Radiations Fall 2016 Web

Radiations
The official publication of Sigma Pi Sigma

F A L L
2016
PhysCon at Google’s “X”

Building a Community
Tracking the Eclipse
Fundraising “Brick by Brick”

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Contents
7 Connecting Worlds
7. . . . . . Art Captures How Rockets Feel Forces – Andrew Silver
8. . . . . . Voices from the Past: The Niels Bohr Library & Archives Oral History
Collection – Amanda Nelson, Archivist, American Institute of Physics
10. . . . . Get Ready for the Great American Eclipse! – Richard Tresch Fienberg, Press
Officer, American Astronomical Society, Sigma Pi Sigma Rice University Chapter,
Class of 1978
page 7
13 Your Dollars at Work

13. . . . . Awakening the Pi – Tara Davis, former Development Manager, American
Institute of Physics
14. . . . . Spring 2015–16 Award Recipients
16 PhysCon 2016
16. . . . . For Patrick Brady, LIGO’s Success is Just the Beginning – Rachel Kaufman
page 16
18. . . . . Rebel, Rebel: Neil Turok Builds a Career on Investigating the “Unpopular”
– Rachel Kaufman
20. . . . . Four Things You’ll Find at Google’s “Moonshot Factory,” and Four Things
You Won’t! – Rachel Kaufman
22 Spotlight on Hidden Physicists

22. . . . . Joanna Lucero, The High School Teacher
23. . . . . Ron Williams, The Senior Solutions Architect
page 25 25 Elegant Connections in Physics

The Journey Toward General Relativity, Part 2: 1912-1913 – Dwight E.
Neuenschwander, Professor of Physics, Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK
ON THE COVER
The Project Loon team prepares solar panels,
electronics, and balloon envelopes for launch
Departments
as the sun rises in New Zealand. A tour of X, 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Director’s Space
Google’s moonshot factory, is on the agenda
for PhysCon 2016. Photo courtesy of Project 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter Profile
Loon / X.
6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In the News
30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2015–16 Sigma Pi Sigma Initiates
Fall 2016 Radiations 3

The Director’s Space
Radiations
Fall 2016
Building a Community,
Volume 22, Issue 2
One Interaction at a Time
by Brad R. Conrad
Director, Sigma Pi Sigma and Society of Physics Students
EDITOR
Rachel Kaufman
S
igma Pi Sigma has the potential to shape
MANAGING EDITOR
Kerry Kidwell-Slak the physics community in ways no other
society can. We, collectively, form a scientific
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS community that spans nearly a century. We trace
Charna Meth our roots back to 1921 and, over the course of our
Kendra Redmond
history, have inducted over 100,000 members from
COPY EDITOR more than 569 chapters across the United States.
Cynthia Freeman Most of us were inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma early
in our careers, and many of us went on to careers
ART DIRECTOR with job titles other than “physicist.” We occupy
Tracy Nolis-Schwab
an exceptionally large phase space of professions,
LAYOUT DESIGNER disciplines, and experiences.
Matt Payne It’s this superposition of diversity and breadth
of experiences that makes us formidable. We are
SIGMA PI SIGMA PRESIDENT uniquely situated to guide the development of the
Willie S. Rockward,
next generation of physicists, one interaction at a
Morehouse College
time. Every year we induct new members into our
SPS PRESIDENT ranks, mentor students around the globe through
DJ Wagner, the Adopt-a-Physicist program, and work toward hosting the largest single gathering of
Grove City College physics- and astronomy-interested students in the United States: the Quadrennial Physics
Congress.
SIGMA PI SIGMA/SPS DIRECTOR
Brad R. Conrad In the coming months and years, one of my main initiatives as director is to create new
ways for Sigma Pi Sigma members to connect to each other, members of the Society of Phys-
ics Students, and our home communities. Our collective knowledge and experiences offer us
a unique opportunity to have a meaningful and real impact on the surrounding world.
All of us have studied physics and no matter where we might be today or what we may
do, we can all call ourselves physicists. Our education and background have helped to
shape us. We have learned how to approach the unapproachable problems, and we have
come to embrace “physicist” as more than a job title. We are instead known by our desire
to know and learn, and it’s that pervasive curiosity that helps define us as physicists. For
me, the persona of the inventor, the tinkerer, and the explorer are all wrapped up into what
it means to be a physicist. I like to think that the need to build, know, fix, and understand
Radiations (ISSN 2160-1119) is the official are some of the most deep-seated drives in our community. These ideals are not transmit-
publication of Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics ted to the public or the community through textbooks, problems, or even power series
honor society, published twice per year by the solutions (they don’t converge): They must come from us. We need to help transmit the ex-
American Institute of Physics, One Physics
citement and wonder of discovery. We are a society
Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3841. Printed
in the USA. Standard postage paid at Columbus, of tinkerers and problem solvers. The universe is Check out
OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: our laboratory, and we must encourage and stimu- www.sigmapisigma.org
Radiations Magazine, Sigma Pi Sigma, late each other in our endeavors to bring
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3841. those interested in physics into a closer asso-
ciation. This organization is really ours and
Sigma Pi Sigma is an organization of the
American Institute of Physics. It was founded what we make it. The only reason I’m here
at Davidson College, Davidson, NC, December today is because people cared and helped me.
11, 1921. Member, Association of College Honor It is my hope that Sigma Pi Sigma can help
Societies. Contact us at sigmapisigma@aip.org; you find a way to help your fellow physics
telephone: (301) 209-3007; fax: (301) 209-3082.
enthusiasts. Together, let’s engage and ener-
Copyright © 2016, American Institute of Physics. gize the Sigma Pi Sigma community and the
Title registered in the US Patent Office. next generation of physicists. r
All rights reserved.
4 Radiations Fall 2016

Chapter Profile
Brick by Brick
Collaborating to preserve the past and advance the physics community at CSM
by Libby Booton, Colorado School of Mines, Class of 2016, and Lindsey Hart, Colorado
School of Mines, Class of 2017 The American Institute of Physics is an
organization of scientific societies in the
physical sciences, representing scientists,
I
n 2014, the Colorado School of engineers, and educators. AIP offers
Mines announced that our be- authoritative information, services, and
loved physics building, Meyer expertise in physics education and stu-
Hall, was going to be demolished dent programs, science communication,
to make way for a new, centralized government relations, career services for
teaching and research building. science and engineering professionals,
Meyer Hall was built in 1963 statistical research in physics employment
and had been the home of phys- and education, industrial outreach, and
ics at Mines ever since. News of the history of physics and allied fields. AIP
the demolition was devastating publishes Physics Today, the most influen-
for the physics majors who practi- tial and closely followed magazine of the
cally lived in the undergraduate physics community, and is also home to
lounge, Room 247, of Meyer the Society of Physics Students and the
A contingent of the Mines SPS chapter poses with Eric Cornell, keynote
Hall. A common topic of conver- speaker at the spring Zone 14 Meeting hosted by the United States Niels Bohr Library and Archives. AIP owns
sation was how to get pieces of Air Force Academy. Cornell will also be a keynote speaker at the 2016 AIP Publishing LLC, a scholarly publisher
Sigma Pi Sigma Congress. Photo courtesy of the Mines SPS chapter
the building out of the construc- in the physical and related sciences.
tion site. Students and alumni wanted a part of the building where they spent so much time. www.aip.org
Room numbers were suspiciously disappearing.
As labs and classrooms were being moved out, the main focus of our Society of Physics Member Societies
Students chapter was to maintain our strong community within the physics department as Acoustical Society of America
we lost our home. The loss, though sad, has provided an incredible opportunity for our SPS American Association of Physicists
and Sigma Pi Sigma chapters to come together. in Medicine
We collected bricks from the demolished building and offered them, primarily to alum- American Association of Physics Teachers
ni, in exchange for donations. SPS members used a laser engraver to put the SPS logo and American Astronomical Society
“Meyer Hall, 1963–2016” on each brick. We never imagined how successful this fundraiser American Crystallographic Association
would be. So far, we have raised over $7000 from 60+ donors. We’ve used this money to American Meteorological Society
help 25 students attend the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress.
American Physical Society
We had our fair share of obstacles, including working out taxes, finding a way to collect
AVS Science and Technology of
donations, and reaching out to our alumni. But support from the Mines Physics Depart-
Materials, Interfaces, and Processing
ment, Alumni Office, and Student Activities Office, as well as the perseverance of the stu-
dents leading the fundraiser, helped us to be successful. Most of all, we wouldn’t have suc- The Optical Society
ceeded without the continued support of our alumni. The Society of Rheology
SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma collaborated on this fundraiser. Neither club could have done it
alone. Our ongoing partnership has helped two small clubs grow into clubs with some of the Other Member Organizations
highest involvement on campus. SPS hosts community outreach events, social activities, and Sigma Pi Sigma
presentations at weekly meetings. Sigma Pi Sigma helps bridge the gap between undergradu- Society of Physics Students
ate and graduate students, maintain strong relationships with alumni, and provide mentor- Corporate Associates
ship to younger students.
We have a unique and diverse collection of students. Nearly every member of Sigma
Pi Sigma and SPS is involved in at least one other campus activity. All of the members of
Sigma Pi Sigma are also involved Connect with Sigma Pi Sigma
heavily in SPS. This creates a LinkedIn
strong link between the two www.linkedin.com/groups/Sigma-
clubs, helping them succeed by Pi-Sigma-physics-honor-142619
complementing and challeng- Facebook
ing each other while building a www.facebook.com/groups/
strong foundation for the physics sigmapisigma
An engraved brick from Meyer Hall. Photo by Lindsey Hart
community at Mines. r

In the News
…I stayed in my original placement for five years, and then I

Making an Impact came to the school where I am now, which is a public residential high
school that serves the entire state of Mississippi. We have juniors and
2002 SPS intern receives national teaching award seniors that are residential, so they board, and they are, for the most
by Victoria DiTomasso, CUNY Macaulay Honors College, 2016 part, really interested in higher-level math and science courses.
SPS Intern As part of my job here, for the last eight years I’ve been in
charge of running all the math contests. This year, for the second
I
n the summer of 2002, Lauren Zarandona was an outreach year in a row, we’re holding an elementary math contest. Last year
intern with the Society of Physics Students (SPS). Today she we did grades 3–5, and we created the problems for the contest and
is a high school math teacher in Mississippi. This September, the kids came here as a field trip.
Lauren was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Victoria: You obviously love what you do, but can you talk
Mathematics and Science Teaching in recognition of her leadership about the most frustrating parts of your job?
in the improvement of mathematics education. Lauren: There’s never enough time, of course. That’s probably a
She took the time to talk to 2016 SPS intern Victoria frustration in any job that someone really enjoys. It’s really easy
DiTomasso about the origins of her love for teaching, her career to get overinvested and expect too much of yourself. People will
path, and the lessons she has learned along the way. always say that you can’t change the world, and I don’t know that
Victoria: Where do you think your interest in education came from? I agree with them, but at the same time it’s certainly not going to
Lauren: I always had teachers, and my parents, who let me ask all happen in a class period.
the questions I wanted. It was because I always knew that it was okay Victoria: What are the most rewarding parts?
to push and do more and ask more questions and think differently Lauren: Watching the kids succeed. Today I had a student who
that I realized that everyone should have that opportunity. made her first “A” on a quiz this year and she struggled to get there.
Victoria: Did you always know you would pursue a career in Her grade does not look good right now, but she finally broke
education? Could you walk us through your career path? through and made that “A” because she’s worked so hard for it.
Lauren: My mom and dad are awesome, but neither of them had a That was incredible.
college degree. I thought that getting a college degree meant having I do it more for the kids than for myself. When I was applying for
a career that people might name drop. I had this idea in my head this award, a student asked me why. The reality is that if I’m constantly
that achieving something meant being a doctor, a lawyer, or in any pushing my students to challenge themselves, then I should be doing
career that you hear about when you’re little. One that makes a lot the same thing.
of money. My parents are proud of me as Victoria: Do you have any advice for
a teacher, so I don’t know why I thought a people who are trying to inspire kids and
career had to look a certain way. They always their peers to be excited about STEM?
encouraged me to follow my passion. Lauren: Never underestimate the underdog.
I also thought there was something Oftentimes outreach is focused on students
lacking in a teaching position. Everyone says, who don’t have a lot of opportunity and
“Oh you don’t get paid enough,” or “It’s not so we go in thinking that there are certain
a respected job, compared to engineering or limitations to what they’re capable of. And
research.” I heard the negative things and when we do that we’re the ones putting a
took them as the truth. I wish I could have limit on them… Instead, go in thinking
had the confidence early on to have gone that even the person from the worst
with what I already knew was my passion. neighborhood, from the poorest background,
We shouldn’t be afraid of pursuing what has unlimited potential and it really changes
we’re naturally inclined to like. what you can accomplish together.
It was as a Society of Physics Students
intern that I realized that I wanted to work Victoria: Is there anything you’ve learned
with curriculum. I made a math-themed as a teacher that you’d like to share with
Science Outreach Catalyst Kit (SOCK) current undergraduate students?
based around the math behind physics. I Lauren: Kids are capable of a lot more than
realized through that internship that I really you think they are. I have a 6-year-old and
wanted to work with curriculum someday. a 4-year-old and it’s incredible to see the
I was very inspired by the idea that people capacity of learning that a small child has.
Top: Lauren Zarandona (center) with her presidential
could do things better than what was certificate, standing between Assistant to the Somewhere down the line we just forget that
President for Science and Technology and White we’re capable of so much. We get resigned
already done. House Office of Science and Technology Policy
At that point, I was a physics major Director John P. Holdren and Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, to sitting in a straight row, being quiet, and
Assistant Director, Directorate for Education and following a plan. We lose the beauty that
without certification to teach. I went into an Human Resources, National Science Foundation.
alternate route teaching program. Straight Credit: National Science Foundation is learning and curiosity and just trying
Bottom: Lauren Zarandona (right) with students from something new. I’d definitely say: Don’t
out of undergrad, I did two years in the Angelus Academy during her 2002 internship with the
program and got my master’s. Society of Physics Students. Photo by Liz Dart Caron underestimate what you are capable of. r

C onnecting W orlds
Art Captures
How Rockets
Feel Forces The computer-generated artwork above reveals the symmetry of Newton’s
by Andrew Silver laws of motion and gravitation. All images courtesy of Stan Spencer
A
bout 350 years ago, as the story goes, an apple fell near Each “rocket” eventually hits a mass or flies off the screen. Its
British physicist Isaac Newton and planted the seeds of the starting position is assigned a color based on the mass it hit, and the
laws of motion. Now, in celebration of that anniversary, intensity of the color changes depending on how long the trip took.
retired math teacher Stan Spencer has borrowed what Newton The setups aren’t a particularly practical application of
learned to create art from simulated rocket motion and get others Newton’s laws for a spaceship, explained Spencer. “But, you know,
interested in understanding science. you might get some interesting pictures out of it.”
“I tend to have a sort of crazy idea like that and then go for it,” Spencer tested different mass arrangements and color choices,
said Spencer, who lives in Nottinghamshire, England. producing various symmetric, swirling patterns around the circles.
After the apple incident, Newton started thinking about how “The pictures—they
objects in the universe move. He came up with laws for motion were a surprise, really,” he
and gravitation still taught in high school physics classrooms today. said. “I didn’t know what
They help explain how Earth’s gravity pulls apples to the ground or was coming until it came.”
GPS satellites into orbit. He presented the
In particular, Newton found that bodies with mass appear research at the annual
to tug at one another. The force of those tugs grows stronger Bridges Conference on
as masses increase or as distances get shorter. Ever curious, he mathematics and art in
formulated equations that describe the strength of this invisible Jyväskylä, Finland, on
force. August 10, 2016.
Newton’s laws start breaking down when explaining motion “I see that very much
near the speed of light and the behavior of very large or very small, as something that could
atom-sized objects. be used on a high school
“But he’s good enough to get you to the Moon and back,” level as an exercise and as a Spencer combined single-color simulations
Spencer said. motivational, inspirational to form the colorful composite images.
In his work, Spencer visualized the motion of a rocket, which example,” said Andres
can use the gravitational pull of nearby planets to save expensive Wanner, a physicist and digital artist at the Lucerne University of
fuel. Each planet’s gravitational force can guide a spacecraft so Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland. He was not involved in
that it arrives at its destination more quickly and efficiently than it Spencer’s work.
would if traveling only by its own power. “It shows the symmetry of physics laws, which is something
The images are created from a series of equations that simulate that nonscientists often miss because it’s buried in the math,” said
virtual rocket trips around a series of masses. For a given image, Elizabeth Freeland, a physicist at the School of the Art Institute of
Spencer sets up digital circles in patterns representing rings of Chicago, who was also not involved in the work.
planets around a star or stars in constellations. Then, the computer She said she would share the work with her art students, who
program checks what happens when a rocket is launched from each might get inspired to explore similar projects with some help.
spot on the digital canvas, one by one, factoring in the pull of the “Seeing somebody land on the Moon isn’t going to turn you into
objects in the circles on each launch. an astronaut,” Freeland said. “But it might make you say, hey, I
want to learn more about that.”
Spencer said the next step of the project is to experiment with
randomly placed, not symmetrically arranged, circles. He’s also
continuing to explore other art visualizations from math and physics.
“If it encourages people to ask the questions,” he said, “then to
some extent you’ve created interest.” r
This story was modified for length and style. It originally appeared in
Inside Science on August 29, 2016, at https://www.insidescience.org/
Spencer simulated the paths of rockets around planetary bodies according to news/art-captures-how-rockets-feel-forces. Inside Science is an editorially
Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation.
independent news service of the American Institute of Physics.

C onnecting W orlds
Voices from the Past:

The Niels Bohr Library &
Archives Oral History Collection
The history of the American Institute of Physics
by Amanda Nelson
Archivist, American Institute of Physics
For more than 50 years, the American Institute of Physics tions, subjects, and people mentioned in the interview, so
(AIP) Niels Bohr Library & Archives has worked to pre- users can easily find related interviews.
serve the stories of outstanding physical scientists, many Additionally, we have over 80 audio excerpts avail-
of them Sigma Pi Sigma and AIP Member Society mem- able online. These two-to-three-minute highlights from
bers. From 2007 to 2013, with the help of two National the oral history interviews were chosen by historians of
Endowment for the Humanities grants, the library placed physics and graduate students because they describe not
over 1,000 of the 1,500 oral history interview transcripts only the work of a particular physicist, but also the hu-
in our collection online (https://www.aip.org/history- man side of the subject. They allow us to hear physicists
programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories). This initia- discussing their collaborations with others or issues they
tive made interviews with luminaries like Niels Bohr, had to overcome. One example can be seen on the follow-
Paul Dirac, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Richard Feynman, ing page from Werner Heisenberg’s interview with Joan
to the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. Photo by Matt Payne.
and hundreds of others globally available.

The American Center for Physics, College Park, MD, is home
Bromberg in June 1970, where Heisenberg discusses and

compares the scientific styles of his three teachers, Arnold
In 2015, we unveiled an updated web presence for
Sommerfeld, Max Born, and Niels Bohr.
our oral histories, with new features that make it easier
than ever to browse and search the transcripts. Tran- Experience how history comes alive through the words
script pages now integrate with the rest of our history of those who have dedicated their lives to advancing the
web pages, with easy access to our other collections and physical sciences. We invite you to spend some time pe-
resources, and feature expandable tabs with background rusing this resource and hope that you find it useful and
information about the transcript. The transcript pages inspiring. For any questions or comments, please email
also display key browsing functions, including institu- nbl@aip.org.

Bromberg: Bohr looked to a scheme of concepts, a number of concepts, and
not a mathematical scheme—if one wants to make such a strong
… Perhaps the last thing I would like to ask you are two things I
distinction. After all, we have spoken so much forth and back, but
mentioned I would like to ask about. I would like to, on the one
still I would say there is a slight difference in tendency between
hand, to understand something of the background of nuclear theory
Bohr and myself.
as against quantum electrodynamics and here ...
I tried to put it this way in a talk which I had to give after the
Heisenberg: death of Max Born. I compared my three teachers which I have
had, that was Sommerfeld, and Max Born, and Niels Bohr. And I
Oh yes, they were rather independent problems: quantum elec- would say: Sommerfeld, he was most interested in solving problems
trodynamics on the one hand, and nuclear physics on the other which you could compare with experiments. He did not mind the
hand. I would say quantum electrodynamics, that was in the concepts—I mean, the concepts somehow had to be all right, but
thirties a subject which was, I
should say, almost too sophis-
ticated for Niels Bohr. I mean,
it was a subject which could be
treated with very complicated
mathematical methods, and it
was not a problem in which
you could do much with new
concepts. And so Bohr...he lis-
tened to the talks of Dirac and
also myself in the Copenhagen
meetings, but Bohr was not too
interested in those things. He
wasn’t interested, for instance,
in the theory of showers and
the cascade theory of showers
because that was such a definite
phenomenon which you could
see [in] the experiments. If I
could put it that way, Bohr
was interested in experimental
situations, in phenomena, and
he tried to get such a close
view of all the phenomena, to
acquire the phenomena in his
mind so strongly that he could
then form the right concepts to
start for the explanation. But
he would not be too interested
in complicated mathematical Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg converse over drinks at the Bohr Institute Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photograph by
analysis like it was necessary in Paul Ehrenfest, Jr., courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Weisskopf Collection
quantum electrodynamics.
he was not too much interested. And also he was not too much
Bromberg: upset about contradictions, as in old quantum theory, there were
contradictions. He wanted to do calculations and to get all correct
But from your point of view, your work in nuclear theory seemed results. And then there was Max Born, who believed strongly in the
to be most closely connected with the work in quantum electrody- existence of rigorous mathematical schemes. He was very much a
namics; it was connected with your concept of a particle... mathematician, but he was not a philosopher. He was interested...
he always suggested that I must find the theory in quantum me-
Heisenberg: chanics which replaces Newton’s mechanics, but he did not see that
Yes, I had always both these interests. I mean, I was always very in order to do that you have to derive or to apply new concepts.
happy to discuss things with Bohr because Bohr would always have And, finally, Bohr, he was a philosopher who looked for the
to make the concepts clear. On the other hand, I was also inter- concepts. And he said, well, first we must have our concepts right—
ested in these mathematical problems of quantum electrodynam- that means actually we have to make our mind clear, and before we
ics because I felt that finally you must write down a mathematical can do that we have no chance, really, to solve the problems.
scheme which explains things. I always looked, as a final aim, to the So, I don’t know whether I am clear enough to compare these
mathematical scheme. And that was not perhaps what Bohr did. three people. r

C onnecting W orlds
Get Ready for the

Great American Eclipse!
by Richard Tresch Fienberg
Press Officer, American Astronomical Society, Sigma Pi Sigma Rice
University Chapter, Class of 1978
Monday, August 21, 2017. Mark your all. At the beginning and end of totality, the thin middle layer of
the Sun’s atmosphere—the chromosphere—blazes in an arc of ruby
calendar. For the first time in 38 years, red. The sky darkens to a deep twilight blue, with yellow, orange,
and pink sunrise/sunset colors on the horizon in all directions.
a total eclipse of the Sun is coming Bright stars and planets shine forth, and the air temperature drops
to the continental United States. noticeably. Birds and farm animals, thinking dusk has settled,
return to their nests and barns, and bats come out to feed.
Unless you’re a member of the small but growing cadre of “eclipse Outside the path of totality, all of North America will get a
chasers,” you’ve probably never seen a total solar eclipse before, as partial solar eclipse. But even a 99 percent partial eclipse pales in
they tend to occur in far-flung places requiring costly travel. Not comparison to a total one. It’s like buying a ticket at the box office,
this time. On August 21, the Moon’s 70-mile-wide shadow will standing outside the theater, and saying you’ve seen the show.
cross the country from Oregon to South Carolina, turning day Depending on your location, the corona will be visible for up
to night for an estimated 12 million people who live within the to 2 minutes, 42 seconds. During those precious moments, it is
narrow path of totality. You should make every effort to get into perfectly safe to look directly at the Sun, even through binoculars
the path too. or a telescope. But whenever any part of the photosphere is
Here’s why: During a total solar eclipse, the Moon blocks the uncovered, it is absolutely essential to view the Sun through a safe
Sun’s bright face—the photosphere—briefly revealing our star’s solar filter—that is, one that meets the ISO 12312-2 international
outer atmosphere: the shimmering corona, or “crown.” Made standard. Such filters are widely available at affordable prices.
of rarefied gas heated to millions of degrees and sculpted into Looking at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed Sun through dark
streamers and loops by the Sun’s powerful magnetic field, the sunglasses or any other unapproved filter is a recipe for serious and
diaphanous corona shines with a light seen nowhere else. It is potentially permanent eye injury. r
hauntingly beautiful and, without doubt, one of the most awesome
sights in all of nature. Want to know more? With funding from the National Science Foun-
The corona is always there, but we usually can’t see it because dation, the American Astronomical Society will create a special eclipse
the photosphere is about a million times brighter. When the Moon website on http://aas.org with basic information and links to more de-
covers the Sun, the corona is the main attraction. And that’s not tailed resources. Visit today!
Above: Solar eclipse transition from Cairns, Australia. Image credit: iStock.com
Right: “Sea to Shining Sea” 2017 Eclipse. Poster image ©2014 Tyler Nordgren

New
APPLICATION
DEADLINES!
Mark your calendars! FALL DEADLINE: WINTER DEADLINE:
November 15 January 15
Sigma Pi Sigma Chapter Project Award SPS Internships
The Society of Physics Students (SPS) Future Faces of Physics Award
SPS Chapter Research Award
and Sigma Pi Sigma have consolidated Marsh W. White Award
deadlines for awards, scholarships, and

internships. There is now one deadline
SPRING DEADLINE: SUMMER DEADLINE:
each season. These opportunities are
March 15 June 15
available only to chapters and mem- Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award Chapter Reports
SPS Award for Outstanding Blake Lilly Prize
bers, so remember to pay your dues to Undergraduate Research
qualify. SPS Scholarships
ONGOING
OPPORTUNITIES:
∞
SPS Travel Awards
SPS Reporter Awards
SOCK Kit Requests
Learn more at
www.sigmapisigma.org
Sigma Pi Sigma National Office • Email: SPS-Programs@aip.org • Tel: 301-209-3007
aip.org
Y our D ollars at W ork
Awakening the Pi
Providing scholarships and travel funds to over 200 worthy students
by Tara Davis, former Development Manager, American Institute of Physics
T
hanks to Sigma Pi Sigma’s compassionate donors, the total of and provide support
the 2016 Pi Day campaign, “Episode III, The Pi Awakens,” is to; and above all, to
$39,203.05. These funds will allow Sigma Pi Sigma to pro- enjoy the companion-
vide scholarships and travel funds to over 200 worthy students. ship of people, both
The annual Pi Day campaign is Sigma Pi Sigma’s answer to a students and teachers,
growing trend of yearly campaigns where the majority of the funds with similar interests.”
are raised via online platforms. To date, the 2016 Pi Day campaign With that philosophy in mind, Turano became the first major
is the largest total in the short history of the Sigma Pi Sigma online donor to the Congress Student Travel Fund. “Unfortunately, not
annual campaign. all can afford to attend conferences like the congress, and not all
New this year (in addition to the Star Wars theme) is the Con- can find other forms of support to be able to attend. Our donations
gress Student Travel Fund. collectively will help additional students attend these events.”
The new fund will help students with the cost of traveling to Along with the money raised from the new fund, the money
the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress (PhysCon), a professional- designated through the Pi Day campaign to the Sigma Pi Sigma
level conference that is the largest gathering of undergraduate phys- Annual Fund will also offset students’ travel costs for PhysCon.
ics students. “PhysCon is one of the most dynamic meetings an undergradu-
During PhysCon, students are given the unique opportunity ate student can attend. With the site visits, interactive workshops,
to gather with their professors, mentors, and current icons in plenary speakers, and networking opportunities, students are not
physics. This exposure to other like-minded students and phys- only exposed to the full range of the physics and astronomy com-
ics luminaries is invaluable for students planning a career in the munity, but are also given skills that last a lifetime,” said Dr. Brad
physical sciences. R. Conrad, director of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma
Recognizing that travel is expensive, especially for college Pi Sigma.
students, Sigma Pi Sigma, the Society of Physics Students, and Bringing as many students as possible to PhysCon is a priority
the American Institute of Physics worked to create this fund, for its planners. “We try to include as many of the physics and as-
which will offer more students travel stipends to help them attend tronomy undergraduates in the nation as we can. We hope that by
PhysCon. The effort required the support of many, like Thomas getting them under one roof and sharing in this one monumental
Turano, a physicist, attorney, and longtime contributor to AIP’s experience we can strengthen our community,” Conrad said.
student programs. He believes physics students need exposure Sigma Pi Sigma donors have embraced the themed Pi Day
beyond their classrooms and university laboratories. campaigns to benefit student programs and fuel the future of
“Being a physics student is more than being willing to study physics. If you would like to help physics students travel to events
difficult concepts and investigate phenomena of nature,” Turano or if you are interested in making a gift in general, please contact
said. “To be successful it is necessary, not just desirable, that a stu- the AIP Development Office at 301-209-3006 or visit us online at
dent become part of the physics network. The network provides www.donate.aip.org. r
an opportunity to meet other students from whom the student can
learn and to whom the student can teach; to receive support from
Thank You for Helping Awaken the Pi(e)

With your support we helped over 200 students
attend the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress.
www.sigmapisigma.org/the-pi-awakens

Y our D ollars at W ork
Spring 2015-16 Award Recipients Blake Lilly Prize

Sigma Pi Sigma congratulates this year’s winners and thanks the The Blake Lilly Prize recognizes SPS chapters and
individuals who make a genuine effort to positively
generous donors whose support makes these awards possible influence the attitudes of school children and the
general public about physics. Learn more at: https://
www.spsnational.org/awards/blake-lilly.
Future Faces of Physics Award
Several awards of up to $500 are made each year to chapters for outreach designed to promote Nicholas DePorzio, Northeastern University
physics across cultures. Learn more at: https://www.spsnational.org/awards/future-faces. Project Leader: Nicholas DePorzio
Faculty Advisor: Toyoko Orimoto
Colorado School of Mines Texas Lutheran University Bochen Guan, Sun Yat-Sen University
Future Faces of Physics with CSM SPS The TLU SPS SYS-STEM Program Project Leader: Bochen Guan
Project Leader: David Schmidt Project Leader: Vanessa Espinoza Faculty Advisor: Fuli Zhao
Faculty Advisor: Chuck Stone Faculty Advisor: Toni Sauncy
Colorado Mesa University
Rhodes College University of the Sciences in Project Leader: Nickalaus Clemmer
Can You Hear Me Now: Supplementing Philadelphia Faculty Advisor: Brian Hosterman
Memphis City Schools with Acoustics Labs The Future Faces of Physics: Guilford College
Project Leader: Eleanor Hook The FUNdamentals Project Leader: Joseph Holmes
Faculty Advisor: Brent Hoffmeister Project Leader: Katee O’Malley Faculty Advisor: Steve Shapiro
Faculty Advisor: Roberto Ramos University of Colorado, Denver
Texas State University
Taking Classroom Physics Further: Henderson State University Project Leader: Mike Roos
Promoting Interest in Physics in the 3…2…1…Blast Off! It Really is Faculty Advisor: Kristopher Bunker
Local Community Rocket Science University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Project Leader: Elizabeth LeBlanc Project Leader: Todd Baum Project Leader: Kacy Catalano
Faculty Advisor: David Donnelly Faculty Advisor: Shannon Clardy Faculty Advisor: Roberto Ramos
SPS Award for Outstanding Angela Ludvigsen Louis Varriano

Undergraduate Research University of University of
Awards are made to individuals for outstanding Wisconsin – River Falls Tennessee, Knoxville
research conducted as an undergraduate. Laser power effects on size Neutron-mirror neutron
Recipients represent the United States and SPS at oscillations in a residual
of optically trapped aerosol
the International Conference of Physics Students
droplet determined via gas environment
and receive $500 for themselves and $500 for their
SPS chapters. Learn more at: www.spsnational.org/ whispering gallery modes
awards/outstanding-undergraduate-research.
Marsh W. White Awards SPS Chapter Research Awards

Several awards of up to $500 are made each year to chapters for physics Several awards of up to $2,000 are made each year to chapters for
outreach activities to grades K–12 and the general public. research activities that are deemed imaginative and likely to contribute to
Learn more at: https://www.spsnational.org/awards/marsh-white. the strengthening of the chapter. Learn more at: https://www.spsnational.
org/awards/chapter-research.
Adelphi University California State University–
Lab for Kids Chico Ithaca College Tuskegee University
The Annual SPS Pumpkin Drop Creating a Creator: Using a 3D Printer Identification of Glasses Using Laser
Cleveland State University to Build a 3D Printer from Scratch Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
The Year of Light: Inspiring Kids New Mexico Institute of Project Leaders: Nathan Antonacci, (LIBS) Technology
with the Beauty of Physics Mining & Technology Andrea Santiago-Boyd, Jared Saltzman, Project Leader: Devin Hicks
NMT Ballistics Bonanza and Other Matthew Bellardini SPS Advisor: Prakash Sharma
University of the Sciences in
Outreach SPS Advisor: Michael “Bodhi” Rogers
Philadelphia Lamar University
The Future Faces of Physics: The Northeastern University Georgia Institute of Finding the Shape of Glowing Objects
FUNdamentals Boston WaterWorks
Technology from Polarimetric Measurements
College of William & Mary Rhodes College Freshman Project: Electromagnetic Project Leaders: Keeley Townley-Smith,
Demos in the Sun: The Oobleck Summer Squash: Watermelon Kinetic-Projectile Launcher Mark Worth, Suzanne Wheeler
Experience Smashing at Rhodes Rites to Play Project Leaders: Madeline Lazar, Trey Faculty Advisor: Cristian Bahrim
Drexel University George Washington University Scheiper, Sujeeth Jinesh, Zachary Kennedy, Northern Virginia
Alex Buser, Sam Wiley, Eric Pretzsch, Douglas
The Starch Difference The Phun-damentals of Physics
Stewart, Hannah Price, DeVon Ingram,
Community College
Henderson State University The University of Southern Physics of Propulsion and Levitation of
Rhiannon Partington, Talha Irfan, Kenny
Science Olympics Mississippi a Self-Driven Electromagnetic Wheel
Higginbotham, Jada Walters, Matthew
Bringing Physics to the Community Project Leaders: Nathan Gaul,
Towson University Schulz, Sally Hannoush, Michael Barnhill
for People of All Ages Hannah Lane
Science After Hours: Educating SPS Advisor: Edwin Greco
Faculty Advisor: Walerian Majewski
Young Students

SPS Summer Interns
SPS internships are awarded on the basis of collegiate record, potential for future success, SPS participation, and relevant experience. Interns are placed in
a variety of organizations and work on research, policy, or education projects. See the interns’ profiles and blogs at: https://www.spsnational.org/programs/
internships/interns/2016.
Dahlia Baker Demitri Call Isabel Binamira Jose Corona Maria McQuillan Mariah Heinzerling
Coe College Sonoma State Georgetown Bridgewater University of Saint University of
NASA Goddard Space University University College Thomas Rochester
Center Intern—worked AIP Mather Policy APS Public Outreach NIST Research Intern— NASA Goddard Space SPS SOCK & NIST
on technology for two Intern—worked on the Intern—developed worked at the National Center Intern— Summer Institute Intern—
pathfinder experiments to House Minority Committee Snapchat resources for the Institute of Standards and researched the basics of time explored ways to distribute
measure the polarization on Science, Space and public outreach team, which Technology to develop high series analysis and image the entire collection of
of the cosmic microwave Technology on Capitol Hill. aims to communicate the performance and reliable processing by contributing SPS SOCKs to a wider
background. importance and excitement electron devices for the to two research projects on audience, and aligning
of physics to the public. electronics industry. coronal heating and the with the Next Generation
solar wind. Science Standards (NGSS).
Marissa Murray Samantha Spytek Simon Wright Tabitha Colter Vanessa Espinoza Victoria DiTomasso
Georgetown Virginia Tech Wesleyan Furman Texas Lutheran CUNY Macaulay
University AIP History Intern— University University University Honors College
AIP FYI Science Policy contributed to new lesson AAPT/PTRA AIP Mather Policy NIST Research Intern— AIP History Intern—
Communications plans and other resources for Teacher Professional Intern—worked in worked with the National contributed to new lesson
Intern—researched the AIP Teachers Guides to Development Intern— congressional offices on Institute for Standards and plans and other resources for
and wrote unbiased the History of Women and designed and revised Capitol Hill, directly Technology to develop high the AIP Teachers Guides to
summaries of science policy African Americans in the resources for AAPT’s high engaging in science policy performance and reliable the History of Women and
developments for the physics Physical Sciences. school teacher professional issues and efforts in the electron devices for the African Americans in the
and astronomy communities. development programs. nation's capital. electronics industry. Physical Sciences.
SPS Scholarships
Multiple awards of $2,000 or more are made each year to individuals showing excellence in academics, SPS participation, and additional criteria.
Learn more and see photos and bios of the recipients at: https://www.spsnational.org/awards/scholarships.
SPS Outstanding Leadership Sally Dagher Nathaniel Smith Herbert Levy Memorial
Scholarship Kettering University DePauw University Scholarship
Jared Canright Daniela Marin
Hunter Hakimian James Stuckey
New Mexico Tech William Jewell College
Georgia Institute of Technology Rhodes College
Nicholas DePorzio AWIS Kirsten R. Lorentzen
Brittney Hauke Philip Travis
Northeastern University Award
Coe College University of Illinois at
Rosa Wallace Claire Baum
Tanveer Karim Urbana-Champaign
University of Colorado Denver University of Illinois
University of Rochester Bryant Ward
SPS Leadership Scholarships Science Systems and
Sarah Monk Utah State University
Nicolas Blanc Applications, Inc. (SSAI)
University of Maryland, Aysen Tunca Memorial Academic Scholarship
University of California,
College Park Scholarship Matthew Huber
Santa Cruz
Rose Myers Vanessa Chambers Rhodes College
Brandon Buncher Utah State University
Green River College SSAI Underrepresented
College of William and Mary
Aeli Olson Future Teacher Scholarship Student Scholarship
Sean Czarnecki Shannon Armstrong Grant Cates
Bethel University
Angelo State University Grove City College Linfield College

For Patrick Brady, LIGO’s Success is Just the Be
by Rachel Kaufman
When scientists working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave

Observatory (LIGO) announced in February that the observatory had detected
1
gravitational waves for the first time, physicists around the world were thrilled,
perhaps none more so than Patrick Brady, who has spent the last twenty years
of his life working on LIGO, now as an executive committee member of the
LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
For Brady, who has been fascinated by black holes since
childhood, LIGO’s success was a triumph.
About the Author “We knew there was something in the data very soon
Rachel Kaufman is a freelance writer and editor afterwards. I woke up in the morning after the event—it
based in Washington, DC. Her work, on science, arts, was about three hours after the wave had passed the earth,”
business, food, health, and more, has been published Brady says. “I was grinning from ear to ear, and wondering to
in the Washington Post, National Geographic News, myself, ‘Why am I grinning from ear to ear?’ And then I was
Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, and many like, ‘Yeah, this is a pair of black holes that collided a billion
other magazines, newspapers, and websites. She tweets years ago in the universe.’”
infrequently at @rkaufman. And now the real work begins.

he agreed to stay and work on the project. Brady’s role was to
help learn how to use LIGO as a new tool.
“The interesting thing about LIGO as an astronomical
observatory is that it’s a brand new tool. Nothing like it has
ever been used to look at the universe before.” It’s not as simple
as flipping a switch and getting results. People needed to
“learn how to analyze the data, how to interpret the data...how
to build the software that would take the data and use it to
figure out if there was a gravitational wave present.”
LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory, is an instrument originally proposed in the 1960s
to detect gravitational waves by looking for slight variations in
two laser beams that travel back and forth along 4 kilometer
long arms, eventually recombining near their origin points.
Any gravitational waves would change the length of the arms
slightly, which would create an interference pattern.
When Einstein first proposed the existence of gravitational
waves in 1916, measuring them seemed like an impossible
idea. “He said we’d never be able to do it,” Brady says.
LIGO was finally turned on in the early 2000s, which was a

long, arduous process.
“It wasn’t just one day,” Brady says. “The instruments
are very complicated. But even in that initial LIGO phase
when we went into our first science run, the first time that
we felt the instruments were good enough to try to search
for gravitational waves in a serious way, it was very exciting.
Above: Patrick Brady. Image courtesy of I do remember how excited we were. We didn’t see any
Patrick Brady
gravitational waves, but still, we were pretty thrilled.”
eginning
Left: A simulation of gravitational waves
generated by a binary black hole system. Yet it would be another decade and a half, and a series of
Image credit: iStock.com/gmutlu improvements designed to enhance LIGO’s sensitivity, before
the observatory made the announcement that the instrument
had detected gravitational waves from two black holes colliding.
The headlines all said that the detection vindicated
Einstein’s theories, which is true. But to Brady, the first
detection is only “the first checkmark.” He says that the point
Brady was born in Dublin and took to math and physics wasn’t to prove Einstein correct but to see what physicists can
early on. “Black holes were a big hit,” he says. now learn about the universe.
After getting both his bachelor’s and master’s at the LIGO “is a tremendous new way to start to learn about
University College Dublin, he moved to Canada to study what’s going on in the universe… It really does open up to us a
under cosmologist Werner Israel. new sense, just like vision or sound.
“We worked on some very esoteric concepts about black “The truth of the matter is, we get to first of all answer the
holes, [things] that will never be observed,” Brady says. It old question that was posed in 1916 by Einstein—are there
sounds like sci-fi, but essentially they were trying to determine gravitational waves? Absolutely, here you go. But now we get to
whether black holes really were wormholes to other universes. ask a whole new set of questions about how the objects in the
“This is a fascinating idea,” Brady says, “but ultimately one universe came to be, how they interact with each other, and
that, at least for now, can only be theorized about.” how they change over time—new astronomy that we’re going
“Someday we’ll go back to studying it again—for now I’m
to get to do over the next several years and decades.” r
focused on something that can be [measured.]”
Following the completion of his PhD, Brady went to the 1. B
. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration),
California Institute of Technology as a postdoc in 1995. After Observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger, Phys. Rev. Lett.
years of uncertainty, LIGO had finally been funded but not 116, 061102 (2016).
yet built.
“To some extent I didn’t realize how early on it was.” But

Rebel, Rebel:
Neil Turok Builds a Career o
Investigating the “Unpopular
by Rachel Kaufman
Neil Turok, to hear him tell it,

has always been a rebel.
As a student in primary school in Tanzania,
Turok says he had teachers who encouraged
learning by doing, “going outside as much as
possible, making electric motors, taking apart
cars.” So when he moved to London at age 10,
“I was horrified to find that people were doing
a hundred sums—which were boring—as a
mechanical exercise to learn how to do them.”

Since then, Turok’s been more or With Princeton cosmologist Paul Steinhardt, he developed
less poking holes in the dominant an alternative, cyclic model for cosmology in which instead of a
theories of the universe, as well as “big bang” there was a “big bounce” when a previous universe
doing other things that he’s been collapsed. But now Turok says, “I went off in this direction
told can’t be done. He worked not because I particularly believed it to be true, but because
with Stephen Hawking on the I thought it was an important intellectual exercise which
inflationary theory of the universe might teach us something about what is possible and what is
(and later rejected it); he now rejects impossible, and by doing that, broaden our minds to show us
most of the dominant theories of how much we don’t know. If you find two rival theories can
how the universe came to be. And explain the same phenomenon in completely different ways,
despite being told he was crazy for you’ve still learned something, because you’ve learned that
doing so, he founded an advanced neither is compelling. We developed the cyclical model more or
mathematical institute in Cape less in the slightly contrarian spirit.”
Town that has since expanded to Around the same time Turok and Steinhardt were
six locations across Africa to give publishing their “big bounce” papers, Turok was also working
young Africans a master’s-level on a deeply personal project. He turned a rundown art deco
math education. For this effort, hotel in Cape Town into the African Institute for Mathematical
which he believes will help ensure Sciences (AIMS), an institute where Africans from across the
that the next Einstein will be continent can pursue a higher education in math. The school
African, AIP awarded Turok the has expanded to six campuses and recently graduated its
2016 John Torrence Tate Award for 1,000th master’s-level student.
International Leadership in Physics, Originally, people thought Turok was “nuts” when he
which will be presented to him at proposed AIMS. “They said, ‘Africa needs clean water and
PhysCon this year. food and medicine. Why on earth would Africa need advanced
on
Born in South Africa to anti- research?’ The people who didn’t think it was nutty were the
apartheid activists, Turok’s young young Africans themselves.”
childhood was spent in Tanzania “It’s been probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done
after his parents, both of whom in my life,” he adds. “Most of the AIMS students are the first
had done jail time in South Africa, in their family ever to receive any form of higher education.
r”
fled the country. “Insects always Each time they go further, it’s significant for their communities
fascinated me, flowers, wildlife of and their country.” One AIMS graduate played a large role in
all kinds,” he tells SPS. “Living in helping to contain the Ebola crisis in West Africa. “He played
Africa was pretty amazing in that a big role in saving many lives, based on his mathematical
respect—we had a lot of interesting modeling on what different interventions would result in.”
bugs.” In London he joined the Other graduates have gone on to work in microfinance, lead
British Entomological and Natural NGOs, or work in universities around the globe.
History Society, becoming the first Turok now spends his time fundraising and advocating
child committee member of a club for AIMS, as well as continuing to study the mysteries of the
made up mostly of “retired gentleman naturalists.” universe. His new interests are in finding an even simpler way
He found physics “a bit lifeless” until he got to Cambridge, to explain the universe.
where he took physics as an “easy option.” But during the “This couldn’t be a more exciting time observationally,” he
course of that year Turok was exposed to cosmology, which he says, “but these observations are all pointing to [the idea] that
found “mindblowing.” “You have very simple and precise laws the universe is simpler than any of our current theories can
but they describe the biggest thing we know—the universe— explain. What I believe is these are clues toward a new principle
really well. The cosmos is very far from lifeless; it’s the origin of in physics which will explain why the universe is the way it is.
everything. So instead of being concerned about where does life My thinking has certainly evolved over the last five years, away
come from, I got interested in where everything came from.” from the types of models which are still popular in the field.
After graduating and working at Princeton, he came back to In my view, these are all too complicated and arbitrary and
Cambridge where he gave a talk about the primary cosmology contrived. The universe is speaking to us and telling us we’re
model he was studying at the time. This got Stephen Hawking’s missing a very important principle.” As for what that principle
attention. “We started working together developing his proposal is? Turok—along with no small number of AIMS graduates—
for the beginning of the universe.” As it happens, that rebellious will be pushing to find out. r
streak struck again: “In my view that work largely showed that
his proposal didn’t work,” Turok chuckles.

Four Things You’ll
Find at Google’s
“Moonshot Factory”
And Four Things You Won’t!
by Rachel Kaufman
Housed in a former shopping mall a

half mile from Google’s main campus
is a facility bursting at the seams
with off-the-wall ideas. Employees
skateboard and bike through the
massive halls. There are dogs.
Above: The Project Loon team prepares solar panels, electronics, and balloon envelopes for launch as the sun rises in
New Zealand. Photo courtesy of Project Loon / X. Bottom: Google self-driving vehicle prototypes were embellished by
local artists for a “Paint the Town” event in Austin, TX. Photo courtesy of Google

T
his is X (formerly Google X), the com- Project Wing
pany’s “moonshot factory” dedicated Move over, Amazon. Google’s getting into the drone product
delivery business.
to solving really, really tough world Announced in 2014, Project Wing involves autonomous
problems with really, really crazy technology. drones, developed by MIT roboticist Nick Roy, that Google
Headed by Sergey Brin, the lab is working on says will be able to deliver people’s orders in just a minute or
four major projects today. two. This will, according to X director Astro Teller, transform
people’s relationship to stuff. Why buy a drill that you use
Self-Driving Car once a year or stockpile batteries if you can rent the drill or buy
By 2020, Google’s self-driving cars will hit the market. That gives batteries one at a time?
X engineers just four more years to perfect their prototype. The technology behind the project has evolved significantly
Prototype self-driving cars have already traveled more than a since it was first announced. The team originally developed
million miles without human help, the equivalent of 75 years of a delivery system where the drone would lower packages to
driving practice. The cars have tackled Lombard Street’s hairpin the ground via winch, but a recently granted patent describes
turns, the Golden Gate Bridge, and roads around Lake Tahoe. “mobile delivery receptacles”—wheeled boxes on the ground that
There are still a few challenges to solve before they can be communicate with and guide the drones—that would accept a
unleashed on the public, though. The cars haven’t been tested package from a drone and move it to a secure holding location.
in snow and can’t tell the difference between a rock or a piece of
paper, so they swerve to avoid both. They haven’t quite figured
out how to avoid pedestrians who are about to step into an
intersection: one patent, granted to Google last fall, details ideas
like an LCD screen that displays “coming through,” a loudspeaker
for verbal warnings, and even a robotic hand that would wave.
Each of the tiny, podlike cars has about $150,000 in
equipment inside, so you’re not likely to see one as a personal
vehicle right away—think taxis and shuttles first.
Project Loon
Its name implies a touch of madness, but this idea may graduate
from X as soon as later this year.
The effort to supply high-speed Internet to underserved areas The Project Wing team is testing automated flight and delivery in rural California.
by launching Internet-connected balloons into the stratosphere Photo courtesy of Project Wing / X
is being tested in Sri Lanka this year, following successful
previous tests in New Zealand, California, and Brazil. India and
There are still regulatory hurdles to overcome, but Google
Indonesia are reportedly interested.
still says Project Wing could be making commercial package
In addition to the balloons, each as large as a tennis court,
delivery by drone as early as 2017.
with a lifespan of four months, Project Loon includes a device,
Those are the current four projects in development at X.
nicknamed Chicken Little, that can fill and launch the balloons
Others have already “graduated”—like Google Glass—and
in 30 minutes each. The balloons communicate with each other
others have been quietly killed after being deemed too out there.
in the air and shift altitude to catch winds that move them where
X tried to build a jetpack that proved too energy inefficient,
they need to go.
and a tiny hoverboard that didn’t scale up well to larger sizes. X
Makani also took a look at building a space elevator—rejected because
Some places are more suitable for wind turbines than others. of a lack of viable construction materials—and teleportation—
You need lots of land and wind that consistently blows—and rejected after concluding the idea violates the laws of physics.
neighbors who won’t complain about the view and kill a project But, pointed out journalist Eric Mack in a 2014 article, even
before it starts. those discussions ended up leading to insights into new
Enter Makani, which generates energy from wind using encryption technologies.
kites. Yep, you read that right. A specially designed kite in flight That’s why X encourages ideas and solutions “that sound
generates up to 600 kilowatts, sending the power back down impossible today, almost like science fiction.” Because you never
through a tether to earth. That’s enough to power over 100 homes. know where asking the right question might take you. r
Google purchased Makani Power in 2013 and rolled it into
X that year. In late 2015, Google posted a number of open
positions for Makani—including customer-facing positions like
sales engineers—hinting that the prototype is soon to become a
real product.

The High School Teacher
Joanna Lucero
High School Science Teacher at Ann Richards School for Young Women in Austin, TX
As a teacher, it’s my personal goal to get young adults thinking creatively, analytically, and
critically about the world around them. I get a thrill from seeing an “A-ha!” moment light up a
student’s face. It’s an amazing feeling to realize you’ve earned a young person’s trust—that he
or she looks to you for advice and will follow you on the journey to learn something new, even
when it means blundering through moments of “not knowing” in order to get there.
My mom was a middle school math and science teacher, but I never wanted to follow in
those footsteps. It looked like a hard job. It was her influence, however, that led me to ap-
preciate these subjects above all others. But they were very separate studies to me until I took
physics. Suddenly all the math I had been learning had a purpose, and I was overjoyed.
As an undergraduate student at Rochester Institute of Technology, I had the chance to
work on some nifty research, as well as be a teaching assistant for the fundamental physics
classes. I found that I really enjoyed working with others, helping guide students’ thinking,
and helping them grasp new concepts.
During undergrad I also got involved with a swing dance club. I was hooked. I started
Photo by Mary Freitag
traveling to learn to dance, bringing new moves back to my home scene and teaching them
to my peers. These experiences helped me develop confidence in my voice and a love of
sharing knowledge.
As a high school physics and geo-
science teacher, I am responsible for
planning, organizing, and presenting
instructional lessons. My lessons must
contribute to the academic and social
development of our students. I aim
to enhance their self-worth and equip
them with the basic scientific knowl-
edge and skills needed to function as
responsible and scientifically literate
members of the community.
For me, the most frustrating thing
to deal with is seeing students give up
Swing dancing helped Lucero realize her love of teaching.
on themselves. It makes me so sad, She is shown here dancing with David Lee at Stompology
and I take it as a personal failure. I 2014. Photo by Jessika Duquette.
keep trying to help them find another
aspect of the subject relatable and hope they’ll be inspired to keep trying. Studying physics
developed a sense of resiliency in me. It helps me push through professional and personal chal-
lenges on a daily basis, and I hope that I can instill the same sense of resiliency in my students.
It took me a long time to feel okay with not having pursued what I saw as a traditional
physics path after my bachelor’s degree. I felt guilty, like I was disappointing the folks who
had supported me, but a more traditional path just didn’t fit. If I had to give anyone advice
on their career path, physics student or otherwise, I’d say, “Play to your strengths and do the
things that bring you joy.” r

The Senior Solutions Architect
Ron Williams
Sr. Solutions Architect at American Airlines
I solve problems.
As a solutions architect, I design IT solutions for whatever problems my colleagues think
up. My job is to look at what technologies are available to solve a problem, how they can be
applied, and determine the best solution.
As an engineer you have a certain set of tools. If I give you a problem, you use those tools
to solve it. As a solutions architect it’s not what you know that matters, it’s what you don’t
know. Your job is to figure out what tools are available and use them to find a solution. It’s
because of my skills as a physicist that I’m able to quickly understand a situation and jump
into problem-solving mode.
I became a physicist in 7th grade. I was interested in length contraction and started asking
questions that my teacher couldn’t answer. My teacher, Mr. Allen, went out and got books for
me. I discovered Einstein and was a physicist from then on.
After getting my master’s in space physics in 1984, I was supposed to go to Rice
University to get a PhD. Instead, I ended up doing IT work for NASA. I supported other
Photo courtesy of Ron Williams
physicists, extracting science from the data of satellites and shuttle missions. After that I
did some work for the Department of Defense on the Star Wars program (the Strategic
Defense Initiative). We simulated flying missiles and used physics to blow things up and
see what happened.
I worked in IT and management for several companies in the 1990s. I solved problems in
budgets, technology usability, network performance, and project management. Because of
this, I spent the next several years working as a consultant. This took me all over the world,
from Brazil to the United Kingdom.
“It’s because of my skills as a physicist that I’m able to quickly

understand a situation and jump into problem-solving mode.”
Of all the problems I have worked on, one of the solutions that I am most proud of came
from my time as chief technical architect for Topgolf. Topgolf is a family-friendly driving
range in which you hit golf balls at various targets, depending on which game you are playing.
Hundreds of people can play at once, and the system has to keep track of everything in real
time. I designed the hardware, software, and engineering to make this possible.
I now work for American Airlines. As a senior solutions architect, knowledge about airport
planning or a particular American Airlines system is a lot less important than knowing how to
solve problems. I deal with lots of different vendors and lots of different technologies to solve
whatever problem needs solving. If something we need doesn’t exist yet, it’s my job to figure
out what to do.
My advice to Sigma Pi Sigma members is this: Always be willing to say, “Is there another
way of looking at this?” It’s important not to become rigid in your thinking and to know the
limits of your knowledge. Knowing that you don’t know something means that you can make
a change. r

Elegant Connections in Physics
The Journey
Toward
General
Relativity
Part 2: 1912–1913
by Dwight E. Neuenschwander
Professor of Physics, Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK
This is the second part in a He had come this far with a scalar field theory that treated the
speed of light c as a function of spacetime coordinates xμ, c
series outlining Albert Einstein’s = c(xμ). In this notation, xμ indicates the μ component of the
position vector.
In August 1912 Einstein and his family moved from Prague
development of the general theory back to Zürich. Seven years earlier in 1905, he had completed
his PhD from the University of Zürich, and in 1900 he had
of relativity. In Part 1 we saw that earned an undergraduate diploma from ETH, the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology,2 where Marcel Grossmann (Fig. 1) was
by mid-1911 Einstein1 a friend and classmate. In early 1912 Grossmann was a professor
of mathematics and dean at ETH, and sounded out Einstein
regarding returning there as a faculty member.
● knew that, in general, the equivalence principle held About the time his family returned to Zürich, it abruptly
only locally, and likewise the Lorentz transformation, became clear to Einstein that his scalar c-field theory of
implying the need of a larger invariance group (thus, gravitation would not be sufficient, and non-Euclidean
physical laws more complex than Maxwell’s equations for geometry was “the correct mathematical tool” for what would
electrodynamics were needed for gravitation); become the general theory of relativity. This was apparent,
he later wrote, “because of the Lorentz contraction in a
● had confidence in an action principle for a particle falling
reference frame that rotates relative to an inertial frame, the
freely in a gravitational field;
laws that govern rigid bodies do not correspond to the rules of
● realized the gravitational field equations must be Euclidean geometry.” As seen from an inertial frame, the ratio
nonlinear because gravitational field energy is a source of of circumference to diameter for a spinning disc is not equal to
gravitation;
Image by Matt Payne
π. In 1912 Einstein “suddenly realized that Gauss’s theory of

● had calculated gravitational redshift and predicted 0.83" surfaces holds the key… I suddenly remembered that Gauss’s
deflection of a light ray grazing the Sun, essentially the theory was contained in the geometry course given by [Carl
same as the Newtonian prediction. Friedrich] Gauss when I was a student.”3

Back in 1827, Carl Friedrich Gauss published surface of a sphere of radius R, the Gaussian curvature K = 1/
Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas (General R2 everywhere. Such ideas became applicable to physics when,
Investigation of Curved Surfaces), where he introduced the in 1908, Hermann Minkowski rewrote special relativity as
notion of studying geometry through its “inner” properties geometry by showing that the distance ds, or rather, its square
accessible to a geometer living in the space, without relying between two events in the spacetime, may be expressed
on a higher-dimensional embedding space. For instance,
a fundamental inner property is the distance ds between ds2 = c2dt − dx2 – dy2 – dz2 ≡ ημν dxμdxν , (1)
infinitesimally nearby points, where ds2 = gμνdxμdxν (noting
that repeated indices are summed over, which is also called which has zero curvature, a so-called “flat” spacetime.
the Einstein summation notation), with dxμ a coordinate A spinning disc is an accelerated disc, and by the principle
differential. As an example, in two dimensions the distance of equivalence, an accelerated frame is locally indistinguishable
between two points that are separated by dx in the x direction from a gravitational field. If the spacetime metric can be
and dy in the y direction would be ds2 = 1dx2 + 1dy2. changed by acceleration, it could also be changed by gravitation.
Conceptually, we know that the distance between two points Therefore, in the presence of a gravitational source, the
metric tensor components would change from the ημν of the
Minkowskian spacetime of Eq. (1) to some more general gμν.
Thus gravitation can be visualized as the curvature of spacetime!
Einstein set himself to the task of solving this problem of finding
the gμν supposing the gravitational source to be given. When
recalling the work of 1912, he later said:5
I had the decisive idea of the analogy between the
mathematical problem of [general relativity] and the
Gaussian theory of surfaces only in 1912… without being
aware at that time of the work of [Georg] Riemann,
[Gregorio] Ricci, and [Tullio] Levi-Civita. This [work]
was first brought to my attention by my friend Grossmann
when I posed to him the problem of looking for generally
covariant tensors whose components depend only on
derivatives of the [metric tensor] coefficients…
Einstein speaks here of tensor calculus applied to non-

Euclidean geometries in multidimensional spaces. Riemann,
Ricci, and Levi-Civita occupy honored places in the pantheon of
distinguished mathematicians who, in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, generalized the work of Gauss and other
non-Euclidean geometry pioneers.
On October 29, 1912, Einstein wrote these now-famous lines
in a letter to Arnold Sommerfeld:6
I am now occupied exclusively with the gravitational
Fig. 1. Classmates, left to right, Marcel Grossmann, Albert Einstein, Gustav Geissler,
and Eugen Grossmann near Zürich, May 28, 1899. Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
problem, and believe that I can overcome all difficulties
Albert Einstein Archives, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives with the help of a local mathematician friend. But one
thing is certain, never before in my life have I troubled
myself over anything so much, and that I have gained
on a sheet of paper is the same whether it lies flat or gets great respect for mathematics, whose more subtle parts
rolled into a cylinder; the third dimension need not be used to I considered until now, in my ignorance, as pure luxury!
determine distance on the paper. In contrast, the Pythagorean Compared with this problem, the original theory of
theorem gives the distance only between infinitesimally nearby relativity is childish.
points on the surface of a sphere. Thus a college campus can
be mapped with a Euclidean coordinate system, but mapping Interlude: Digression on Tensors
the Earth’s entire surface on a single such grid produces At this point let us pause to offer a few informal notes for readers
distortion, because a spherical surface and a plane have who, like Einstein in 1912, might appreciate a quick brushup on
different inner properties. For two-dimensional spaces, Gauss tensors. Here we seek descriptions, not definitions; strategic ideas,
derived a complicated expression for the “Gaussian curvature” not tactical details that can be found in textbooks.7
K that produces from the metric tensor components gμν and In the jargon of tensors, a scalar is a tensor of rank (or
their derivatives a number related to the curvature of the order) zero, and a vector a tensor of rank 1. Accordingly,
space.4 For the Euclidean plane example, the diagonal terms vector components carry one index; scalars have no indices.
g11 = g22 = 1 while the off-diagonal terms g12 = g21 = 0, and Higher-rank examples include the two-index rank-2 metric, the
Gauss’s expression gives K = 0. But for the two-dimensional quadrupole, and inertia tensors.

Tensors are formally defined by how they transform For Einstein’s program, its contracted form, the Ricci tensor
under a change of coordinates xμ → xʹμ. For λ to be a scalar, with components Rμν = Rλμλν, plays a central role. Now, back to
λʹ = λ for all coordinate transformations. Since vectors are the story…
displacements, then a vector component transforms the same as
a coordinate displacement. In other words, under a coordinate The Einstein-Grossmann Collaboration
transformation, since each new coordinate is a function When Einstein arrived at the ETH and asked Grossmann
of all the old coordinates, xʹμ = xʹμ(xν), by the chain rule it about tensors and general covariance, according to one
follows that dxʹμ = (∂xʹμ/∂ xν)dxν ≡ Λμνdxν, where the Λμν are witness Grossmann answered that Riemannian geometry
the coefficients parameterizing the transformation.8 A vector was needed, but he considered the Riemann tensor’s
with components Aμ transforms in the same way: Aʹμ = ΛμνAν. nonlinearity to be a disadvantage. However, Einstein knew
Informally, a rank-2 tensor is merely a product of two-vector, his gravitation theory had to be nonlinear.9 Thus began
or rank-1 tensor components, Tμν = AμBν, and thus in terms of the Einstein-Grossmann collaboration, where Grossmann
the formal definition, transforms as Tʹμν = ΛμρΛνσTρσ—and so on introduced Einstein to tensor calculus and Einstein applied
for tensors of higher rank. it to gravitation. Grossmann was happy to collaborate, but
Writing a scalar product as a sum of products of vector
components is maintained by introducing, corresponding to dxμ,
its dual dxμ according to dxμ = gμνdxν. For instance, in special
relativity with (x0, x1, x2, x3) ≡ (t, x, y, z) and ημν = diag(1, −1, −1,
−1), we find that dx0 = dt but dx1 = −dx.
Coordinate systems are not part of nature but are mappings
introduced for convenience. Therefore physics equations must
be written in languages that transcend the choice of coordinates.
This can readily be done by writing them with tensors. For
if the equation Tμν = Sμν holds in one reference frame, and if
these terms are tensor components, then under a coordinate
transformation the relation Tʹμν = Sʹμν also holds—as go the
coordinates, so go tensor components. A scalar is invariant under
the transformation (λʹ = λ), but vectors and higher-rank tensors
transform covariantly—although Tμν = Sμν and Tʹμν = Sʹμν, Tμν
does not necessarily equal Tʹμν , and Sμν does not necessarily
equal Sʹμν. But the relation between tensors T and S is preserved.
The plot thickens: the derivative of a tensor such as ∂νAμ
(using a compact notation for ∂Aμ/∂xν) does not respect the
rules of tensor transformation! This spells trouble, because
most physics principles are expressed as differential equations.
Happily, the situation can be salvaged by enlarging the definition
of the derivative, from ∂ν into the “covariant derivative” Dν. For
example, applied to a rank-1 tensor, ∂νAμ → DνAμ ≡ ∂νAμ + ΓμλνAν,
where the Christoffel symbol (after Elwin Christoffel) or “affine
connection” is a nontensor that may be written as
Γμλν = ½gμρ[∂λgνρ + ∂νgλρ − ∂ρgλν ], (2)

Profile portrait of Marcel Grossmann. © ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf:
Schmelhaus, Franz / Portr_00121
with g a component of the multiplicative inverse of gμρ so
μρ
that by definition gμρ gνρ = δμν, which is the Kronecker delta

(equal to 1 if μ = ν and 0 if μ ≠ ν). Tensor indices are raised as a mathematician he inserted a caveat: “…He was ready to
and lowered with gμρ and gμρ, e.g., gμρTμν = Tρν and gμρSμν = Sρν. collaborate on this problem under the condition, however,
In a transformation, the terms that prevent ∂ν and Γμλν from that he would not have to assume any responsibility for any
separately being tensors cancel out in the covariant derivative assertions or interpretations of a physical nature.”10 The
Dν. Thus DνAμ transforms as a respectable rank-2 tensor, (Dμ Einstein-Grossmann paper, “Outline of a Generalized Theory
Aν)ʹ = ΛρμΛνσ (DρAσ). Covariant derivatives can be defined for of Relativity and of a Theory of Gravitation,” was published
tensors of higher rank, with upper or lower or mixed indices. in 1913.11
Significantly, the covariant derivative of the metric tensor A trajectory of a particle falling freely in a gravitational
always vanishes. field would be determined by the variational principle δ∫ ds =
A generalization of Gauss’s curvature K is found in the 0, where ds2 = gμνdxμdxν. The task was to construct the field
rank-4 Riemann curvature tensor, a kind of leftover residue equations that determine the gμν for a given a gravitational
from the commutator DμDν − DνDμ, with components source. In the static, weak-field limit, those field equations
would have to reduce to the field equation of Newtonian theory,
Rλμνρ ≡ (∂ρΓλμν + ΓλρσΓσμν) – (∂νΓλμρ + ΓλνσΓσμρ). (3) where the gravitational potential Φ follows from the mass

density ρ according to Poisson’s equation, Acknowledgment

Thanks to Brad R. Conrad for reading a draft of this manuscript
∆Φ = 4πGρ, (4) and making useful suggestions.
where G denotes Newton’s gravitational constant and ∆ the References

Laplacian (using the notation fashionable during Einstein’s and [1] “The Journey Toward General Relativity, Part 1: 1907–1912,”
Grossmann’s time). Radiations 22 (1), Spring 2016, 19–25.
[2] ETH = Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, the Federal Institute
The conservation laws would have to be respected, too.
of Technology. In 1895 Einstein failed his first go at the entrance exam
In Newtonian mechanics the local conservation of mass finds to the ETH—there is hope for all students who struggle. See Abraham
expression as an equation of continuity, Pais, Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford
∂ρ University Press, 1982), 521.
__
,
∇∙(ρv) + ∂t = 0 (5) [3] Pais, ref. 1, 211–212.
[4] Steven Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology (Wiley, 1972), 8–11.
where v denotes velocity. In going from Newtonian to generally [5] Pais 212. The same passage describes how in 1909, Max Born
covariant gravitation, on the right-hand side of Eq. (4) the mass presented a paper on rigid body dynamics in special relativity that
employed Riemannian geometry ideas. We do not know for certain
density ρ would generalize to an energy-momentum tensor Tμν;
whether Born’s presentation influenced Einstein’s thinking, but we do
precedents are found in hydrodynamics and electromagnetism. know that Einstein attended the conference.
In the Lorentz covariance of special relativity, Eq. (5) [6] Einstein to Sommerfeld, October 29, 1912, The Collected Papers
generalizes to ∂ρTρσ = 0, which expresses energy conservation of Albert Einstein (CPAE) Vol. 5, The Swiss Years: Correspondence,
for matter and electromagnetic fields. In general relativity this 1902–1914, Klein, Martin J., Kox, A.J., and Schulmann, Robert, eds.
local conservation law generalizes further, through the covariant (Princeton University Press, 1993), Doc. 421.
derivative, into [7] E.g., Weinberg, ref. 3, ch. 2; D.E. Neuenschwander, Tensor Calculus
for Physics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
[8] E.g., special relativity has the famous tʹ = γ(t – vx/c2) where γ ≡ (1 –
DρTμσ = ∂ρTμσ + ΓμρνTνσ + ΓσρνTμν = 0. (6)
v2/c2)−1/2, so that Λtt = ∂tʹ/∂t = γ and Λtx = = ∂tʹ/∂x = −γv/c2.
[9] Pais, ref. 2 (quoting E.G. Straus), 213.
However, the ΓT terms gave some interpretation problems to [10] Ibid. 219.
Einstein and his colleagues, as we shall see when our story [11] Albert Einstein and Marcel Grossmann, Zeitschrift für Mathematik
continues in Part 3 of “The Journey Toward General Relativity.” r und Physik 62, 225 (1913).

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π. In 1912 Einstein “suddenly realized that Gauss’s theory of

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Einstein speaks here of tensor calculus applied to non-

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Γμλν = ½gμρ[∂λgνρ + ∂νgλρ − ∂ρgλν ], (2)

that by definition gμρ gνρ = δμν, which is the Kronecker delta

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density ρ according to Poisson’s equation, Acknowledgment

where G denotes Newton’s gravitational constant and ∆ the References

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