Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2017
Volume 62, Number 4
Monday–Friday, March 13–17, 2017; New Orleans, Louisiana
Session B39: Puzzles, History, and Reality TV; Physics Beyond the ClassroomOutreach Undergraduate
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Sponsoring Units: FOEP FHP FED Room: 386 |
Monday, March 13, 2017 11:15AM - 11:27AM |
B39.00001: James Franck and the 1919 Discovery of Metastable States Clayton Gearhart Today physicists associate metastable states in atoms with theoretical selection rules and transition probabilities. But these states were first discovered experimentally, at a time when such theories were in their infancy. In 1914, James Franck and Gustav Hertz published their experiments on inelastic collisions of slow electrons with helium and mercury vapor atoms. Famously, they thought they were measuring ionization energies, and not, as we understand it today, excitation energies. During the Great War, experimentalists in North America showed that Franck and Hertz had not seen ionization, and also measured the correct ionization energy of mercury vapor atoms. As Franck resumed work after the war, he and his associates at Fritz Haber's Institute for Physical Chemistry returned to experiments on and theoretical analyses of the collisions of slow electrons with helium atoms, in brisk competition with others in England and America. They were able to measure the ionization energy and to throw new light on the non-combining singlet and ``doublet'' (later found to be triplet) spectral series in helium. In the process, they proposed for the first time the existence of metastable states, first in helium, and later in mercury. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 11:27AM - 11:39AM |
B39.00002: L\'{e}on Rosenfeld's general theory of constrained Hamiltonian dynamics Donald Salisbury L\'{e}on Rosenfeld published in \textit{Annalen der Physik} in 1930 a groundbreaking paper showing how to construct a Hamiltonian formalism for Lagrangian theories which admitted an underlying local gauge symmetry. The theory included both ``internal'' transformations such as the U(1) symmetry group of electromagnetism, and ``external'' symmetries typified by Einstein's general theory of relativity. His comprehensive analysis predated by two decades the formalism known as the Dirac-Bergmann approach, and I will present evidence that each of these giants were to some extent influenced by Rosenfeld's theory. Of particular significance is Rosenfeld's incorporation of arbitrary functions into the phase space generator of temporal evolution, and his construction of the phase space generator of symmetry transformations. The existing Hamiltonian formalisms have of course played a central role both in the demonstration of the renormalizability of Yang-Mills theories and current efforts in constructing a quantum theory of gravity. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 11:39AM - 11:51AM |
B39.00003: Scientists in Gray Flannel Suits: Ernest Lawrence and the Development of Color Television Joshua Roebke Physicists and historians typically remember Ernest Lawrence for one of two activities, his development of the cyclotron or his advocacy for atomic weapons. The two labs that he established in support of such endeavors are still named after him in California: Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore. But there was a third accomplishment for which Lawrence believed he would always be remembered: the development of color television. In 1950, he sold a half stake of his company, Chromatic Television Laboratories, to Paramount Pictures for {\$}1 million. That decade, Lawrence and his employees, especially Luis Alvarez and Edwin McMillan, designed cathode-ray tubes for color televisions while they championed hydrogen bombs. Although their commitment to the second was attributed to patriotism and their interest in the first was dismissed as a hobby, it is not so easy to disentangle their motives. Color screens were needed for more than variety shows and sitcoms; they displayed incoming missiles in vivid color. No company has ever been led by three future Nobel Laureates, yet Chromatic Television Laboratories was a failure. Even so, Lawrence had a profound influence on the development of color television, and I will tell this story for the first time. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 11:51AM - 12:03PM |
B39.00004: Essence of physics, its teaching and learning Xiao-Fan Chen Essence of physics, its teaching and learning are discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 12:03PM - 12:15PM |
B39.00005: Utilizing Modern Light Detectors as Novel Tools to Advance Community College STEM Students Sewan Fan From 2010 to 2016, we have provided research training and mentoring for STEM students at Hartnell College in the form of 8 weeks of in-depth, hands-on physics research projects supported by funding awarded by the US Department of Education. At this conference meeting, we would describe our methods in training and practically equipping community college students to assemble, test and apply modern light detectors such as silicon photomultiplier, conventional photomultiplier (PMT), micro PMT and the associated electronics. To record the detector waveforms for subsequent analysis of the arrival time and amplitude in the detector signals, we used 5Gsample/sec digitizer, the DRS4. The data analysis work flow included using the CERN software package PAW and application of image processing techniques to determine the precise timing of signal events. Through these training, the students at Hartnell College were equipped with research skills to move forward and contribute in the STEM fields. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 12:15PM - 12:27PM |
B39.00006: Physics Reality Show Tatiana Erukhimova The attention span of K-12 students is very short; they are used to digesting information in short snippets through social media and TV. To get the students interested in physics, we created the Physics Reality Show: a series of staged short videos with duration no longer than a few minutes. Each video explains and illustrates one physics concept or law through a fast-paced sequence of physics demonstrations and experiments. The cast consists entirely of physics undergraduate students with artistic abilities and substantial experience in showing physics demonstrations at current outreach events run by the department: Physics Shows and Physics {\&} Engineering Festival. Undergraduate students are of almost the same age as their high-school audience. They are in the best position to connect with kids and convey their fascination with physics. The PI and other faculty members who are involved in the outreach advise and coach the cast. They help students in staging the episodes and choosing the most exciting and relevant demonstrations. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 13, 2017 12:27PM - 12:39PM |
B39.00007: PhysicsCentral's future in Snapchat, and new social media strategy James Roche In 2017, social media is no longer just an amplifier for marketing strategy, but for many large organizations is firmly at the core of it. Facebook is the reigning social media king, boasting 1.2 billion daily active users around the world. Snapchat, one of the latest platforms to be declared the future of social media, hits 150 million daily active users globally. The platforms differ by nature, with Snapchat valuing ephemerality over Facebook's stalk-able photo albums. However, the average age of a Facebook user is 40, while the average age range of Snapchat users is between 12-25, and on any given day, Snapchat reaches 41\% of all 18-34 year olds in the United States. Students under 25 now turn nearly equally to TV and social media as their primary source of news content. The opportunity for physics outreach in an important young demographic is clear. The American Physical Society’s outreach website, physicscentral.com has found success on multiple online and social media platforms, and now thanks to the SPS summer intern program, has entered the Snapchat world. [Preview Abstract] |
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