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1. (5 points) Summarize the following text in approximately 150 words.

(C.G. Rossby (1940). Planetary flow patterns in the atmosphere. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 66, Suppl., 68-97)

The general purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors which determine the character of the
prevailing flow patterns in the atmosphere, and in particular to bring out the conditions under which
these flow patterns tend to remain stationary or to change.[. . . ] The ordinary gradient wind equation
gives no clue to the interpretation of the horizontal pressure distributions (flow patterns) observed in
the atmosphere. In particular, it leaves unanswered two basic questions, viz:

(a) Do certain preferred flow patterns exist which are more readily established than others?
(b) When will arbitrarily prescribed flow pattern tend to remain stationary and when will it change or
move?

The gradient wind equation is unable to help us answer these questions since it is always possible
to find a theoretical wind blowing along the isobars and of such speed that the corresponding de-
flecting and centrifugal forces precisely balance the horizontal pressure gradient. If, however, the
resulting gradient wind field is studied with the aid of the equation of continuity, regions of horizontal
convergence or divergence (pressure rise or pressure drop) will appear, indicating movements of or
intensity changes in the initially observed pressure system.[. . . ] The method does, however, suffer
from some weakness. The most obvious is the assumption that gradient wind equilibrium prevails
even though the systems studied generally are nonstationary. It is well known that in case of rapidly
moving systems the neglected acceleration terms may reach the same order of magnitude as the
centrifugal and deflecting forces.[. . . ] The second and more basic objection to the procedure lies in
the fact that it erroneously implies that the displacements of the observed flow patterns are caused
by the isobaric systems resulting from the horizontal convergences and divergences associated with
the initial gradient wind distribution. [. . . ]
In a barotropic atmosphere it is possible to eliminate the pressure between the two equations gov-
erning the horizontal components of motion. The resulting equation expresses the fact that vertical
atmospheric columns, moving across the surface of the earth, must preserve their individual abso-
lute vorticity after allowance has been made for such vorticity changes as may result from horizontal
shrinking or stretching.
 The absolute vorticity is made up of a vorticity relative to the rotating earth [ζ] and of the vorticity of
the earth’s own rotation around the vertical [f ]. Since the latter factor varies with latitude it follows that
the relative vorticity of a moving column must vary in a definite fashion with latitude. This variation
in turn imposes certain restrictions on the radius of curvature of the trajectory described by the
column. It follows that under steady or nearly steady conditions certain preferred flow patterns are
established, merely as the result of the prescribed variation with latitude of relative vorticity. [. . . ] If
the atmosphere consists of a finite number of layers of constant potential temperature, each having
a finite thickness and moving adiabatically and all of them arranged in stable position so that the
potential temperature increases from one layer to the one next above, then the equations of motion
change into
du ∂π
= fv −
dt ∂x
dv ∂π
= −f u −
dt ∂y

(π = cp T , cp =specific heat; T =absolute temperature) and the equation of continuity into

 
d∆ ∂u ∂v
= −∆ +
dt ∂x ∂y

where ∆ now measures the weight per unit cross-section of an individual vertical air column of the
layer in question, expressed as the difference between the bottom and the top of the column. [. . . ]
Integration [. . . ] gives[. . . ]
∆ − ∆0
ζ = ζ0 + (f0 − f ) + (f0 + ζ0 )
∆0
[. . . ] the relative vorticity of a fluid column at any time is equal to the sum of 1) the initial vorticity of
the column, 2) a term (f0 − f ) representing gain in relative vorticity due to displacements along the
meridians and 3) a term representing gain due to vertical stretching.

2. (5 points) Translate the following text into Spanish.

(E.P. Wigner, Group theory and its applications to the quantum mechanics of atomic spectra. Academic
Press, New York and London, 1959)

4. The elements of Quantum Mechanics

In the years before 1925 the development of the then new “Quantum Mechanics” was directed pri-
marily toward the determination of the energy of stationary states, i.e., toward the calculation of the
energy levels.
An idea of W. Heisenberg, which attempted a precise statement of the Bohr correspondence prin-
ciple, corrected this defficiency. It was proposed independently by M. Born and P. Jordan, and by
P.A.M. Dirac. Its essence is the requirement that only motions which later would be seen as quantum
mechanically allowed motions should occur in the calculation. In carrying through this idea these
authors were led to introduce matrices with infinite number of rows and columns as a formal repre-
sentation of position and momentum coordinates, and formal calculations with “q-numbers” obeying
the associative but not the commutative law.
Thus, for example, the equation for the energy H of the linear oscillator1
1 2 K 2
H= p + q (1)
2m 2
1
The m is the mass of the oscillating particle, and K the force constant; q and p are the position and momentum coordinates.
is obtained by formally substituting the matrices p and q for the momentum and position coordinates
p and q in the Hamiltonian formulation of the classical expression for the energy. It is required that H
be a diagonal matrix. The diagonal terms H nn then give the possible energy values, the stationary
levels of the system. On the other hand, the absolute squares of elements q nk of the matrix q are
proportional to the probability of a spontaneous transition from a state with energy H nn to one with
energy H kk . They give, therefore, the intensity of the line with frequency ω = H nn −H~
kk
. All of this
follows from the same considerations which suggest the introduction of matrices for p and q.
In order to specify the problem completely, one had still to introduce a “commutation relation” between
p and q. This was assumed to be
~
pq − qp = 1 (2)
i
where ~ is Planck’s constant divided by 2π.