Western Pennsylvania Section News

Western Pennsylvania Section News

Fall Meeting (2007)
This is the call for papers for the 2007 Fall Meeting of the Western PA section of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
 
When: September 29, 2007. Meeting will start with breakfast at 8:00; session starts tentatively at 9:00.
Where: Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. 4701 College Drive, Erie, PA.
 
Consider submitting papers on any topic in physics, astronomy, or physics education.
 
E-mail title and short abstract (100 words maximum desirable) as a Microsoft WORD file to David Groh. Submission of printed abstracts is discouraged. Each presentation must not exceed 15 minutes including discussion time. Indicate preference for time of presentation, if any. Please submit abstracts before September 24.
 
If you do not plan to give a presentation, but will attend, please let me know for an approximate “body count.”
 
Approximately one week before the meeting, you will receive a tentative schedule and directions to the meeting place.
 
Please contact Jonathan Hall for any special audio-visual needs beyond a computer or overhead projector. For power-point presentations, it is desirable that you bring an external drive with your presentation/data loaded. This greatly speeds up the connection, since the laptops do not have to be switched.

Submitted by David Groh
Vice President

Fall Meeting (2006)
The fall meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Section was held September 30, 2006 at Westminster College. The AAPT contributed nice “bags” for each of the approximately 50 attendees and the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) contributed placemat–size copies of each of its four charts to the attendees.

The invited speaker was Carl Landis, Senior Medical Physicist, Comprehensive Physics & Regulatory Services, Ltd., who enlightened us on Medical Physicists in the United States.

The following contributed papers were presented:

Programming a Flexible Needle Steering System for Percutaneous Access to Deep Zones of the Brain
Michele Fenske, Westminster College

Bullet Propulsion in Contemporary Films
Jacob Flickinger, Westminster College

What Do You Mean Every Magnetic Force Isn't Inverse-Square? 
Lisa E. Gayetsky and Craig L. Caylor, Westminster College

Two Problems and Their Solutions
David R. Spahr, Baldwin High School

New Symmetry Representation of SU(5) Beauty Baryons using Group Theory
Akhtar Mahmood, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

A Mass Spectroscopy Model of Charmed Baryons
Jack Dougherty and Akhtar Mahmood, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Evaluating Integrals without Calculus in Introductory Physics
Donald E. Fahnline, Altoona, PA

Music of the Spheres
Patrick Campbell, Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School

A Course On Weapons of Mass Destruction For Non-Science Majors
Katrina Brown, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg

Science in Motion
Bernard Durkin, Science in Motion Director, Westminster College

In Defense of Newton’s Second Law
Otto Linsuain, Penn State McKeesport

Afternoon workshops were:            
PASCO Demos            
Example Science in Motion Labs

We are grateful to those who had displays and contributed door prizes:
American 3B Scientific            
Arbor Scientific            
PASCO            
Sargent Welch/Wards/Science Kit            
Vernier            
Addison-Wesley Publishing            
Brooks/Cole – Thomson Publishing            
Prentice-Hall Publishing            
W. H. Freeman Publishing 

During the business meeting we voted to join the Ohio Section of AAPT and the APS Ohio section for a joint meeting in spring 2008.

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Patrick Campbell entertains the section with the "Kepler Blues."

Submitted by Sam Lightner
2006 Section Representative

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