Opinion: If STEM is good, then STEAM is even better

Dear Editor,

A good high school curriculum is designed to prepare students for college. It will give them an introduction to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The acronym STEM is derived from these four disciplines. If you add agriculture / arts to the four above, you can change STEM to STEAM. If STEM is good, then STEAM is even better. 

Until about 70 years ago steam supplied the power to move trains and ships around the world. Now I think it is appropriate to review what steam really is. When you heat water in your teakettle you will hear a whistle when steam forms and rushes out through a small opening. The steam itself is an invisible gas. What you see is a cloud of water vapor, formed when the steam condenses. Steam is the gaseous state of water. 

Ice is the solid state. The gas naturally expands into the atmosphere and condenses into water. If the gas is confined to a small space such as your teakettle, it will still expand, but as it does it will exert pressure on all surfaces. 

It is this steam pressure that was so useful when properly harnessed and controlled. In a steam engine, the confining surfaces are the walls and one end of a cylinder, and a piston. The steam exerts pressure to the piston, causing it to move to the other end of the cylinder. Then the steam is allowed to enter that end of the cylinder and the pressure pushes the piston back to its first position. The mechanical linkage of the engine does two things. It alternates the steam between opposite ends of the cylinder. It also changes the straight line back and forth motion of the piston in the cylinder to the circular motion of the wheel. 

In the case of a locomotive, that wheel was on the track and the train moved. 

Sincerely,

Karl Tiemann 

Owego, N.Y.