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June 5 (T) |
Museum of Science and Industry |
Ruth Goehmann |
July 28-August 1 |
AAPT Summer Meeting, Greensboro,
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Contest results John Rush Award
Information
At our last
meeting...
… at Lake Forest College we were greeted
by Scott Schappe, LFC Physics
chair, and department members (present and past) Mike Kash, Nathan Mueggenburg, Bailey Donnelly, and Tung Jeong. Scott introduced
two special guests, Carole Lee Jensen
Smith, daughter of Harald
Jensen, and her son Brian
Smith. Carole Lee brought
a folder of memorabilia and shared some of that with us. Tom Senior (New Trier High School) described a funded demo and equipment workshop to be held at New Trier on Saturday, May 5, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Physics Northwest members will be given preference. A second workshop is scheduled for May 19. Click here for more information. |
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Scott
Schappe read a letter to Harald from a former student, thanking
Harald for his inspiring teaching. Eileen Wild (CPS, retired) shared some of her recollections of Harald, including a variety of demo items (for the overhead projector, of course) she had constructed in his workshops for teachers. |
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The Harald Jensen Award was then
presented to Matt Lowry from Lake Forest High School, where
Harald taught before coming to Lake Forest College. Earl Zwicker (IIT, retired) gave a brief slide show – a picture of Harald and his family at the 1974 AAPT meting where he received the Millikan Award, followed by pictures of Harald in action at some of his workshops for teachers. The last slide showed a close-up of a triple point demo. Appropriately, Mike Kash set up a triple point demo
using dry ice in a closed bottle under an overturned beaker. As the
solid CO2 evaporated, enough pressure built up for the solid
sample to begin liquefying. Neat!
Scott Schappe set up a “Laser Cube” laser level (Home Depot, ~$10) that can produce a line beam (using a cylindrical lens) and directed the light into a semi-circular plastic dish filled with water. He told us (and showed) us that this arrangement can be used to find both the refractive index and the critical angle of the liquid in the dish. His results were quite to close to the expected values for water. The level, a plastic dish and a sheet of polar graph paper made up the night’s giveaway! It was pointed out, in response to a question, that the thin plastic wall of the dish has a very small effect on the refraction of the light. Several people added teaching suggestions based on their experience with similar equipment. One suggestion was to mount the unit on magnets and use them with blackboard optics. |
Matt
Lowry set up his version of the “faster than g” demo he uses as
a challenge for his students. He set a ball on a golf tee at the top of
a raised board connected to a horizontal board by a hinge. When he
quickly knocked out the prop that held the board up, the board “fell
away” from the ball, which then landed in a plastic cup mounted near
the edge of the falling board. Matt spoke about some of the
approximations involved in the background information given to
students, and about some procedural points to watch out for. Matt also gave us an article from The Physics Teacher (May 2006) on a photoelectric effect experiment using LEDs. He wants to construct a version of this for himself. |
Art
Schmidt (Northwestern University) put some small tadpole shaped
pieces of glass on the overhead projector. Some of the drops had been
formed from molten glass by being dropped into a column of water, so
that they cooled rapidly on the outside and more slowly inside. This
resulted, Art explained, in their being physically strong and also
optically active. (It was a bit difficult to see the evidence of
optical activity.) These are called “Prince Rupert drops.” The other
drops had been cooled in air more slowly and were more brittle. We saw
the strength of the Prince Rupert drops; Art hit one fairly hard with a
hammer and the drop did not break. But when its tail was broken, it
shattered, due to the internal stresses in the drop. The drop that had
been cooled slowly (annealed) broke when hit by a hammer. |
Rich
Guberville (Joliet Central High School) brought a piece of
equipment he found at his school but could not identify. Gerry Lietz
recognized it as a model generator. A coil is turned in discrete steps
in the field of a set of horseshoe magnets and the induced voltage in
the coil is proportional to the rate of change of flux in the coil,
which in turn depends on the angle through which the coil turns. Dan Cahill (Grayslake Central High School) laid out some coins and placed a Nd alloy magnet over each in turn. When he quickly pulled the magnet up, some of the coins jumped a little, indicating some magnetic attraction. This worked for a quarter and a dime, but not for a nickel, which surprised us. Dan said he found the composition of the coins on the web and the nickel was listed as 75% copper, 25 nickel, yet the nickel coin did not respond. Bill Shanks had a Canadian dime and it adhered easily to the magnet. The effect was enhanced for a quarter when it was cooled with dry ice. |
Workshop #2 - Tom Senior's Favorite Demos -
Presented by Tom Senior
Who: Physics NW Members
When: Saturday, May 5, 2007, 8:00-3:00
Where: New Trier High School, Winnetka Room 132
What: A variety of equipment is possible from Tom's
own workshop and his vast experience with PTRA workshops.
Included may be:
A wave pendulum, demonstrating the phase effects on waves.
An Electrophorus that provide either negative or positive charges and
work in any climate.
A conical pendulum set up and the planes to make it work.
The best peanut butter jar accelerometer.
A giant manometer to challenge the strongest blow-hard.
A high quality version of the chain and ring "magic" trick.
The many uses of the Radio Shack speaker amps.
An extremely convenient two-point sound interference demo.
The original cloud chamber, and the many more items that may arise.
Wow: Generous funding has been supplied by EPIR
Technologies.
If participants' equipment exceeds the budget, a small fee may be added.
Registration is first-come, first-served.
To register, email: Tom Senior ( < thomasjsenior@gmail.com
>)
Include the following:
1) “Equipment Workshop” as your email subject.
2) Your name.
3) Your school.
4) Your home phone (in case of last minute changes).
5) Your email address.
Workshop #3 - Nanotechnology
Presented by: Professor George Lisensky, Beloit College
Hosted by: Chris Chiaverina
Who: Physics NW Members
When: Saturday, May 19th , 2007, 9:00-2:00
Where: Crystal Lake South High School, Room B4
Why: The workshop will feature demonstrations
of nano phenomena aswell as a make and take session.
Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at
dimensionsof roughly 1 to 100 nanometers. At the nanoscale, the
physical,
chemical, and biological properties of materials differ in fundamental
and valuable ways from the properties of individual atoms and molecules
or bulk matter. Nanotechnology is expected to have a significant impact
on just about every sector of the economy through the use of
nano-constructed materials in medicine, energy production, optical
computing, communications and the enhancement of consumer products.
Professor Lisensky (Chemistry Department) is a preeminent researcher
and educator in the area of nanotechnology. Those of us who heard him
speak at the AAPT meeting in Seattle were amazed by his ability to make
nanotechnology accessible to scientist and layperson alike.
We think you will be
too!
Wow: Generous funding has been supplied by EPIR Technologies.
If participants' equipment exceed the budget, a small fee may be added.
Registration is first-come, first-served.
To register, email:
Chris Chiaverina ( Fizzforfun@aol.com
)
Include the following:
1) “Nano Workshop” as your email subject.
2) Your name.
3) Your school.
4) Your home phone (in case of last minute changes).
5) Your email address.
JOHN RUSH AWARD WINNERS 1983-2006
1983 |
Jim Williams |
1984 |
Chris
Chiaverina |
1985 |
Earl Zwicker |
1986 |
John Milton |
1987 |
Gerry Lietz |
1988 |
Steve Luzader |
1989 |
Bill Blunk |
1990 |
Larry Alofs |
1991 |
Art Schmidt |
1992 |
Tom Senior |
1993 |
Jim Szeszol |
1994 |
Ann Brandon |
1995 |
Roy Coleman |
1996 |
Pete Insley |
1997 |
Bill Conway |
1998 |
Bill Shanks |
1999 |
Paul Dolan |
2000 |
Nick Drozdoff |
2001 |
Bailey
Donnaly |
2002 |
Martha Lietz |
2003 |
Eileen Wild |
2004 |
Debbie
Lokjutz |
2005 |
Nate Unterman |
2006 |
Gordon Ramsey |
2007 |
?????? |
The John Rush Award is presented each year to an
ISPP participant who has made significant contributions to ISPP,
helping to create "physics phun" for all.
Who will win this year? To suggest a
recipient, see Bill Blunk at the meeting, or e-mail Bill at