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RLC circuit resonance with an oscillating inductor (Jr IS Guest blog by Kyle McNickle)
The purpose of my experiment was to analyze whether the behavior of an RLC (Resistor, Inductor, Capacitor) circuit is noticeably affected by replacing the inductor with an oscillating spring. Common inductors take the form of solenoids which are helical coils of wire that are wrapped around a core. This core can be made of different…
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This is not black magic. This is physics. This is laminar flow. (Jr IS guest blog by Emma Brinton)
For my Junior Independent Study, I looked into some cool physics videos to find an interesting topic to explore. I found a youtube video about the University of New Mexico Couette cell apparatus for demonstrating laminar flow and decided that watching fluid blend together and then separate out again was an interesting concept. The project…
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Walker’s Walker: Building a Passive Robot for Active Learning (Jr IS guest blog by Justine Walker)
Walking – we all do it. But why do we walk so often? Why doesn’t everyone skip down the block to work? Aside from that being deemed as weird by society, walking is the most efficient way for people to move on earth due the gravity here. We’ve all experienced this in some way. You…
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Student blog reports from their Junior Independent Study self-designed projects
This spring, each Wooster Junior physics major undertook a six-week scientific investigation of their own design, as a part of our junior independent study course. Watching their projects come to fruition over the course of the semester was a very rewarding experience for me, and I am happy to announce that each junior prepared a…
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Wooster Physics returns to Okinawa, Japan!
Greetings Everyone! Last month, I accompanied recent graduate Michael Wolff ’17 to Okinawa, Japan, where Michael presented his senior independent study work as part of an international workshop-style conference for specialists in the field of optical nanofibers. Optical nanofibers are essentially very thin cylindrical glass tubes– so thin, in fact, that their diameters are comparable…
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Commencement 2017
Congratulations to the class of 2017! We caught up with a number of our senior physics majors for a group picture in the “organized chaos” following the commencement ceremony. Best wishes to all our graduates in your future endeavours, and be sure to keep in touch!
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Maggie Lankford `16: National Finalist for Top Award in Undergraduate Physics Research!
I’m excited to report that Maggie Lankford, who graduated summa cum laude this year as a Wooster physics major, has been selected as a finalist for the American Physical Society’s LeRoy Apker Award– known as the preeminent honor for undergraduate physics research in the United States! Maggie received this recognition for work reported in her Senior Independent Study thesis, entitled “The Production…
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Wooster Physics in Okinawa, Japan!
During the week before spring break, I had the opportunity to visit the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) on a research collaboration. OIST is a graduate university in Japan that accepts only Ph.D. candidates in the sciences, and is located on Okinawa, a subtropical island in the East China Sea, a few hundred miles from…
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Wooster Physics in Prague, Glasgow, and Oxford!
Greetings! I have recently returned from a semester-long research leave, thanks to Wooster’s generous faculty leaves program. During my leave, I split my time between Wooster and the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford in the United Kingdom, in addition to a week-long conference in Prague, Czech Republic. In Wooster, I continued work in my lab with Clare Boothe Luce scholar Maggie Lankford…
Thanks, Mark! I enjoy reading your posts as well.