Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2012 Annual Fall Meeting of the APS Prairie Section
Volume 57, Number 14
Thursday–Saturday, November 8–10, 2012; Lawrence, Kansas
Session H2: Multidisciplinary Research |
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Chair: Chris Fischer, University of Kansas Room: Oread Hotel Griffith Room |
Saturday, November 10, 2012 10:00AM - 10:12AM |
H2.00001: Cooking DNA with muons Michael Murray, Adrian Melott, Chistopher Fisher Given the rate of nearby supernovae, the Earth must have been repeatedly bombarded with intense cosmic ray showers. There are major gaps in understanding the radiation impact of such an event, particularly the effect of several orders of magnitude increase in the muon flux on the ground. As muons are not an important part of the impact of conventional terrestrial radiation sources, almost no work has been done on their effects on biological molecules. This will be remedied by experimental studies of muon flux at accelerators on DNA. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 10, 2012 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
H2.00002: Physics-inspired techniques for segmenting human self-reported weight loss time series David Mertens, Julia Poncela Casasnovas, Bonnie Spring, L.A.N. Amaral Using techniques from statistical physics, physicists have modeled and analyzed human phenoma varying from academic citation rates to disease spreading to vehicular traffic jams. The last decade's explosion of digital information and the growing ubiquity of smartphones has led to a wealth of human self-reported data. Unfortunately, the medical community has traditionally eschewed self-reported data due to concerns about dishonesty and the complexities of analyzing data that exhibits non-uniform sampling and statistically significant but physically insignificant correlations. How do we move beyond summary statistics? In this talk I present our physically motivated techniques for segmenting and characterizing individual human weight loss time series and contrast them with more traditional statistically and algorithmically motivated techniques. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 10, 2012 10:24AM - 10:36AM |
H2.00003: In the Blink of an Eye: Seeing Mathematics through High-Speed Imagery Michael Sostarecz In this talk, we share how high-speed imagery can be used to illustrate mathematical concepts in the classroom and serve as the inspiration for student projects in mathematical modeling. Through comparisons with analytic solutions or numerical simulations of differential equations, we are able to see when a model is an accurate description of the experiment or if revisions to the model need to take place. Examples will be drawn from experiments in projectile motion, harmonic oscillators, and fluid dynamics. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 10, 2012 10:36AM - 10:48AM |
H2.00004: Experimental and Numerical Explorations of Water Bottle Rockets Brandon Kemerling, Tim Stiles, Michael Sostarecz The simple set up of a 2-liter soda bottle partially filled with water and pressurized air can produce launches with velocities over 100 m/s in less than one tenth of a second. This project used high-speed imagery and tracking software to experimentally determine the position and velocity versus time profile. This study varies the initial air pressure and the water volume of the bottle rockets across a range of pressures from 2.0 to 8.0 times atmospheric pressure and volumes from only compressed air in the bottle to 1700 mL of water in the bottle. The results are consistent with models that include the use of Euler's Equation to model the exit velocity of the water relative to the rocket. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 10, 2012 10:48AM - 11:00AM |
H2.00005: Evaluation of the Xbox Kinect Sensor for Three-Dimensional Positional Data Acquisition Jorge Ballester, Chuck Pheatt Microsoft introduced the Kinect sensor in November 2010 as an add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 video game system. The sensor unit is designed to be positioned above or below a video display and to track player body and hand movements in three-dimensional space, which allows users to interact with the Xbox 360. The device contains a RGB camera, depth sensor, IR light source, three-axis accelerometer and multi-array microphone, as well as supporting hardware that allows the unit to output sensor information to an external device. In this presentation the authors evaluate the capabilities of a stand-alone Kinect sensor as a three-dimensional data acquisition platform for use in physics experimentation. Positional data obtained for a simple pendulum, a spherical pendulum, a projectile and a bouncing basketball will be presented. The expected uncertainty in positional data obtained from the Kinect sensor as well as the authors' graphical interface will also be discussed. Overall, the Kinect is found to be both qualitatively and quantitatively useful as a motion data acquisition device in the physics lab. [Preview Abstract] |
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