July 2017 Volume 85 Issue 7

AAPT announces that Richard Price, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will assume the position of Editor for the  American Journal of Physics in September 2017, following the term of David P. Jackson.
Read more.

 

July 2017 Issue, Volume 85, No. 7

 

Resource Letter OSE-1: Observing Solar Eclipses by Jay M. Pasachoff, and Andrew Fraknoi. DOI: 10.1119/1.4985062

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the available literature, listing selected books, articles, and online resources about scientific, cultural, and practical issues related to observing solar eclipses. It is timely, given that a total solar eclipse will cross the continental United States on August 21, 2017. The next total solar eclipse path crossing the U.S. and Canada will be on April 8, 2024. In 2023, the path of annularity of an annular eclipse will cross Mexico, the United States, and Canada, with partial phases visible throughout those countries.

Papers

Magnetic cannon: The physics of the Gauss rifle by Arsène Chemin, Pauline Besserve, Aude Caussarieu, Nicolas Taberlet, and Nicolas Plihon. DOI: 10.1119/1.4979653

Oblique collisions of baseballs and softballs with a bat by Jeffrey R. Kensrud, Alan M. Nathan, and Lloyd V. Smith. DOI: 10.1119/1.4982793

Gravity discharge vessel revisited: An explicit Lambert W function solution by Rafael M. Digilov. DOI: 10.1119/1.4983115

Demonstration of fundamental statistics by studying timing of electronics signals in a physics-based laboratory by Shaun E. Beach, Thomas M. Semkow, David J. Remling, and Clayton J. Bradt. DOI: 10.1119/1.4982165

Low-cost nonlinear optics experiment for undergraduate instructional laboratory and lecture demonstration by Rozane de F. Turchiello, Luiz A. A. Pereira, and Sergio L. Gómez. DOI: 10.1119/1.4984808

Elementary example of energy and momentum of an extended physical system in special relativity by Kamil Serafin, and Stanisław D. Głazek. DOI: 10.1119/1.4981770

COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS

Meshfree computation of electrostatics and related boundary value problems by J. Wang, and Y. Hao. DOI: 10.1119/1.4980147

PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH

Learning about the scale of the solar system using digital planetarium visualizations by Ka Chun Yu, Kamran Sahami, and James Dove. DOI: 10.1119/1.4984812

BOOK REVIEWS

Brownian Ratchets: From Statistical Physics to Bio and Nano-Motors by Harvey S. Leff. DOI: 10.1119/1.4974092

Doomed to Cooperate: How American and Russian Scientists Joined Forces to Avert Some of the Greatest Post-Cold War Dangers by Cameron Reed. DOI: 10.1119/1.4979118

BOOKS RECEIVED

American Journal of Physics 85, 559 (2017). DOI: 10.1119/1.4984270

 

About AJP

General Information, Resources for Authors, Reviewers, and Readers

Additional Resources