the ~~past~~. ~~But it was new~~ to ~~me and tremendously stimulating! So much so~~, ~~that I have spent all the years~~ of ~~my retirement since~~ 1971 in ~~hot pursuit~~ of ~~this mental tickle! I have outlined~~ the ~~way my theoretical ideas developed~~ in the ~~opening article~~ of this website.		After leaving Tektronix, Ropiequet founded Alta Industries, Inc., operating in Beaverton and Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington (1965–71), where he served as president and product inventor, developing plastics products such as loose-fill packaging, drawer glides and novelties.

			==Scientific contributions==

			Ropiequet traced his interest in the structure of particles and nuclei to a high-school chemistry course in 1936, in which the electron-shell numbers 2-8-8-18-18-32 were presented without any geometric rationale. He pursued this question through his three-decade industrial career, following developments in particle and nuclear physics in the scientific literature.

			According to his own account, Infinite Particle Physics originated as a flash of insight in 1971 while he was reading the article "Photons as Hadrons" by Frederick V. Murphy and David E. Yount in the July 1971 issue of ''Scientific American''. The article described experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in which high-energy photons striking metal targets occasionally reacted with atomic nuclei to produce pions, leading the authors to suggest that high-energy photons could take on a hadronic character. Ropiequet proposed instead that what was transformed on collision was space itself: that space is composed of the "ingredients" of matter, and that matter is a pattern of distortion, or lattice defect, imposed upon the lattice of space. He spent his retirement from 1971 onward developing this idea, which he later published on his website and in book form.

	==Books==		==Books==

	* 2001 - "[[Infinite Particle Physics]]" ([http://www.infiniteparticlephysics.com Read in full])		* 2001 - "[[Infinite Particle Physics]]" ([http://www.infiniteparticlephysics.com Read in full])
	* 1999 - "[[How the Microcosm Works]]"		* 1999 - "[[How the Microcosm Works]]"

			==External links==

			* [http://www.infiniteparticlephysics.com Infinite Particle Physics website]
			* [https://vintagetek.org/richard-lincoln-ropiequet/ Richard Lincoln Ropiequet at vintageTEK]

	[[Category:Scientist\|Ropiequet Richard]]		[[Category:Scientist\|Ropiequet Richard]]
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{{Infobox scientist
| name = Richard L. Ropiequet
| image = Richard L Ropiequet 182.jpg
| alt = Richard L. Ropiequet
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|00|00|mf=y}}
| residence = Dallas, OR, United States
| nationality = USA
| known_for = [[Particle Physics]], [[Quantum Theory]]
}}

Richard Lincoln Ropiequet Academic:

* University of Illinois: BS, chemistry major, 1946
* Navy: Electronics Technician Training, 1944-45
* Instructor SG radar: successive 2-week courses, 1945-46
* Post Grad, U of Wisconsin: psychology, summer 1949

Industry:

* Aluminum Ore Co., E. St. Louis, Ill: routine chemical analysis, 1941-42
* Douglas Aircraft, Santa Monica, CA & Oklahoma City, OK, 1942-44 Process engineer - chemical treatments, welding (arc, spot, & flash)
* Firestone Plastics Co., Pottstown. PA, 1946-49 Product Development - formulating PVC for ease of electronic bonding, electrical-grade PVC, phonograph record molding resins
* Tektronix, Inc, Portland, OR & Beaverton, OR, 1949-1963 Electronics circuit design: invented wide-range linear time base, dual-trace amplifier, automatic triggering, medical electronics. Advanced to Chief Engineer and V.P. of Engineering & CRT Research
* Alta Industries, Inc., Beaverton & Portland, OR, Vancouver, WN, 1965-71 President & product inventor, plastics - loose-fill, drawer glides, novelties

How it All Began: My interest in learning how to visualize the structures of particles & nuclei began in 1936, during a high school chemistry course, when valences were being explained in terms of incomplete electron shells. Those numbers, 2-8-8-18-18-32, for complete shells, seemed to have no obvious rationale, especially when drawn as concentric rings of dots around the nucleus at the center. Surely there was some geometric explanation for these numbers, but my teacher didn?t offered any, and the textbook seemed uninterested in this puzzle! Later, in college courses, ingenious mathematical formulas, based upon Pauli?s Exclusion Principle, were offered to explain these numbers, but these seemed more like mnemonics, rather than explanations. This unsolved problem gnawed at my subconscious throughout my thirty-year career in industry, and I followed avidly the mushrooming activity in particle and nuclear physics in science periodicals and books, always hoping to find someone who considered the why questions of physics worthy of theoretical attention. And, as you might expect, finding no one!

My interest in Particle & Nuclear Physics was sharpened during my spell at Tektronix, Inc, where my work brought me in contact with Accelerator Engineers & Physicists and Nuclear Power & Bomb Physicists at the annual trade shows in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles / San Francisco & Dallas. As I progressed up the executive ladder, I was invited to visit the Berkeley Laboratory & Brookhaven Accelerators, and Arnold Engineering Labs, and was also invited to meet with physicists from Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Nevada test sites, in which conferences I learned about their goals & methods, and instrument needs.

Infinite Particle Physics began as a flash of insight while I was reading an article, "Photons as Hadrons", by Frederick V. Murphy and David E. Yount, in the July 1971 issue of Scientific American. This paper described experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in which photons billions of times more energetic than visual-light photons were caused to strike targets of various metals from beryllium to uranium. Rather than being merely reflected or absorbed, these energetic photons occasionally reacted with the various atomic nuclei to produce large quantities of pions. This led the authors to speculate that perhaps high-energy photons took on a hadronic character, and transmogrified on collision with matter into vector mesons, which then decayed into pions within a few nuclear diameters. My reaction was that this interpretation, while clearly justified, missed an obvious point! Perhaps what had transmogrified was not the impinging photon, but, rather, space, ''itself''! Perhaps space is composed of the "ingredients" of matter, and energy somehow rearranges these ingredients of space to produce matter. Perhaps matter is simply a pattern of distortion imposed upon the lattice of space, by the presence of lattice defects.

Here was the mental tickle from which this elaborate treatise has flowed. I was too innocent of the history of particle theory at that time to know that this idea was old-hat, having been advanced, and discarded, many times in the past. But it was new to me and tremendously stimulating! So much so, that I have spent all the years of my retirement since 1971 in hot pursuit of this mental tickle! I have outlined the way my theoretical ideas developed in the opening article of this website.

==Books==

* 2001 - "[[Infinite Particle Physics]]" ([http://www.infiniteparticlephysics.com Read in full])
* 1999 - "[[How the Microcosm Works]]"

[[Category:Scientist]]
[[Category:Particle Physics]]