Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2005 Ohio Sections of the APS and AAPT Joint Fall Meeting
Friday–Saturday, October 14–15, 2005; Cleveland, OH
Session D4: Physics Education |
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Chair: James Lock Room: Cleveland State University Auditorium |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:30AM - 9:42AM |
D4.00001: Building a College or School Observatory Roger Knacke, Darren Williams, Jionathan Hall An astronomical observatory at a college or high school can greatly enhance astronomy, physics, and earth science programs. It offers a way for scientists to reach out to the public, and bring visibility and excitement to science. We've recently built an astronomical observatory at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, with a generous gift from the Robert Mehalso family. Our experience may be useful to others who are considering construction of astronomical facilities. We will discuss choice of telescopes and observatory dome, selection of an observatory site, cameras, costs, and outreach opportunities. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:42AM - 9:54AM |
D4.00002: Writing in physics: what we know and where we're going Dedra Demaree, Catherine Gubernatis, Gordon Aubrecht, Lars Schweidenback, Scott Franklin, Lisa Hermsen Members from both the Physics and English departments at the Ohio State University and Rochester Institute of Technology are involved in an ongoing study addressing issues related to writing activities in the physics classroom. Historically writing in the disciplines is assumed beneficial, but most published papers fail to show a clear link between writing and improved conceptual understanding within a discipline. This study challenges this assumption, and attempts to address specific questions to understand how writing may be beneficial and which writing activities aid learning. Among the questions we ask are: what are students thinking when they write? Does writing about content help a student understand what they know? Does explicit writing instruction improve physics content? Does writing about physics aid conceptual understanding? This talk will describe what we have found thus far and give a preview of our current projects. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:54AM - 10:06AM |
D4.00003: Elementary laboratory for determination of the Faraday rotation in Rubidium-85 vapor Brian Hamilton, Brandon Latronica, Michael Crescimanno The Faraday effect is the optical rotation of the polarization of light in passing through an amorphous material partially ordered by an external (usually magnetic) field [1]. For small fields and low light intensities this rotation is nearly linear with the applied magnetic field and was first observed in metalic vapors more than 100 years ago by Macaluso and Corbino [2]. The non-linear relatives of this effect figure prominently in the modern designs of high sensitivity magnetometers [3]. We describe the construction and and data from a minimally expensive, student-friendly version of that original experiment. Features of our implementation include a very low cost linux data aquisition system, ``found'' optical elements and the reuse of an anisotropic magnetoresistance sensor (from a non-functioning disk drive). \newline [1] Faraday, M., 1846, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London XIX, Faraday, M., 1846, Philos. Mag. 28, 294., Faraday, M., 1855, Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. III (Taylor, London). \newline [2] D. Macaluso and O. M. Corbino, Nuovo Cimento, 8, 257 (1898), ibid, 9, 384 (1899). \newline [3] See for example, ``Nonlinear Electro- and Magneto-Optic Effects related to Bennett Structures,'' by D. Budker, D. F. Kimball, S. M. Rochester, and V. V. Yashchuk, to be published. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 10:06AM - 10:18AM |
D4.00004: The appearance, apparent speed, and removal of optical effects for relativistically moving objects R.J. Deissler Since various parts of an object are different distances from an observer, and light takes a finite time to reach the observer, the appearance of a relativistically moving object will be very different from that given by the Lorentz contraction. Therefore, when teaching the subject of special relativity, it is important to stress that {\it measurement} and {\it observation} are the appropriate words to use in describing length contraction -- {\bf not} ``see'' and ``appear.'' I derive equations that can be applied to a photographic image so that the Lorentz contraction can still be observed. I give equations that quantify the apparent deformation of the object and give the apparent speed of the object as a function of time. I also derive equations that can be applied to photographic images to show how a relativistically moving image will appear and apply them to photographic images. For contact and other information please visit http://deissler.us. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 10:18AM - 10:30AM |
D4.00005: Assessment of using in-class polling system in lectures Pengfei Li, Neville Reay, Lei Bao This abstract was not submitted electronically. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 15, 2005 10:30AM - 10:42AM |
D4.00006: Orbiting in Electromagnetic Scattering by a Luneburg Lens James Lock A Luneburg lens is a sphere whose radial refractive index profile causes an incident plane wave to focus either on the sphere's back surface or somewhere inside it. Electromagnetic scattering of a plane wave by a Luneburg lens exhibits the semi-classical phenomenon of orbiting which will be examined in the context of ray theory, the physical optics model, and Mie theory. [Preview Abstract] |
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