100 campus drive weatherford, ok 73096-3089 …...moin khan (karachi, pakistan) took a job with...

MOUTH-WATERINGFAREDateline....Saturday

, May 5, 2007, Crowder LakeUniversity Park, 6 p.m. The an-nual Physics Shish-kebab willfeature an unbelievable array ofmouth-watering foods, plenty ofoutdoor activity, good companyand conversation, and (ofcourse) the annual IgnobleAwards (for honors of dubiousdistinction). Join us for a re-laxing evening. We’ll belooking for you!

MEN OFDISTINCTIONAs reported here

last year, two

SWOSU Physics

grads were named

SWOSU Distinguished Alumni

in 2006. Mr. John Aaron

(‘64) and Dr. Benny Hill (‘57)

were the speakers at the 2006

Convocation Ceremony last

May. Graduating seniors were

inspired by the advice and vi-

sion offered from two ordinary

Okies with very extraordinary

accomplishments achieved by

valuing life-long education, a

solid work ethic, and a well-

grounded view of what is pos-

sible. Congratulations John

and Benny!

COME ONE,

COME ALLYou are gra-ciously invited tojoin us at Ban-

quet XXVI. The 26 annualth

Spring Physics Banquet will be-gin at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday,April 21, 2007, in the newly-remodeled SWOSU StudentUnion Ballroom. Come checkout the new decor while diningwith old friends and applaudingthe accomplishments of ourhard-working students. Theevening will be topped off witha presentation by 1991 AlumnusRoyce Snider. Tickets are $12and may be paid for at the door. We do request advance reserva-tions by April 18 so we can pro-vide a head-count to the caterers. Call us (580-774-3109), drop us anote (100 Campus Dr, Weather-ford, OK 73096), or e-mail us [email protected] to let usknow how many will be in yourparty.

A new scientific truth does nottriumph by convincing itsopponents and making themsee the light, but rather becauseits opponents eventually die out,and a new generation grows upthat is familiar with it. –MaxPlanck

THIS YEAR’S

SPEAKER:

ROYCE

SNIDER Royce Snider (‘91) has graciously

agreed to speak at the 2007

Spring Physics Banquet. Following

his graduation from SWOSU, Mr.

Snider completed an M.S. in Aero-

nautical Engineering from The

George Washington University in

1993. He was employed for Boeing

Defense and Space Group, Heli-

copter Division supporting the

RAH-66 Comanche Analytical

Integration IPT, Comanche Acous-

tic flight test and the V-22

Acoustic Loads Survey, and more

recently has been at Bell Helicop-

ter in the role of Senior Engineer/

Engineering Specialist in the

Structural Dynamics and Acous-

tics groups. In December 2004,

Royce was promoted to the posi-

tion of Senior Engineering Special-

ist, Structural Dynamics while

supporting the H-1 Upgrades

flight test program at Patuxent

River, MD. He then made the

transition back to the Acoustics

group since completing the flight

test program in 2005. Royce’s pri-

mary responsibilities are to pro-

vide overall technical direction and

oversight for the Acoustics Group

research efforts, manage the pro-

gram and budget and communicate

with government/internal

customers and Bell, management

Department of Chemistry & Physics g 100 Campus Drive g Weatherford, OK 73096-3089

PHYSICS ALUMNI NEWSLETTERSpring 2007

http://swosu.edu/academics/physics g [email protected] g Terry Goforth, Editor

SWOSU PHYSICS ALUMNI NEWSLETTER , page 2 SPRING 2007

of the status of technologies and

projects that impact their busi-

ness. He has established himself

as the primary POC for internal

noise reduction and sonic loads

technical efforts. He has man-

aged multiple IRAD and CRAD

programs and authored various

technical specifications support-

ing the BA609 Tiltrotor Analyti-

cal Integration IPT and has parti-

cipated in the highly successful

joint NASA/Army/ BHTI flight

test program. During this test

program, the XV-15 tiltrotor air-

craft was flown over a large area

microphone array deployed near

Waxahachie, TX. While maintain-

ing handling qualities and safety

under IFR conditions, approach

profiles were designed achieving a

noise reduction of 6 dB or more,

a Level 1 Milestone of the Short

Haul Civil Tiltrotor Program.

Royce currently lives in Haslet,

TX, with his wife and two

children.

There is something fascinatingabout science. One gets suchwholesale returns of conjectureout of such a trifling investmentof fact. –Samuel LanghorneClemens (Mark Twain)

WAY TO GOGRADS!SWOSU’s Classof 2006 in-cluded threefreshly-minted B.S.Engineering Physicsgraduates. Moin Khan(Karachi, Pakistan)took a job with Chesa-

peake Energy in OKC. He has since decidedto pursue graduatestudies in mathemat-ics. Santosh Bhatt(Kathmandu, Nepal)will be finishing anM.S. in Nuclear Engin-eering from theUniversity of Cincin-nati in the Summer of2007. Since U Cincin-nati is phasing outtheir Nuclear Engin-eering program,Santosh plans totransfer next fall sohe can complete aPh.D. in the samefield. Chantz Drake(Elk City) graduatedin December and is nowemployed bySchlumberger.

Reality is that which, when youstop believing in it, doesn't goaway. –Philip K. Dick

BE A HEROWould you like tosupport the physicsscholarship funds? It’s easy to do. Justsend your tax-deductible check either to Dr.Goforth in the Physics Programor directly to the SWOSUFoundation Office. Be sure tospecify which fund you wish tocontribute to (JR Pratt, ArthurMcClelland, or Physics Unre-stricted). You may be able todouble your contribution–be sureto check on your employer’s poli-cy on matching contributions. It’s as simple as that. Remem-

ber, every little bit helps. If youcan’t make it to the banquet,consider contributing the cost ofa banquet ticket. It may not seemlike much, but it does add up,and the students who receivescholarships are truly apprecia-tive of the assistance.

UP, UP, ANDAWAYThe Physics andEngineering Clubheld a rocket com-

petition early last fall. The roc-kets were made of paper andlaunched using compressed air. The trick to achieving long dis-tances is stability. The tradition-al solution is to include at least 3fins to achieve static (rotational)stability (two are stable only in aplane). Interestingly enough,our winner used a single curvedfin that spun the rocket upenough to give it dynamic stabili-ty. We are also investigating thetheory and design of simplehovercrafts. The club is current-ly working toward obtaining allof the materials necessary tobuild one or more workingmodels.

A ROADMAP

FOR SUCCESSDr. Tony Stein led a

question-and-answer

session for the Physics and

Engineering Club to discuss

scholarships, internships, how to

build a strong resume and provide

positive material to help the

faculty write strong letters of

recommendations, and many


other practical tips to help

students succeed at Southwestern

Oklahoma State University and

beyond.

ONE FOR

THE

ROADMany of our students areconsidering graduate school,so a trip to visit the physicslaboratories at OSU seemedlike the perfect fall outing. Unfortunately, extremeweather forced us to re-schedule the event. We arecurrently planning to makethe trip on March 15.

No other trips are plannedfor this spring, but we arealways looking for ideas forfuture trips. National labs,industrial labs, spacecenters, SPS/APS/AAPTregional meetings, and jobfairs are just a few of theplaces we’ve visited in thepast. If your company ororganization is open toproviding tours for studentgroups, please feel free tocontact us.

AND

THERE

WAS MUCH

REJOICING

All work and no play makes Jack a

dull boy. With that in mind, the

Physics and Engineering Club

always schedules a healthy dose of

recreation to relax the body and

renew the mind. What is a trip to

Houston without a visit to Galves-

ton Beach? The heavy city traffic

was a bit unnerving to folks accus-

tomed to the more leisurely pace of

rural western Oklahoma, but it was

well worth the effort.

The annual shisk-kebab provided a

break during spring finals. Crowder

Lake proved to be an idyllic setting.

SWOSU now owns and operates

Crowder Lake University Park

where activities include rappelling, a

rock-climbing wall, canoeing, and a

nature trail. As always, no one went

away hungry, but a few lucky (?)

souls walked away with an Iggie (Ig-

noble)–the “award” that no one

really wants to write home about.

We opened the new school year

with our traditional hamburger fry.

This year’s venue was the Yard of

the CPP building just outside of

our back door. Returning students,

new students, faculty, family, and

friends gathered to enjoy the food

and fresh air. The Halloween

party ‘featured’ a Halloween ‘movie’

that is probably best forgotten (at

least until our next Iggy awards).

The semester’s activities wrapped

up with a round of Dirty Santa at

the Physics Christmas and Holiday

party which was graciously hosted

by Dr. Stein and his wife Ann.

AND THE AWARDGOES TO...April Fool’s Day,2006. Despite threatsof thunderstorms,hail, and possibly worse, thePhysics Spring Banquet went offwithout a hitch. With universitypersonnel keeping an eye on theweather forecasts for us, some 40physics students, faculty, admini-strators, family, and friendsshared a pleasant (indoors) eve-ning. Honors and awards werebestowed, recognition was given,and imaginations were sparked. The SWOSU Chapter of SigmaPi Sigma grew by two members–Tyrel Crall (Sr, Weatherford),and Melissa Gard (‘89, Houston,TX) joined the honor ranks. Moin Khan (Sr, Karachi, Pakis-tan) received the J.R. PrattAward for the Outstanding Stu-dent in Physics and JonathonWallace (Jr, Weatherford) wasrecognized as the OutstandingMidclassman in Physics. New-comer Justin Silkwood (Fr,Norman) was selected as the Out-standing New Physics ClubMember. Graduating seniorsMoin Khan and Santosh Bhatt(Kathmandu, Nepal) were pre-sented with medallions to wearduring convocation designatingthem as Graduating with Honorsand recognized for being selectedto Who’s Who.

Several scholarships were award-ed to recognize achievement andto assist and encourage continuedsuccess. David Chantz Drake(Sr, Elk City) received the $1,000


J.R. Pratt Scholarship. A $750Arthur McClelland MemorialScholarship was awarded toJustin Silkwood, and three$750 Physics AlumniScholarships were given toBhaskar Basnet (Jr,Kantifajpath, Nepal), VishnuPokhrel (Chetrapur, Nepal), andAshis Shresthra (Jr,Weatherford). These scholar-ships are made possible throughthe generous contributions ofalumni, faculty, and friends ofthe physics program, and wewish to express our sincerestgratitude to all who support thescholarship funds. We were alsopleased to announce thatJonathan Keahey (Jr, Craw-ford) had been selected toreceive a $250 Arts & SciencesDean’s Scholarship.

The grand finale of the eveningwas a wonderful presentation byalumna Melissa (Missy DuBiel)Gard (‘86), Sr Manager of theISS Mission Evaluation Room atNASA’s Johnson Space Centerin Houston. Missy entertainedand educated us withdescriptions of the challenges ofdesigning, assembling, andmaintaining the InternationalSpace Station, and provided uswith some insight into themanagement needed for such alarge project. She also gave us aglimpse of the technological,scientific, and politicalachievements realized with theISS. At the end of the evening,Oklahoma’s spring weatherthreat had failed to develop, so

friendly conversation continuedlong after the formal programended.

People may believe correctthings for the damndest andweirdest of wrong reasons. –Stephen Jay Gould

Mini

Adventures

of Micro Manby Dr. CharlesRogersOccasionally students do askgood questions. No, don’tsneer! They really do, I myselfhave been asked many–well,OK, probably less than a dozenover 35 years of teaching. But inmy last class we were discussingthe tensile and compressivestrength of various materials andsomeone asked if the 50-footwoman would have been able towalk. Now that is a good ques-tion because it was both perti-nent and it captured the class’sattention. You haven’t heardabout the 50-foot woman? Shewas in a 1958 film, “Attack of the50-Foot Woman.” Apparentlyher husband was cheating, shecomplained, but he ignored her. Then she came across a hugealien in the California desert, andalthough she managed to es-cape and tell about it, no onewould believe her. However, thealien had exposed her to someradiation that later made hersuddenly grow 50 feet tall. Noone could ignore her now! Shewent around seeking revengeand wrecking stuff.

Suppose she started out as 5feet tall and weighing 100

pounds. If she were scaled upby a factor of 10, her weightscales like the volume and wouldgo up a factor of 10 to 100,0003

pounds, but her strength goesup like the cross-sectional areaof her muscles which scales on-ly as 10 or a factor of 100. This2

is the famous “square-cube” law. Her strength relative to herweight is 10 times less than be-fore. A leg is about 15% of aperson’s mass. When she wassmall, suppose her leg musclescould have lifted twice that or30% of her mass; in other wordsshe could have walked with a 15pound shoe on each foot. Butafter she grew giant sized, herleg muscles could only lift 1/10of that or 3%. Now that is animpressive 3,000 pounds, buther new legs weigh a moreimpressive 15,000 pounds–each. She probably couldn’t lifta foot to take a step!

I was still thinking about thatwhile sitting at my desk afterclass. My door was shut, it waswarm and quiet, and I becamevery sleepy. I took out a pillowthat I keep for such occasionsand put it on my desk. It mightbe time for a new pillow sincethis one was shedding feathers. As soon as I placed my head onthe pillow, I suddenly found notjust my head, but my whole selfon the pillow. I must have beenonly a centimeter or two tall, be-cause the pillow lay all about meand looked as big as half of afootball field. My heart wasbeating so fast that it hummed–I’m sure it was hundreds ofbeats per minute. As I breathed,the air seemed noticeably vis-cous in my throat. Becominglight-headed, I sat down to think.


“I seem to have been down-scaled,” I thought. I wished Ihad a ruler so I could measuremy new height. As I lookedabout I saw a 4' x 8' sheet ofbrightly painted Masonite. When I walked up to it I saw itwasn’t Masonite, it was a book-mark with a convenient centime-ter scale along one edge. Lyingbeside it, I saw that I was now1.75 centimeters tall. That wasconvenient since my normalheight is 1.75 m, so I had beenscaled down by a factor of 100. My need for oxygen shouldscale like my volume, so I need-ed 100 less, but the area of my3

lungs where oxygen passes intomy blood stream is only 1002

times less, so I was probablygetting too much oxygen. I con-centrated on shallow breathingand breathing less often. Ithelped, but it was hard toremember to control mybreathing when I was used tobreathing taking care of itself.

Now what else should I expect? Poiseuille’s law that resistanceto flow went like the inversefourth power of the radius of theconduit meant that air flowingthrough my throat and lungsexperienced 100 times more4

resistence– probably the reasonI wasn’t having more troublewith over-oxygenation. Whatabout air drag? That dependedon area and velocity squared. Area would be down by 100 ,2

but what about velocity? 0.9meters per second, or half abody length per second, wouldbe an unhurried walking speed. At my current size, that wouldbe about 0.009 meters/second,or 100 times less. No surprisethere. Squaring the velocity

would reduce the drag forceanother factor of 100 for a total2

reduction of 100 . Air drag4

should be no problem, and I hadnoticed none.

Suddenly I felt really cold andfamished. Let’s see. I generateheat in my volume which de-creased by 10 and radiate it3

according to my area which onlydecreased 10 –no wonder I was2

cold! A white, curiously flat, tum-ble weed drifted by. No, it wasn’ta tumble weed, it was a feather,and several more of them werelying around. My fingers trem-bling with the cold, I managed toundo a few shirt buttons andstuff feathers under my shirt. The insulation helped, but I wasstill ravenously hungry. I walkedover to the edge of the pillow,taking care not to slip off. I wasfive or six times my height abovethe desk, but there was a beauti-ful saucer of grapes not far fromthe pillow. Food!

I probably could have jumped upat least 10% of my height when Iwas big. That would go up by100 now, so I should be able tojump 10 times my current height. Further calculations would haveto wait because in spite of mycare, I found myself slipping overthe side. I worked to keep myfeet under me as I slid and fell tothe desk. Bracing for impact, Iinadvertently sprang up as myfeet struck the desk and foundmyself sailing twice as high asthe pillow. As I struck the desk asecond time, I stumbled a bit butmanaged not to sail off again. Iwalked quickly to the grapes andsprang adroitly onto the saucer. With teeth and fingernails, Ibroke through the skin of the

nearest grape and began eatinghandfuls of grape insides. Sud-denly a large, ugly dog pulled thegrape away from me; no, not adog, but a great red ant! Deter-mined that he would not keep mygrape, I ducked under the men-acing mandibles and seizing theant’s foreleg, I whirled him overmy head, and threw him off thedesk. But instead of hearing thedistant thud of an ant hitting thefloor, I was awakened by thesound of my head slipping fromthe pillow and hitting the desk.

Groggy, but returned to myrightful size, I stood and lookeddown. A wild and very angry antwas racing around like a two-year-old toddler on a sugar high. Besides, ants are full of formicacid, and that can’t be good forthe disposition. He keptstopping and looking at my shoe,no doubt looking for the bestway up so he could bite my leg. I had one obvious choice, Istepped on him. Being the sizenature intended has itsadvantages.

A DEMO IS

WORTH A

THOUSAND

PAGES...Physics and Engineering Daycontinues to be a major eventfor the Physics Division andthe Physics and EngineeringClub. Approximately 125area high school studentsvisited SWOSU early in No-vember and were wowed andamazed by a variety of educa-tional demonstrations ofphysics performed by bothfaculty and students. Thegoal of this activity is to pro-


mote better understanding ofphysics and science in gen-eral, and to familiarize highschool students withSWOSU and the EngineeringPhysics Program.

Truth does not change becauseit is, or is not, believed by amajority of the people. –Giordano Bruno

SUMMERS

ARE FOR

LEARNINGPhysics faculty

managed and/or taught for

several summer science

camps last summer. Dr.

Charles Rogers assisted in

three camps. SMART (Sci-

ence and Mathematics Acad-

emy for Rural Teachers),

brings in area science and

math teacher to expand their

knowledge in their chosen

fields and to provide them

with simple demonstration

equipment and instructions

how to effective use the

demos. High school students

interested in science and

math can attend the Summer

Science and Math Academy

(SSMA) to be challenged and

hopefully to foster their inter-

ests in these fields. The

SureStep program selects

minority and female students

with an interest in majoring

in science, math, or engi-

neering fields. These stu-

dents are in their senior year

in high school and attend the

summer academy in the

summer before they enter

college. Dr. Wayne Trail

coordinated and managed

the Bernard Harris

ExxonMobile/ NASA Summer

Science Camp, which is aimed

at minority junior high

students with an interest in

science. Dr. Tony Stein

assisted with and taught

classes for the Bernard Harris

Camp. Dr. Terry Goforth

taught classes in physical

science and ACT preparation

for Upward Bound, a program

that identifies high school stu-

dents with the potential to

succeed in college who lack a

college-graduate role model

in their immediate family.

Dr. Stein and Dr. Goforth

did some learning of their

own as well by attending one-

week sessions of the Activity-

Based Physics Faulty Institute

at Dickinson College in Car-

lisle, PA. The institute was a

crash-course in using activi-

ties rather than lectures to

teach physics in the

classroom.

Any sufficiently advancedtechnology is indistinguishablefrom magic. –Arthur C. Clarke

PRETTY AS

A PICTUREThe remodeling

effort on the first floor of the

north wing of the Chemistry/

Physics/Pharmacy building is

(almost) complete. We were able

to move into our nearly-like-new

classrooms and labs at the start of

the Fall 2006 semester. New

features include ceiling-mounted

projection systems, new insulated

windows, and a new student

lounge, complete with refrigerator,

sink, and cabinets, in the space that

was once a computer lab just out-

side the physics offices. A few

details remain to be completed

such as shelves in the new stock-

room and in the remodeled intro-

ductory lab. Come on by–we’ll

give you a tour!

STOP AND SMELL

THE ROSESSome of you maybe aware that Dr.

Ray Jones (faculty, retired)has been battling a malig-nant melanoma on his leg forseveral years. This particularmalignancy has been ex-tremely slow-growing, makingit slow to spread but also verydifficult to fight with traditionalcancer treatments whichgenerally target cells withhigh metabolic rates. Unfortu-nately, the cancer has nowspread beyond the one leg.But the folks at MD Andersonin Houston believe that withcontinued treatment Dr.Jones can continue his pro-jects and studies for years tocome. Our thoughts are withhim during his chemotherapytreatments, and we continueto enjoy his company whenhe has a chance to visit us.

The trouble with people is notthat they don't know but thatthey know so much that ain't so. –Henry Wheeler Shaw (JoshBillings)


What Is Gravito-magnetism?By Stan Robertson

We in the U.S. havespent about $700million to conduct theGravity Probe B experiment. It isincredibly elaborate and it is wellworth the time to it takes to learna little about it (seehttp://einstein.stanford.edu/). The Gravity Probe B satellitecarried four spinning quartzspheres the size of ping-pongballs coated with superconductingfilm and machined to micro inchtolerances. The spinning spheres’gyroscopic axes were expected toprecess a few thousandths of onesecond of arc in the gravitomag-netic field of earth in one year.General Relativity is the mostprominent of the gravity theoriesthat provides predictions of theprecessions to be measured. Italso provides predictions of sub-tle oscillations in the earth-moondistance that can be measure tocentimeter accuracy by laser lunarranging. Some understanding ofthese effects can be gained byconsidering the analogy withelectromagnetism.

(1 - Background)In E&M we learned that electricand magnetic fields can exertforces on a charged particle ac-cording to the Lorentz force law:

F = qE + qu × Bwhere F is the force on charge q,E and B are the electric and mag-netic field vectors and u is the ve-locity of q through the fields. Inmodern physics we learned thatmagnetic fields can be regarded

as side effects of motion. Whatmay seem like a magnetic field inone frame of reference can appearto be an electric field in a framemoving with the charges that con-stitute an electric current.

To provide a concrete example ofthis, let charges -q (negative) and+Q (positive) be separated initiallyby a distance b along the y axis.Imagine that Q is fixed to the ori-gin of coordinates and let bothcharges be moving along the x-axis at speed v. In a frame movingwith the charges, the only forcethat affects the charges is an elec-trostatic attraction. Under its influ-ence, -q should be attracted to-ward +Q and will take some time,say T, to fall some distance toward+Q. We could consider this ar-rangement to be an interval timer,with the time T determined by thedistance to be traversed down they-axis.

In the frame with respect to whichthe charges are moving at speed v,(call it the lab frame) things are alittle different. The charges mov-ing down the x-axis are somewhatlike electric currents and they willrepel each other a little due to themagnetic force between them.More exactly, the charge +Q willproduce a magnetic field due to itsmotion given by

B=(v × E)/c2

where c is the speed of light and Eis the electric field due to +Q.When this expression for B is putinto the Lorentz force equationabove, and we recognize that -q isalso moving with speed u=v, thenwe find that the overall force on -q is weaker by the factor (1 -v /c ). This is very interesting2 2

because in this lab frame theweaker force will have the effectof lengthening the time of fall bythe factor (1 - v /c ) . This is2 2 -½

exactly the time dilation that wecould have expected on the basisof just considering the twocharges as an interval timer. Mag-netic forces give us a mechanismfor producing time dilation.

(2 - Gravity)In relativistic gravity theories thereare some similarities with E&M aslong as particle speeds are quite abit less than the speed of light andthe gravitational fields are not toostrong. In this low-speed weak-field limit, there is a force analo-gous to the Lorentz force, whichcan be written as

gF = mg + mu × BThis gives the force on mass m,

gwith g and B the gravitationaland gravitomagnetic fields and uthe velocity of m, as before. Inthis weak field limit, g is consid-ered to be the Newtonian gravita-tional field (g=GM/r at distance r2

from a point mass M). This lastequation has been used as the ba-sis for analyzing small oscillationsin the earth-moon distance thatare believed to be due to the gravi-tomagnetic force terms. (See//xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc?papernum=0702028, to be published inPhysical Review Letters.).

It is pretty clear that if gravitomag-netic fields were completelyanalogous to magnetic fields thenfor the gravitomagnetic field of M

gwe would have B = (v × g)/c ,2

and the charges in our previousinterval timer could be replaced bymasses m and M and we wouldget the same time dilation for the


lab frame. (This is explored indetail in http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc?papernum=0502088.)Unfortunately, life is not so sim-ple if one uses General Relativity.According to the low-speedweak-field limit of General Relati-vity the gravitomagnetic field ofM is exactly 4 times larger at

gB = 4(v × g)/c2

This makes gravitomagnetic fields4 times larger than is required toaccount for time dilation. Never-theless, these larger fields havebeen used as the basis for predic-ting precessions of 0.042 arcsec/yr for the gyroscopes of the Gra-vity Probe B experiment. Resultsof the experiment are to be an-nounced April 7.

I believe that there are reasons toquestion the factor of 4 as the on-ly correction needed for the gra-vitomagnetic force. One is that ifone regards mass M as that of theearth, then in a frame movingwith the earth, the equation ofmotion of the moon, m, can beobtained exactly in GeneralRelativity. Then if one does aLorentz transformation to aframe moving at -30 km/s atright angles to the line joiningearth and moon, one essentiallyobtains the analogue of the earthand moon at new moon, movingat 30 km/sec away from theoriginal sun-moon-earth line,(which would be the “lab frame”y-axis). If the moon were just infree fall toward earth, it would doso with the time dilation requiredby special relativity. In this exactdescription of the motion of mthere is no conflict between Gen-eral Relativity and special relativi-ty. Both predict the same time di-

lation effect. The way that thishappens is that the Lorentztransformation affects g in a velo-city-dependent way and modifiesits form from that obtained fromNewton’s law. The end result isthat the analysis of lunar range os-cillations using the Newtonian g

gwith the 4 times larger B isflawed. It remains to be seen if theprediction for Gravity Probe B issimilarly flawed. In that case, the

gB field arises from the rotation ofthe earth, analogous to the mag-netic field that would be producedby a rotating electrically chargedsphere.

Other questions arise if you consi-der what would happen if youcharged masses M and m, withcharges +Q and +q, respectivelyand balanced them so delicatelythat they remained at rest, separa-ted by distance b along the y-axis.Now what would happen if theywere moving at speed v down thex-axis. Consider the cases withand without the factor of 4 in the

gexpression for B . Have fun!

The difference between geniusand stupidity is that genius haslimits. –Albert Einstein

HAIL THE NEW

LEADERAfter leading theDepartment ofChemistry and

Physics for two years, Dr. DonMcGurk will be retiring at the endof the semester. Taking up thereins of leadership as depart-mental chair will be Dr. Bill Kelly. We wish Dr. McGurk a long andhappy retirement, and we lookforward to working with Dr. Kelly

to face the usual and occasional-ly unexpected challenges ofmaintaining a healthy, vital phys-ics program.

FROM THEGRAPEVINE...

Wendell Riseley(‘81) lives inWeatherford and is

President at Cyan Co. Inc.(cyanok.com) a local companywith a wide range of services inthe electronics/electronic engi-neering/computer areas includingrepair, design, development, as-sembly, testing, etc. Wendellsays he is now working part-timeand biking full-time, a passionmatched only by his passion forplaying pool.

Ken Elkins (‘82) has movedfrom California to a position asbranch manager at the Naval Sur-face Warfare Center Indian HeadDetachment, McAlister Division. (Welcome back to Oklahoma!) Ken also has a movie to hiscredit. He recently worked as anextra in the movie Flicka. Someof his scenes actually survivedediting, so if you look quicklyyou might catch a glimpse of himduring the rodeo scenes.

Carl Jantz (‘89) still works with3M in a production facility inColumbia, MO. 3M posts jobopportunities on their web site atwww.3M.com. Click on UnitedStates then Careers. He saysmost postings there are good fortwo weeks.


Justin Whipple (‘01) is a salesrep for Reed Hycalog. The jobkeeps him on the road to variousoil field drilling sites. He dropsin to visit now and then whenhe’s driving by. It’s always apleasure to chat with him.

Michelle Schuldt (attended2004-05) is now fully engagedin the meteorology program atOU. She’s working and study-ing in the newly-built Nationalweather Center on the OU cam-pus that now houses the Schoolof Meteorology, the National Se-vere Storms Lab, the NationalWeather Service, the Storm Pre-diction Center, and the Oklaho-ma Climatological Survey. It’sexciting to work with all thoseprofessionals around, but wewonder, who’ll track the stormsif that place gets hit by atornado?

Scott Poarch (‘91) is a processengineer for MAXIM-DallasSemiconductor. We thank himfor notifying us about availableinternships last spring. Thanks,Scott!

Casey Wells (‘05) is workingtoward a Ph.D. in biomedicalsciences at Wright State Univer-sity in Dayton, OH. This yearhas been course work and labrotations, next year he’ll be a TAand then it’s dissertationresearch to the finish. Goodluck, Casey!

Patrick Heys (attended late80's) works for PepsiCo provi-

ding computer support for Frito-Lay North American as well asQuaker, Tropicanna, Pepsi, andsome international users. He isliving and working in the Dallasarea.

Bob Burrahm (‘80) has beenpromoted to senior program man-ager for the Office of AutomotiveEngineering at the Southwest Re-search Institute. With this pro-motion, Bob has relocated toBeijing, China, for three yearswhere he serves as the chiefmarketing representative of theSwRI China Liaison Office. Thispromotion follows the comple-tion of a successful two-year ef-fort, led by Bob, to develop andcommercialize SwRI’s FOCAStechnology which uses a gaso-line-fueled burner with an inte-grated, computerized controlsystem to age catalyticconverters.

Dr. Stanley Robertson (faculty,1990-2004) has moved fromWeatherford to Broken Arrow,OK. Dr. Robertson used to dropin on a regular basis to visit andoccasionally have lunch with us. We certainly miss seeing him andhearing the latest updates on hisresearch. It is strongly suspectedthat the decision to move hassomething to do with the locationof certain grandchildren that wefrequently hear about, but wereally shouldn’t start rumors...

Joanna Blevins (‘01) is workingfor UPS as a management traineein the Industrial Engineering

Department where her duties areprimarily as a business analyst.She is working on an MBA at theU. Washington, doing volunteerbusiness consulting for local non-profits, and slowly working on anovel. She is interested inmaking contacts in the businessconsulting field or with anyemployer who would appreciatean employee with two Master'sdegrees (Eng & Bus).

Joe Beisel (‘97) completed hisPh.D. in Mechanical Eng fromOSU in December. He works forHalliburton in Duncan in thereliability group doingmeasurement and anaylsis usingFinite Element simulation tomatch and eventually predictvibration results.

REMEMBERING

MR. PRATTJames Bates (‘62)recently shared a memory of Mr.J.R. Pratt with us: “Mr. Pratttaught us much more than phys-ics. A story I remember everytime I hear our National Anthem:Many times through my collegephysics classes with J.R. Pratt,he would tell us that everymorning he would turn on theTV at the beginning of thebroadcast day, and when theyplayed our National Anthem, hewould stand and place his handover is heart while it was play-ing. That story is the kind thatsticks with you. Of course thereare many others.”


STAYING IN TOUCH

Once again we’ve had the great joy of updating you on the activities and successes of SWOSUPhysics Program and its alumni. We especially enjoy hearing from you and passing news of yourachievements on to your friends. But we’re not mind readers, nor are we clairvoyant. You need tokeep us up-to-date. It’s as simple as dropping us an e-mail or a quick note, or coming in for a visit ifyou’re in the neighborhood. Of course, we need to keep up with your addresses (e-mail for quickcontact and snail mail just to send you the newsletter), too. Be sure to let us know when things changeso we don’t lose touch.

YOU KNOW WHERE WE ARE

You can send mail to us at 100 Campus Drive, Weatherford, OK 73096-3098, send a FAX to 580-774-3115, or e-mail us or call us at

Dr. Terry Goforth (580) 774-3109 [email protected]

Dr. Charles Rogers (580) 774-3108 [email protected]

Dr. Tony Stein (580) 774-3107 [email protected]

Dr. Wayne Trail (580) 774-3124 [email protected]

Mary Lou Scouten (Secretary,Department of Chemistry & Physics

(580) 774-3266 [email protected]

or just send your e-mail to [email protected]. We’ll see that it gets to the right person.

WE’RE JUST A CLICK AWAY

You can find us at www.swosu.edu/academics/physics. Click on the Alumni link for thenewsletter (past and present) and other news.


ALUMNI EMAIL ADDRESSES

If you are a SWOSU Alumnus, drop us an e-mail at [email protected] and we’ll send you thecomplete list of alumni e-mail addresses that we have on file.


PHYSICS ALUMNI BANQUET 2007

Saturday, April 21, 2007 7:00 p.m. SWOSU Student Union Ballroom $12/person

Name No. Persons Attending

Address Phone

Email

Please return to: Dr. Tony Stein h 100 Campus Drive h Weatherford, OK 73096

We need to provide a head-count to the caterers by April 18, 2007

SHISH KEBAB 2007

Saturday, May 6, 2007 6:00 p.m. Crowder Lake University Park

Name No. Persons Attending

Address Phone

Email

Please return to: Dr. Tony Stein h 100 Campus Drive h Weatherford, OK 73096

If you plan to attend, letting us know will help us in planning the food, but feel free to drop in!

Or... just give us a call or e-mail us to confirm for either/both event(s).

100 campus drive weatherford, ok 73096-3089 …...moin khan (karachi, pakistan) took a job with...

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