Thesis

Physics is a force that impacts us daily without our knowing. Common things that seem to be a normal occurrence or too simple to be physics are actually a result of a phenomena explained by physics. Your life depends on physics more than you believe and it is not always how you think.

Incorporating Sources

During an interview conducted between Dr. Ryan Hooper and myself, he was asked "How does he believe physics effects us everyday?" His response was that "two words" can describe a rather large contribution to our daily life and that is "Faraday's Law". Dr. Hooper elaborates more on the matter saying that "it is the basis for nearly all electricity generation on this planet." Being a recognized physicist, it isn't a surprise he introduced such an unknown and complicated formula for a non-physics student, but it is a perfect example of how physics effects all of us daily. The electricity used to power just about everything we use daily and it all can be derived from a single equation. This just proves the vast use for a small portion of physics so you can only imagine the amount all of physics effects your daily lives.

Interview with Dr. Ryan Hooper

Q1: Why did you become a physicist? Was there a moment of epiphany or have you always known?

A1: I was/still am fascinated by how physics reveals the hidden nature and beauty of things.  I also love the structure, logic, and how physics is in a paradoxical way both abstract and concrete at the same time.  Bottom line is that I became a physicist because I want to know how things work!

Yes, the “epiphany” moment was in 5^th grade when we were allowed to do a book report on any book in our library.  I found a book on nuclear power plants and how they worked, I was hooked on fundamental physics (i.e. nuclear and particle physics) ever since!  As a matter of fact, my family still fondly remembers after I did that book report … I went home and told my parents that I wanted to be a nuclear physicist.  At first my parents were rightfully skeptical, but after a few years of me telling them I want to be a nuclear/particle physicist, they started to think I was serious J  Oh, by the way, I am a particle physicist.

Q2: What do you do as a physicist? What are some examples of projects or events you have done that you are able to share?

A2: I build physical things.  I code computers to accomplish tasks.  I build and work with electronics.  I collect empirical data.  I analyze data.  I think about how things work and why.  I dream of how to make things go faster.

I helped construct, commission and run the D0 Central Fiber Tracker (a 100,000 channel fiber optic tracking system).

I published the first experimental research on large extra-dimensions as it may manifest itself in a hadron collider using a high transverse momentum muon signature.  I also published one of the first experimental searches for Randall-Sundrum extra-dimensions.

I helped construct the Compact Muon Solenoid Silicon strip detector (a 1 million channel silicone strip tracking system).  This system was instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs’ boson, found in 2012.

I helped build, commission and run high efficiency and low emissions test engines at CAT.

Q3: From your line of work (projects, previous work, personal experience, etc.) How do you believe it effects everyone and or everyday life?

My detector work demonstrates new improved techniques that are used in medical imaging.

My engine work saves gallons of fuel and reduces the amount of pollutants placed in the atmosphere.

My musings on general relativity may open up possibilities for human to travel to the stars.

Q4: Have you worked with or made contributions to something that would affect us here at Lewis now or in the near future that can directly be related to physics?

A4: Other than for educational purposes my contributions related to physics tend to be more abstract/pure research based.

Q5: How do you believe physics affects us every day? Anything that stands out as extremely fascinating to you related to an everyday occurrence?

A5: Two words:  Faraday’s Law or more succinctly [ ].  The basis for nearly all (~80%) electricity generation on the planet!

Also, without our knowledge of general relativity the GPS applications in your smart-phone would become useless in about a week.  This is due to gravitational time dilation.

Q6: Do you think that physics has accounted largely for our rapid growth in technology and advancement in sciences? Why?

Two words:  Faraday’s Law.  Electricity (I would argue, more generally electromagnetism E&M) is the “life-blood” on which modern society lives, let alone our technology/research base!  Just watch what happens when a region loses power for even a short period of time.

Physics and Marketing

Colbey, Dan. "What Physics Taught Me About Marketing." Ted Talk. Ted. Ted, July 2010. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_cobley_what_physics_taught_me_about_marketing#t-139533

Connecting Physics to Business:

Who knew physics would relate to business? Honestly, I never thought it would but Dan Colbey put it in terms that makes sense. In physics, force equals mass times acceleration. In other words, the bigger the mass the more force you need to move that mass. In marketing, brands are labeled with "baggage" to move around with their ads. A brand with more baggage in one direction will be harder to move in another direction. Dan explained this as once a large brand has established a direction with their product, it is hard for them to change to anything different and it is hard to market them in any other way than the usual. This is why one company will have several different brands for one type of product. This makes it easier to point the marketing in a direction and go with it. Another major connection between physics and marketing is the scientific method. In physics, a hypothesis can only be "disproved" and is repeated until a constant outcome occurs. If you have one bad experiment with a different outcome, the entire experiment becomes harder to keep constant and not disprove it. The same thing happens in marketing. Dan connected the Toyota recall as an example. When they recalled their vehicle called the prius for safety reasons, immediately families began to distrust the brand and question what used to be considered the most reliable cars on the road. One bad rep can nearly diminish the marketing just like one bad trial can diminish an experiment. Colbey continues connecting physics in two other ways. One with observation of photons and another with entropy. Multiple ways connect to business marketing and honestly, I did not believe physics would relate. He describes everything clearly and identifies relations not many people would see. I highly recommend you watch this video because it helps you see things the way I do and as this blog and research paper progress, things I post will be easier to relate with.

Aviation and physics

Aerodynamic Contrails: Phenomenology and Flow Physics

Gierens, K., B. Kärcher, H. Mannstein, and B. Mayer. "Aerodynamic Contrails: Phenomenology and Flow Physics." Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 66.2 (2009): 217-26. Print.

The journal I plan on using is a way for me to connect aviation to physics and explain something I have always wanted to know. When jets fly over and sometimes planes we see the long "tails" that seem to follow the aircraft. I was told that it was a "jetstream", but according to the journal presented it is actually an occurrence of aerodynamics which is a part of, wait for it,......PHYSICS! Now, according to the article the tails are know formally as aerodynamic contrails and are a result of the flow of air. The wings slice through the air and create the difference in pressure between the top of the wing and the bottom causing what we know as lift. However, that is not the only thing that is caused by the wings. Above and below the wings, not only is pressure different but the temperature changes as well as stated in the aerodynamics section, point a: Simple calculations. 

Think of mountain tops and how the snow remains year round. The air at a higher altitude is colder and dry. Much like that, above the wings you have a cold dry air and below is heated from the engine gasses after burning. This difference in temp causes condensation because when something is hot or cold and applied with the opposite, it condense and will "sweat" like a glass of water. Thus, the water vapor from the engine freezes and condenses. We know that when this occurs in air clouds are formed. The same thing happens with the contrails of planes and according to the article this will create "contrail cirrus" clouds.

Overall, the appearance of contrails are caused by the aerodynamics of the wings. Above and below have different temperatures much like the different pressure associated with lift. When water is expelled as a gas from the engine, the cold surrounding air freezes it causing condensation and formation of a "contrail cirrus". This is how, by physics, the tails from jets are formed.

Research Citations

Connection of Physics to Aviation 
Gierens, K., B. Kärcher, H. Mannstein, and B. Mayer. "Aerodynamic Contrails: Phenomenology and Flow Physics." Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 66.2 (2009): 217-26. Print. 
Connections of Physics to Nursing 
Mcgurk, Simon. "Physics in Anaesthesia." Nursing Standard 26.14 (2012): 30. Print.
Connections of Writing to Physics
Texley, Juliana. "Modeling Modern Physics with Literature." Science Scoupe 37.8 (2014): 6-10. Print.



Physic in Everyday Life

Ince, Elif. "Investigation of Undergraduate Students’ Skills to Associate between General Physics Concepts and Everyday Life." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Of ACADEMIC RESEARCH (2012): 158-63. EBSCO Host. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=298b3258-8ae7-46fe-8451-f4875a947c85@sessionmgr110&vid=1&hid=101>.

Research Paper Topic

For my research paper I plan to go away from my usual track and field writings and try something different. I want to write about physics and some space or NASA. If I write about physics though, I have decided that I want people to see my view of it, not the boring math sense everyone thinks. My goal is to show the history and branches of physics like a normal research paper, but i want to relate it to the majors of my viewers. I want to show you what physics really does and how it affects something you would care about.

In that I have a few questions.
What would be a better topic? NASA or physics?
What majors should I relate to as in what are your majors?
How can I explain physics so you understand/ enjoy it?
What about physics or NASA do you want to know?
Should I focus more on the top majors of Lewis? Nursing and Aviation
Should I go broad and expand your mind?
Should I specify and blow your mind?
What can i do to show you how physics ties in?
What is physics?
What is NASA?
How could physics possibly affect me besides everyday things like gravity?
Why should we care about space?
Why was NASA started?