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This short paper offers a convenient method for determining the smallest interval of integration on the convolution integral. Two functions to be convolved are described, analytically, with the aid of step functions. These functions are then substituted into the general form of the convolution integral, and the integrand containing the step functions is interpreted to find the limits. The paper contains a table listing possible combinations of functions to be convolved and the resulting limits on the integral.

During a session of the first Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, a panel discussion dealt with approaches to nonconventional energy conversion education. This short paper covers the contribution of this author. It is realized that these topics should be covered during university studies; however, the question of where in a curriculum, or when during a student's university career formal courses should be offered, has not yet been answered. The author suggests that only a small number of engineers are needed in this area, and that there is really no space in any undergraduate curriculum to give these topics the amount of time they require. Accordingly, the place for such studies is on the graduate level, at the very few universities which can expect to interest a sufficiently large number of students in order to develop and carry on a specialized program in an economical way.

A majority of textbooks on antennas neglect to show the use of the dispersion diagram in explaining the properties of a helical antenna. This short paper shows that the region of operation of an axial-mode helical antenna can be easily located on the dispersion diagram. The close relationship between the dispersion diagram as evaluated by Klock and the theory of operation of the helical antenna given earlier by Kraus is also demonstrated.