Record of 2013-2014 activities

Here you can find all information about future Photon activities, including rundowns of future meetings.

(Edit: this is up to date as of March 2014)

On the Horizon

  • A potential SPS Zone Meeting, held at BU!
  • Semester Project: Zeusaphone
  • Photon physics outreach
  • Many more guest speakers: including Michael Gertsenshteyn, and more TBA
  • Photon member speakers: including Ryan Gelly, Ben Dickens, Jon Makkinje, and more TBA
  • Rescheduled Grand Finale
  • SPS Picnic
  • Blue Hills Day Trip
  • Survey Raffle

Semester Highlights

  • Photon Goes to The Museum of Science! Saturday, September 28th
  • BU Physics Pumpkin Drop 2013
  • Speakers: including Nicholas Schade (metamaterials physics), Lina Necib (theoretical particle physics, cosmology)
  • Photon research projects: Vishal Bala (Black Hole Imaging), Gerard Lawler (Validation of the Mars International Reference Ionosphere)
  • First Annual Explosion Day
  • Frog Pond Ice Skating and SPS Mixer

Semester Project On the horizon is the construction of a Zeusaphone (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeusaphone or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Km49gm7GI). We’re currently seeking a place to build it, but in the meantime, here is a reasonable article explaining how we might build one: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Musical-Tesla-Coil-like-a-Pro/. If you’d like to be involved, then we urge you to look this over.

  • April 19th (Saturday)

– Blue Hills hiking day trip

  • April 12th (Saturday)

– SPS Picnic and Mixer

  • April 4th

– Brief LA introduction with Mark Greenman and research presentation by Ryan Gelly

  • February 28th

– Student Project: Measurement of Mpembe Effect

  • February 21st

– Featured demo: Fruit-based plasma creation

  • February 14th

– “Physics of Cancer Evolution” by Prof. Korolev – Featured demo: steam-powered glass bottle vacuum

  • February 7th

– Planning meeting – Featuring: results of Ryan Gelly’s optical experiment

  • January 31st

-Prof Carey’s movie night, film TBA -Featuring: Ryan Gelly’s optical experiment

  • January 24th

-Zeusophone discussion -Planning meeting

  • January 17th

-First meeting of the new semester -Planning meeting for upcoming events -Featuring: vacuum and suction experiments

  • December 13th

-Study Period Lunch Break

  • December 6th

-Mark your calendars. It’s EXPLOSION DAY! -Featuring: Coke and Mentos, Vinegar and Baking Soda, Elephant’s Toothpaste, and the Grand Finale

  • November 22nd

-Professor presentation -Game of the Week: Professor Liar

  • November 15th

-Student speaker: Gerard Lawler – Validating the Mars International Reference Ionosphere -Experiment: Aerodynamics of air hockey

  • November 8th

-Tesla coil demonstration -Making and testing lemon/potato batteries and maybe pickle light bulb

  • October 4th:

-Student speaker: Vishal Bala – Imaging Black Holes and their Blazars -Work on semester project: Zeusaphone -Possible experiment

  • September 27th:

-Guest speaker: Nicholas Schade – Metamaterials and their awesome applications (think invisibility cloaks) -Experiment: Measuring the speed of light with chocolate, marshmallows, and microwaves.

  • September 20th:

-Discussion of zone meeting, semester project -Experiment: Several experiments with the Van de Graaf generator

  • September 13th (first meeting!!):

-Introduction to Photon; discussion of plans for this year -Ice breakers -Experiment: Forced resonance of non-newtonian fluids using loudspeakers