Hartwick college

Some recent on-campus research projects:

Stephanie Abajian has explored the law of Malus, and investigated the Faraday Effect in EDFG by using the method of extinction as well as lock-in amplifier techniques.  The magnetic fields were measured with a Hall Effect probe, calibrated using a Helmholtz coil pair that she wound herself.

Eileen Hafner constructed and tested a Pulse Jet engine.  This required her to cut metal, bend it to proper shape and then gas weld it carefully to withstand the pressure of combustion.

Tony Riley investigated single photon interference.  The apparatus consisted of a HeNe laser, polarizers and neutral density filters designed to cut the intensity of the laser down to a few photons at a time.  These were allowed to pass through a double slit.  The faint images were then amplified by a night vision amplifier and recorded on a  CCD camera.

Helena Khaxdozian constructed an analog computer circuit for solving second order differential equations.  In particular, she solved the case of a harmonic oscillator with a damping term proportional to the velocity and the velocity squared.

Prahbdeep Cheema measured the forces on a soccer ball, including the effects of lift due to the Magnus Force (aka "Bernoulli's Law") by monitoring the force on bearing supports while the ball was spinning in an electric fan induced air stream.

Dustin Jones constructed and measured properties of wind generators using blades he fashioned from PVC pipe, and a generator created from DC permanent magnet motors taken from an old line printer.

Kerry Sisson investigagted absorption of light in Rubidium vapor under various magnetic fields and temperatures.