Horace M. Trent

Horace Maynard Trent (December 20, 1907 – December 16, 1964) was an American physicist best known for being part of the team that found that the crack of a bullwhip was actually a sonic boom. He is also the author of the currently accepted force-current analogy in physics known as the Trent analogy.

Education and early career Trent was born in Bradley County, Tennessee to his mother Lida L. Trent. His early years were spent on a family farm with his mother and sister, Jean. He earned his bachelor's degree from Berea College in 1929. By 1930 he was living with his mother in Starkville, Mississippi in a boarding house. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University where his thesis was on diaphragmless microphones. While working on his degrees he served on the faculties of Indiana University, Mississippi State, and Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College While at MSU he became the faculty advisor for the Sigma Pi colony there and he was initiated into the organization when the colony became a chapter. In 1935 he was promoted to assistant professor and then to associate professor two years later.

In 1955 Trent wrote what is now called the Trent analogy to describe a power conjugate pair using through and across variables in linear graph form. Although he was not the first person to use the through and across variables, his work is still regarded as the modern understanding of through and across.

Trent was also noted for his activities in the field of standardization. He served as the US Navy's Project Officer for Mechanical Shock and Vibration, was a member of the Tripartite (American, British, Canadian) Standardization committee, and was a member of the International Organization for Standards on the ISO/TC 37 committee.

Other work He served on the editorial boards for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and the Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics. He was also a member of the Cosmos Club.

He also held nine patent in such fields as underwater sound and mechanics.