The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

THE ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS Summer Conference, Seattle, Washington, August 15-16, 1947 A Summer Conference, supplementary to the annual meeting of the Association at San Diego in June, 1947, was held in Seattle on August 15 and 16. The Conference included three half-day sessions tor the reading of papers, which convened in Room 401, Social Sciences Building, University of Washington, in the forenoon and afternoon of Friday, August 15, and the forenoon of Saturday, August 16. A dinner session was held on Friday evening in the Meany Hotel.. PROGRAM Friday Morning Session, August 15 Land Use Levels in Boundary County, Idaho. Howard J. Crutchfif.ld, Washington State College, Pullman. Mercer Island. Robert Young, University of Washington, Seattle. The Roslyn-Cle Elum Coal Field. John O. Dart, University of Washington, Seattle. Conservation of Forests Through Multiple Use. Joseph T. Hazard, Department of Public Land, Olympia. Potato Industry of Kittitas Valley. Edward Whitley, University of Washington, Seattle. The St. Lawrence Seaway. Roger E. Erwin, University of Washington, Seattle. The Russian-Polish Borderland. Ann- Remington, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Factors Influencing Tourism in the Olympic Peninsula. Samuel C. Dashiel, University of Washington, Seattle. Friday Afternoon Session, August 15 Change in Arabia: Hadhramaut. J. Allen Tower, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama. The Location Factor in the Early Fur Trade of Astoria. Ruth E. Cross, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon. Geographical Implications of Schistosomiasis in the Yangtze Delta. Ltlliam P. Johnson, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Human Energy, Physical and Emotional, Under Varying Weather Conditions. Lucile Carlson, Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio. Abstract: The investigation of which this is a summary account was an effort to discover some of the effects exerted on human beings by daily changes in weather. The observations were made at Minot, North Dakota, between November and June. Weather observations made three times a day were obtained from the local weather station. Three aspects of energy, mental, emotional, and physical, were observed; of these only the last two are considered here. The measures of physical energy used were the Tuttle pulse ratio test, the Navy physical fitness test, and the time required for pedestrians to traverse a fixed distance. As a measure of emotional energy, the number of fights occurring on the playgrounds of six schools was used. The effects of wind speed, temperature, air pressure, and cooling power on behavior were separately subjected to statistical treatment. "Air 40Yearbook of the AssociationVol. 10 pressure" is local surface pressure, not reduced to sea level. "Cooling power" was computed from the formula (0.15+0.18VV) (98°-2), where V is wind speed in miles per hour and T is air temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. One or more experiments were made for each class of behavior under diverse weather conditions The results may be summarized as follows: Temperature. 1. Low temperature appears to stimulate physical energy and to depress emotional behavior. 2. The output ot physical energy appears to become progressively less as temperature rises. 3. Moderately low temperature causes emotions to rise. 4. At the temperatures designated by Ellsworth Huntington as the "optimum temperatures for work," emotions tend to be stable and physical output steady. Wind speed. 1. Increase in wind speed produces a parallel increase in physical energy . 2. High and low, but especially high, speed seems to intensify emotional reactions. Moderate speed seems to induce an even disposition. Cooling power. 1. Physical energy increases as cooling power rises. 2. When cooling power is either very high or very low, emotional response is heightened. 3. There is probably an optimum cooling power, between 70 and 79 degrees, for the highest expression of energy. AJr pressure.. 1. When pressure is close to the mean, emotions remain steady; as it rises above or fall below the mean, emotional behavior become markedly more intense. 2. The higher the pressure, the longer the period required for the pulse to return to normal. 3. Low or high pressure appears to be more stimulating to physical energy than does pressure near the mean. It can be predicted that as cooling power and, within limits, wind speed increase, individuals will expend more energy. As pressure becomes very high or very low, temper* and...