Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2008 Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of SPS
Volume 53, Number 1
Thursday–Saturday, March 6–8, 2008; Corpus Christi, Texas
Session SPS2: High School and Undergraduate Student Research II |
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Chair: Wayne Kinnison, Texas A and M Kingsville Room: Omni Corpus Christi Hotel Marina Tower Riviera I |
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:00PM - 2:12PM |
SPS2.00001: A Single Mother's Perspective of How High School Students Respond to her Interaction with the Science Road Show at Northeast Texas Community College Ashley Hanson The use of SPS student participation during a science road show at local schools will be addressed. Specifically the author will address how she shared her story during a science road show and how her story relates to high school students staying focused on science, math, and school in general. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:12PM - 2:24PM |
SPS2.00002: Quality Analysis and Control Procedures for the PHENIX RPC Forward Trigger Upgrade Dillon Thomas The PHENIX detector is located at Brookhaven National Laboratory on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) ring where it studies both heavy ion and polarized proton-proton collisions. One of the primary goals of the polarized proton program is to improve our understanding of the proton's spin structure. A level 1 trigger upgrade is currently being constructed for PHENIX. This will involve the installation of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs). These new chambers will improve our abil- ity to trigger on high transverse single muons that are produced in the decay of W bosons. Before these new chambers can be installed they must pass a series of quality control tests. These simple but effective tests will be performed on internal components of the RPCs before the individual modules are assembled. These tests will yield a pass or fail result for each gas gap. All gaps that pass these tests can then be used in the construction of the RPC modules. A brief introduction to the physics and construction of RPCs, current quality procedures and tests, and current status of the RPC tent will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:24PM - 2:36PM |
SPS2.00003: Vibrational Modes on a PASCO Track Ken Taylor, Geoff Dunham, Austin Levinton, Cameron Tyler-Vann Several experiments with carts on a track in which various modes of vibration are possible are described. Systems consisting of one, two and three masses (and springs) are studied. The investigations include representative samples of resonance curves. The driving force is supplied by a PASCO harmonic oscillator/driver. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:36PM - 2:48PM |
SPS2.00004: Effect of Magnetic Dipole Moment on Magnet Forces Ken Taylor, Ian Campbell, Matthew Mirochna, Robbie Stewart This paper discusses the effect of magnetic dipole moment on the ``lifting power'' of permanent magnets and on forces between magnets. To within the precision of observations, stacking identical magnets end-to-end appears to increase the dipole moment of a magnet in direct proportion to the material length of the magnet. This convenience facilitates a wide range of experiments that can be performed with magnets to study their fields and forces. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:48PM - 3:00PM |
SPS2.00005: A Meter Stick Torsion Oscillator Ken Taylor, Chris Atieno, Shannon O'Brien, Ben Stewart This paper discusses a simple experiment in which torsion oscillations are set up in a pivoted meter stick that is balanced by a weight on one side of the axis of rotation and a stretched spring on the other side. By varying the torques applied to the mass-meter-stick-spring system, a non-conventional torsion oscillator can be studied and an expression for the effective torsion constant derived from application of Newton's second law. A rotary motion sensor serves as the axis about which the oscillating rotations occur. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 3:00PM - 3:12PM |
SPS2.00006: The Mystery of the Missing Baryons Joseph Kish In quark models the number of baryon excited states predicted depends only on the number of degrees of freedom. Simplified quark-diquark models describe all the observed resonance states considerably well. However, standard 3-quark models have additional degrees of freedom that predict a greater number of excited states than have been observed. In order to solve the mystery of the ``missing baryons'', gain a better understanding of nucleon structure/dynamics and arrive at a consistent quark model, accurate data are essential. Recent proposed upgrades to the Main Injector Particle Production experiment (MIPP) at Fermilab will facilitate baryon spectroscopy by scanning the mass region from 1.5 to 2.5 GeV/c$^{2}$ while simultaneously measuring elastic and inelastic channels such as $\pi^- p \rightarrow \pi^+ \pi^- n$ and $\pi^- p \rightarrow K^0 \Lambda$. A description of MIPP will be presented, including proposed improvements to the DAQ, lower momentum capabilities, additional plastic ball backscatter detector and upgraded veto hodoscope, as well as the theoretical motivation and expected results. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 3:12PM - 3:24PM |
SPS2.00007: Phoenix Mars Mission and the Phoenix Student Interns Program Ken Taylor, Matthew Gaba, Tony Xie Presenters of this paper will describe the Phoenix Mars Mission as participants of the Phoenix Student Interns Program (sponsored by NASA and the University of Arizona). From launch to landing and from landing to probing, the major objectives of Phoenix will be discussed. Emphasis will be placed on the various experiments that will be conducted on the Martian surface. [Preview Abstract] |
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