Program
AAPT meeting Western PA
Rockwell Hall of Science
Grove City College, Grove City, PA
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Note: All presenters (except the plenary speaker) are kindly asked to limit their presentations to a little less than 15 minutes to allow adequate time for questions and equipment snafus.
AM 7:30 Registration - complimentary continental breakfast
All Day: Book displays and vendors
8:30 Welcome
Dr. Richard G. Jewell
President, Grove City College
8:45 Satellite Drag
Adam T. Brant, Scott T. Rager, Kevin D. Sobczak
Slippery Rock University
Artificial satellites orbiting Earth tend to retain their orbit for approximately one to two decades. The re-entry and destruction of these satellites is affected by atmospheric drag. This project studies the effects of atmospheric drag on Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites due to the solar cycle. A computer simulation was designed to study the effects of air density using a discrete density function and again using a continuous function. Several factors such as air density, solar activity, and temperature were accommodated for in the simulation. The code developed can predict re-boosting times to prevent destruction due to air drag during re-entry.
9:00 Changing attitudes and providing a constructivist approach to physics for future elementary teachers at Slippery Rock University
Cindy Starr Stewart
Slippery Rock University
We are changing attitudes for the better and giving our future elementary teachers a positive experience in physics. Research in Science Education has continually pointed to the hands-on constructivist approach as the best way to engage students in their own learning and to ensure long term understanding and memory of the concepts. It was a huge step to revamp our approach here at SRU, but the investment is paying off. Physics has long had a bad reputation outside the science community for being difficult and boring. The students centered classroom, team centered activities, and constructivist approach to all learning takes the professor out of the driver’s seat and puts the students in control of their own learning. With very little information giving, students arrive at the same conclusions that scientists have on topics like Newton’s laws of motion, magnetism, electricity and sound. This approach to physics education is creating future elementary teachers who are better equipped to teach hands on science at the elementary level. Fear is gone, and for the first time these students have experienced the thrill of what it is to be a scientist.
9:15 Computation of the relationship between Epicentral Distance and Arrival Times of seismic waves propagating through a radially heterogeneous Earth model
Duayne Rieger, Dr. Michael Zieg
Slippery Rock University
In this project we are, through numerical methods, computing the relationship between the epicentral distances and arrival times of seismic waves, using equations derived from fundamental laws of trigonometry and Snell’s law. The Earth model being used in this computation is radially heterogeneous in density and was constructed using data from Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) (Dziewonski & Anderson, 1981). Reasons for creating this project are to investigate the nature of seismic waves and to better understand of the use of computational and numerical methods to solve problems in the natural sciences. Preliminary results of this model are compared to observed data, and the model is shown to accurately reproduce the observations.
9:30 The Behavior of 5CB in a Confined Environment
Kevin Sobczak, Dustin R. Hemphill, Eric Hardin and Rizwan Mahmood,
Slippery Rock University
We have confined 5CB (4-Cyano-4'-Pentyl-1,1'-biphenyl), a calamitic thermotropic liquid crystal, between lamellar bilayers formed by the lyotropic lipid DDAB (diodecyldimethylammoniumbromide). DDAB bilayers are the result of a chemical incompatibility between hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecular fragments where either region can be swollen by the addition of an appropriate liquid. We have exploited this chemical segregation to insert 5CB, a hydrophobic and anisotropic molecule, between the lipid lamella. The 5CB swells the lipid bilayers acting as an appropriate swelling agent. Initial studies show that the confinement is strong enough to orient the molecules planar to the lamella; the long axis of the molecule is restricted to the lipid's lamellar plane. We are analyzing the behavior of this system through an extensive study utilizing optical microscopy, light scattering, and birefringence measurements. A fully automated system collects scattered intensity and birefringence data. The optical microscopy is used to map a phase diagram and measures birefringence of the sample that compliments our measurements obtained using automated system.
9:45 The Physics of Global Climate Change
By Rob Reiland
Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh
Some of the basic physics underlying our understanding of climate change will be explored. These will include spectroscopy of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, variations in the “solar constant,” patterns of atmospheric warming and cooling and various changes in the oceans. Effects of several forcings and feedbacks will also be indicated.
10:00 Temperature Measurements Inside a Wood-Fired Kiln
Curt Foltz
Clarion University
We obtained Temperature-versus-time graphs from several locations inside a large (5 m long) ceramics kiln, during the Art Department's April Fool's Weekend Outdoor firing - and what we have deduced(so far) about the heating process from those detailed measurements.
10:15 Promoting Electro-Optics to School Students through Hands-On Activities
Feng Zhou and Christy Heid*
Physics Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
*Currently with Chatham College
Due to the rapidly-evolving career-field of photonics/electro-optics, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) has developed an outreach program to local high schools. In addition to visiting schools to share electro-optics (EO) techniques using theme packets for hands-on activities, we invite interested students to IUP’s EO labs to participate in hands-on activities such as measuring the thickness of a human hair using laser diffraction, splicing an optical fiber, open space communication, night vision, holography, and interferometry. Many students, initially having no or very limited knowledge of this career field, have expressed an interest in a career in electro-optics through these visits.
10:30 Coffee Break
10:50 RGB, HLS, LAB, CMYK, etc.
David Groh,
Gannon University
Computer monitors and printers use three color imaging. This presentation will briefly overview ways of modeling color for monitors and printers and their limitations. CIE (International Commission on Illumination) data will be used to explain the logic behind the methods.
11:05 Invited Speaker: Entanglement for Undergraduates
Charles H. Holbrow,
Colgate University, Harvard University, and MIT.
Do you find yourself at a loss for good answers when asked basic questions like: “Where do babies come from?” or “What is entanglement?” or “How does Santa Claus climb down a 6” flue pipe?” or “Is teleportation real?” or “Why would violations of Bell’s inequalities have surprised Einstein?” Restricting myself to just three of these questions, I will show you how to use green and orange socks to explain entanglement, animation to clarify quantum teleportation, and diagrams to describe Bell’s inequalities. I will also talk about one of several experiments that Prof. E. J. Galvez has developed to help undergraduates understand the answers quantum theory gives to such questions.
PM 12:05 A Portable Vacuum Mass Spectrometer for Undergraduate Laboratory
Feng Zhou, Greg Helmininack, and Christy Heid*
Physics Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
*Currently with Chatham College
Vacuum mass spectrometry is a common analytical technique used in research and industrial environments to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. We have built a portable vacuum mass spectrometer system for an undergraduate vacuum laboratory, which includes mainly a self-contained quadrupole residual gas analyzer (RGA) module, a turbo molecular vacuum pump and a mechanical pump. The system is used to analyze trace gases, to study the background gas load, and to detect possible air leakage.
12:20 Estimation of Layer Thickness in Novel Semiconductor Quantum Wells and Super lattices
Heather Meloy*
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
*Project Advisor: Dr. Devki Talwar
An accurate knowledge of layer thickness of thin films is critical in fabrication of semiconductor devices. A theoretical procedure for calculating layer thickness, based on the optical properties of thin films, is presented. In this case, a thin ZnxCd 1-xTe layer is grown on a GaAs substrate and the layer thickness and optical properties are determined and compared to experimental results.
12:35 Lunch Break and Poster Session
2:00 Starting SCALE-UP Physics at Penn State Erie
Jonathan Hall
Penn State Erie
SCALE-UP (Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment University Programs), a program developed by Bob Beichner at North Carolina State University, was adapted for the teaching and learning of introductory calculus-based physics at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, starting in Spring 2007. When a large room became available, and with a grant from the Committee on Instructional Facilities (UCIF), a former machine shop room was converted into a SCALE-UP classroom that seats 72 students at eight large round tables. Each table is equipped with computers, each interfaced for data acquisition and analysis. A comparison of student learning in the SCALE-UP versus the traditional lecture course will be discussed, and information that may be helpful to instructors interested in exploring how and whether to change to an active learning classroom environment.
2:15 The intensity of spherical and cylindrical waves of light as a function of distance
Patrick Zapel and Hashim Yousif
University of Pitt-Bradford
2:30 Business meeting – And the “Great Give-away” (Books and Door Prizes)