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Agenda Preview

Plenaries

• 2017 Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT

  • • 2017 Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT

    • PL06
    • Tue 02/21, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • Mary Mogge
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Ernest R. Behringer, Richard Gelderman, Sharon Kirby, Kenneth S. Krane, Ann M. Robinson

• 2017 Oersted Medal, Jan Tobochnik

  • • 2017 Oersted Medal, Jan Tobochnik

    • PL05
    • Tue 02/21, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • Mary Mogge
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • The Changing Face of Physics and the Students who Take Physics: I’ve neverfound teaching physics to be as interesting as it is now for two reasons. Students are changing rapidly and it is an intellectual challenge to figure out the best way to work with them. Simultaneously, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a major disconnect between what we teach, which has barely changed since I started teaching, and what physicists and other scientists are actually doing in their research. I will discuss these changes and what is being done at Kalamazoo College and elsewhere to address these challenges.

• 2017 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, Jay M. Pasachoff

  • • 2017 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, Jay M. Pasachoff

    • PL02
    • Sun 02/19, 7:30PM - 8:30PM
    • Mary Mogge
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Observing the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017 - On August 31, 2017, a total solar eclipse's 70-mile-wide band of totality will sweep across the Continental United States from coast to coast for the first time in 99 years. The zone from which the partially eclipsed sun will be visible includes all of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But only during the 2+ minutes of totality will it get as dark as twilight and will the interesting solar phenomena--such as Baily's beads, the diamond-ring effect, and totality--become visible. At that time, the beautiful corona will show streamers and other structure, held in place by the sun's magnetic field. The corona is about the same brightness as the full moon and equally safe to look at. But before and after totality even in the band of totality, or off to the sides of the band where only a partial eclipse is visible, one can look safely at the sun only with special partial-eclipse filters or by projection. Even when 99% of the sun is covered, the remaining 1% is nearly 10,000 times brighter than totality (or the full moon), so eye-protection precautions are needed. Still, seeing an eclipse in general and totality in particular is so exciting and so remarkable that it can be inspirational for students--not only causing some of them to go into science but also inspiring them about their other academic studies. Coverage in the US will be over 70% of the solar diameter from Los Angeles and over 80% from Miami and New York, with 97% coverage from Atlanta, as the path of totality proceeds from Salem, Oregon, to Charlestown, South Carolina; cloudiness statistics from decades of satellite images are available. I will not only describe the circumstances for viewing the 2017 eclipse, whether it is total or partial, but also show and discuss the beautiful images and spectra we have obtained at the most recent eclipses, including total eclipses in Easter Island (2010), Australia (2012), Gabon (2013), Svalbard (2015), and Indonesia (2016) as well as annular or partial eclipses observed elsewhere. My work at solar eclipses has recently been supported by the NSF and the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society, and I thank them both for research grants for our scientific studies of the 2017 total eclipse, including AGS-1602461 from the NSF and 987816 from National Geographic.

• Ken Bloom, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

  • • Ken Bloom, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

    • PL04
    • Mon 02/20, 2:00PM - 3:00PM
    • Gordon Ramsey
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Discovering the Quantum Universe at the Large Hadron Collider - The Large Hadron Collider is one of the great scientific projects of our time. Hosted at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, it brings together thousands of scientists from around the world to pursue a deeper understanding of the elementary particles and interactions that shape the our universe. In this presentation I will discuss the elements of particle physics that motivate the program, interesting technical aspects of the accelerator and detectors, and current hot topics.

• Moogega Cooper Stricker, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  • • Moogega Cooper Stricker, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    • PL03
    • Mon 02/20, 9:30AM - 10:30AM
    • Gordon Ramsey
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Mars 2020 Mission Overview and the Importance of Planetary Protection: TheMars 2020 (M2020) flight system consists of a cruise stage; an entry, descent and landing system (EDL); and a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) powered roving science vehicle that will land on the surface of Mars. The M2020 Mission is designed to investigate key question related to the habitability of Mars and will conduct assessments that set the stage for future human exploration of Mars. Per its Program Level Requirements, the project will also acquire and cache samples of rock, regolith, and procedural “blank” samples for possible return to Earth by a subsequent mission. The Planetary Protection Categorization letter assigned the M2020 Mission as a Category V Restricted Earth Return due to the possible future return of collected samples. As indicated in NPR8020.12D, Section 5.3.3.2, the outbound leg of a Category V mission that could potentially return samples to Earth, Mars 2020 would be expected to meet the requirements of a Category IVb mission. The entire flight system is subject to microbial reduction requirements, with additional specific emphasis on the sample acquisition and caching. Mars 2020 has a very unique biological contamination plan to both protect Mars as well as the scientific integrity of the collected sample. A mission overview and Planetary Protection activities will be discussed.

• Presidential Transfer

  • • Presidential Transfer

    • PL07
    • Tue 02/21, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • Janelle Bailey
      
    • Type: Plenary

• Solar Astronomy, Stephen Ramsden

  • • Solar Astronomy, Stephen Ramsden

    • PL01A
    • Sat 02/18, 5:00PM - 5:30PM
    • Don Franklin
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • This event will take place at Georgia Institute of Technology. Transportation provide from the Marriott. Stephen W. Ramsden is the founder and Director of the world’s largest Solar Astronomy and Spectroscopy hands-on STEM program The Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project. This global nonprofit is named in memoriam to a fellow veteran. Mr. Ramsden’s talk will discuss the critical need for Physics and Math instruction and introduction to Elementary and Middle School students around the globe and his own experience in putting together this massive program with no help from Universities or Government entities. It is an exploration of a completely grassroots organization dedicated to ending radicalization and extremism by early intervention with science.

• The Physics of Music, Michael Ruiz

  • • The Physics of Music, Michael Ruiz

    • PL01B
    • Sat 02/18, 5:30PM - 6:30PM
    • Don Franklin
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • This event will take place at Georgia Institute of Technology. Transportation provided from the Marriott. Physics of Music - We will first use a musical ear-training exercise in conjunction with Lissajous figures to establish the simplest ratios for the frequencies of the major scale. We will call this scale the musician's scale. Then we will proceed to use strings and pipes to arrive at the harmonic series, which we will call the physicist's scale. We will show how the I, V, and IV harmonies pervasive in Western music emerge naturally from our analyses. We will give examples in classical music and jazz, including live piano performance.

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