Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 APS April Meeting
Volume 54, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, May 2–5, 2009; Denver, Colorado
Session W7: Teaching Physics and the Arts |
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Thomas Rossing, Stanford University Room: Plaza Ballroom ABC |
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
W7.00001: Teaching Physics of Music Invited Speaker: Courses in musical acoustics (physics of music) are an especially appealing way to introduce physics to students who are interested in music and entertainment but do not think they are interested in science, as well as students who are preparing to be performing musicians. Musical acoustics includes: the study of sound production by musical instruments; the transmission of sound from performer to listener (via the concert hall or via recorded media); and the perception of sound and music by the listener (psychoacoustics). We review some of the materials available for such courses, including textbooks, videotapes and DVDs, simple apparatus for demonstration experiments, and materials for laboratory experiments. It is highly recommended that such courses include a laboratory component, since students learn best by doing. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
W7.00002: Communicating Science with the Arts Invited Speaker: The arts and science offer unique ways of viewing and understanding our world; however, they are not unrelated. The connections between these seemingly disparate disciplines are numerous and may serve as vehicles for teaching many topics in science, especially optics. This paper will examine a variety of activities that may used to demonstrate linkages between optics and the arts. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
W7.00003: Dance as a Road to Science Invited Speaker: One of the challenges facing the science community is finding ways of demonstrating for non-scientists the logic and appeal of understanding how science applies to familiar phenomena. Dance movement involves many examples of physical principles that allow dancers and observers of dance to deepen their understanding of the natural world. To demonstrate the connection between science and art, we will observe a ballet dancer performing several movements which we can then analyze to illustrate why the movements are shaped the way they are and how dancers can improve their effectiveness through such analysis. One example is the \textit{tour jet\'e}, a half turn in the air during a vertical jump. The dancer's intent is to create the illusion of going up facing one direction, suddenly reversing direction while aloft, then landing. Good dancers recognize that they can most effectively create that illusion if they understand how the closeness of their legs determines their moment of inertia and hence rate of rotation. Another intriguing movement is a ``whip turn,'' a partnered \textit{pirouette} in which the woman's leg is used to store angular momentum while her partner continues to increase that momentum by applying forces to her waist. This storing of angular momentum in a leg is a principle also used in \textit{fouett\'e} turns, a common repeated \textit{pirouette} sequence. These examples, and others, many of which involve a broader range of motion than just rotation, provide the basis for observers and performers to understand how some dance movements can be carried out so effectively and beautifully! [Preview Abstract] |
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