Advanced Equipment for Both Introductory and Upperclass Students

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Physics majors need to know that they will be prepared to perform near the frontiers of physics after graduations. Chemistry and biology majors need to know about the physics techniques that will diffuse into their working lives in the form of new measurement appliances. Non-science majors need to decide whether they want their taxes (and the price of their telephone service) to pay for continued exploration of the frontiers. Physics majors will benefit most obviously from the new equipment: They will probe lower temperatures, shorter times, and weaker signals than ever before at Millersville. They will measure the lifetime of the muon, the critical current and critical field of superconductors, and determine the structure and orientation of crystals. We plan to set much of our equipment up in mobile stations, for use by advanced laboratory students, and (in a new step for us) for demonstration in lecture to introductory students. Introductory students will see the superconducting transition; see superconductivity destroyed by a magnetic field. They will see Bragg x-ray diffraction peaks generated in the lecture hall and compare them to the optical diffraction that they observed in laboratory (and through a slit formed by their first and second fingers). They will see metal evaporate, travel through a vacuum, and form a film. They will estimate that thickness using the same idea (conservation of mass) that connects the slow water inside a hose to the fast water squirting from its pinched end. We mean to lead introductory students to believe that they can use the physics they know to understand reports from the frontiers of physics. If they believe they can understand, then science has a chance to convince them of the beauty and value of work at the frontier. We will extend our reach with summer workshops so that teachers can take the story back to their high school students.