i'm putting this post in this topic as i ain't if there's a better topic fer it 'n i ain't sure iffen it is worthy of a whole topic. ennybuddy got a bettor place, put it there.
American Heritage of Invention and Technology; Fall 2006/Volume 22/ Number 2; Letters; Cute Atomic Physics by John D. Fogarty, Sandy Spring, MD writes in regard to the How to Detect an Atomic Bomb (Spring 2006) that the cutie Pie’s name is derived from “The physics formula relating to its operation contains the factors q, t, and (pi , get the character here), where q is chare, t is of course time, and (pi) is 3.14159…. Pronouncing this combination suggested the term of affection.”
The editors reply: Perhaps, but Paul W. Frame, a health physicist and historian at Oak Ridge Associated Universities, has looked into this explanation and considers it “a bit fanciful and overly convoluted.” In a paper available online, Frame quotes a September 1945 report by C. O. Ballou of Clinton Laboratories, where the Cutie Pie was invented, that says: “The instrument has been named ‘Cutie “Pie’ due to its diminutive size.”
