Revision as of 16:21, 19 October 2010

Course Information and links

Instructors: Vince Kuo, Patrick Kohl and Frank Kowalski

Creativity in Science and Engineering

Examples

PROBLEM 1: Measuring the wavelength of an unknown laser: What apparatus would you use to measure the wavelength of an unknown laser using a He-Ne laser whose wavelength is know to 8 significant figures?

Green Hat comments

Apparatus:

-two slit interferometer -Superimpose the two laser beams with a beam splitter. Look at the time dependent detector output for beats and take a Fourier transform.

-Superimpose the two laser beams with a beam splitter then shine them on a grating. Look at the spatial separation.

-Superimpose the two laser beams in a Michelson interferometer. Then measure constructive interference of each color and compare.

-Superimpose the two beams and shine them into a parallel plate device (Fabrey-Perot) interferometer. Vary the plate spacing and compare the maxims observed.

-Shine the two beams in a "funnel" absorbing chamber and look for where each is extinguished.

-Cross the two beams at a known angle and look for the spacing of the fringes.

-Measure the combined color of the two beams together.

-Measure standing waves in a cavity whose size is changed.

-Use a dielectric material with a known index of refraction to measure cause a know phase shift and measure its effects.

-Look at the diffraction pattern as both beams traverse a single slit interferometer.

-Beat Frequency

-Diffraction Patterns

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

idea 1 of using diffraction. Fluency involves a single slit, a double slit, a grating . . .

idea 2 of using an interferometer. Fluency involves a Michelson interferometer, Fabry-Perot interferometer, . . .

idea 3 of measuring the beat frequency. Fluency involves combining the waves in a detector and measuring the beat, . . .

taxonomy B

There appear three other categories into which these may be classified:

1) Color Measurement Approach

2) Physical Interference pattern Approach

3) Wave Size Characterization

combining ideas comments

questioning/observing comments

-What has the best resolution (yields the most sig figs)?

-What is easy to align?

analogy comments

This is similar to characterizing oscillations. This analogy, is obvious.

reminding comments

I have found the buddy system works very well. Lewis reminded me, and I reminded Tom.

anomaly comments

Examples of the kind of information that go here...

White Hat comments

Descriptions of grating spectrometer are found at these two links:

[1]

[2]

The resolution of a grating spectrometer, or the smallest change in wavelength measurable divided by the wavelength is the order number times the number of grooves illuminated, which is about 1 part in 2 for a double slit "grating" and about 1 part in 10,000 for an expensive spectrometer. This is discussed in the following link:

[3]

A Michelson or Fabry-Perot interferometer has a change of a fringe every time one mirror is moved half a wavelength. For a mirror motion of 1 meter the number of fringes for the He-Ne laser (wavelength of 6328 Angstroms) is 1.58 million fringes. How many fringes for the unknown laser if both beams were superimposed? How does this resolution compare with the grating spectrometer?

Black Hat comments

Yellow Hat comments

Red Hat comments

Blue Hat comments

Problem 2: Measuring the Mass Extracted from a Quarry

Green Hat comments

-measure the weight of the trucks carrying the material out of the quarry.

-measure the effect of mass loss on the gravitational attraction.

-measure the volume extracted and determine the mass from its density.

-measure the flow rate of material on a conveyor belt.

-use fuel consumption in the trucks to measure energy required to move the mass.

-measure the mass as it is loaded on the truck via a scale on the scooper truck.

-use Archimedes principle to measure displacement and therefore volume. Density gives mass.

-use laser imaging to see how much rock is removed from the quarry daily.

-put the rock on a stiff spring and measure period of simple harmonic motion

-drop the rock through some fluid and measure terminal velocity

-measure the tension in the scooper arm.

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

idea 1 of using a scale to weigh the rock. Fluency involves weighing a truck, weighing the machine which picks up the rock, . . .

idea 2 of using fuel consumption in moving the rock. Fluency involves measuring the gas used by a truck over a known trajectory, . . .

idea 3 of measuring the volume remove. Fluency involves using a laser ranging system to map the quarry before and after . . .

idea 4 of measuring the flow rate. Fluency involves using a conveyor belt and monitoring the volume of rock that flows, measuring the flow rate on some slide that the rock moves down, . . .

taxonomy B

One main idea: measuring volume. Fluency involves the volume of rock, volume of gas used by the truck, or volume of rock removed.

combining ideas comments

Fluency: I think there are basically 3 ideas, and not much originality

-Weighing with scale.

-Volume displacement with mass density.

-Flow rate.

Here is a matrix with extraction ideas in columns and the power needed to perform the extraction in the rows. Combining ideas involves filling in this matrix.

questioning/observing comments

-How are rocks removed? Air hammer, dynamite, . . .

-How are rocks moved? Trucks, . . .

-What changes when rock is moved/removed?

-How can we detect that change?

-What limitations arise based on what material is being removed from said quarry.

analogy comments

reminding comments

anomaly comments

In particular, if magnetic rock is removed from quarry, will it disturb or otherwise upset the instrumentation?

White Hat comments

Black Hat comments

- rock on a spring: spring deterioration, time consuming, environmental wear, limited amount can measured, hazard to humans, calibrating spring

- measuring flow rate on a conveyor belt: hard to measure the flow accurately, not a continuous measurement,

- measure mass with truck scooper: ??

- measure the gas in the truck: dependent on engine wear, temperature,

-measuring the gravitational attraction: impractical to implement.

Yellow Hat comments

- rock on a spring: implementation straightforward, accurate (measure frequency)

- measuring flow rate on a conveyor belt: speedy, measure and move at the same time, cost effective since don't need another instrument.

- measure mass with truck scooper: efficient since have to move mass anyway, less expensive than a big scale on the truck, just weigh rock and not rock+truck, no density concerns.

- measure the gas in the truck: free of other equipment, accurate if constant speed on flat highway

-measuring the gravitational attraction: accurate (check with white hat),

Red Hat comments

Blue Hat comments

Problem 3: How could you convert wind energy into a useful form using a non-turbine (non-propeller) device?

Green Hat comments

-large balloon to convert elastic energy into useful energy.

-cones to funnel the wind into a region where it moves faster.

-use ribbons which jiggle in the wind to capture the wind energy.

-kite to capture wind energy.

-wind pushes cart attached to piston.

-sail moves wire through a magnetic field to generate electricity.

-wind pushes magnets through a coil to generate electricity.

-use cool air and warm earth to get a temperature differential for the thermoelectric effect.

-use a "water wheel" device but with wind rather than water moving it.

-use wind chill factor wind has for a temperature differential and the thermoelectric effect.

-wind rug (needs more explanation).

-streamers attached to a device which converts their motion to electricity.

-wind through a funnel and onto a "water wheel" type of device.

-convert the energy of whipping flags.

-concentrate the wind in a pipe and use it to stoke a fire.

-use the drag force of the wind on a stationary object to generate heat and convert the heat to electricity.

-use the wind to trigger potential energy in a system (rock slide).

-Concentrate the wind, and use it to pressurize bottles of air. Change out the kinetic energy for potential energy

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

Some common themes in our ideas:

-Driven oscillators

-Magnetic induction

-Solid state devices

-Evaporative cooling

-Wind pressure magnification

combining ideas comments

-The rug and thermoelectric ideas could be combined to make an extremely high surface area thermoeletric crystal "forest."

Here is a matrix with types of motion ideas in columns and the conversion to electricity ideas in the rows. Combining ideas involves filling in this matrix.

questioning/observing comments

-What generates wind?

-What absorbs wind?

-What are the prominent properties of wind?

-Wind moves faster higher off the ground. Could the velocity gradient be used to generate electricity (like the temp. gradient is used in thermoelectric effect)?

-The thermoelectric effect appeared several times, but the piezoelectric effect wasn't suggested once. Could piezoelectric materials be useful?

• • • What's the Piezoelectric effect?*** (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity)

-Perhaps the energy of tornado winds could be harnessed somehow

analogy comments

Just like solar concentrators can generate extremely high light and temperature concentrations for i.e. pumping lasers and cooking food, wind concentrators might give us a way to do more high-power mechanical conversions (i.e. moving large volumes of water or compressing heavy pistons).

reminding comments

anomaly comments

White Hat comments

Sail boats are wind powered. The Milling process of wind mills uses wind power. Birds float on the updrafts of wind. Strong currents of wind exist in high altitude in each climatosphere of the Earth. Wind currents on Earth are a bi-product of heat exchange amongst the Earth.

Black Hat comments

Yellow Hat comments

Red Hat comments

I feel as though large obtrusive wind catchers (aka- windmills) are ugly. How could we make the device both useful AND aesthetically pleasing?

I feel the windmills in the Netherlands are used in an aesthetically pleasing way. Can this be used?

Blue Hat comments

I think it would be informative to take a Temperament and Personality assessment test to help determine where our individual personalities are naturally drawn to think. This would also be beneficial in identifying personal and unique strengths and weaknesses that effect perceptive outlooks and problem solving. For example some personalities may be innately “black hat” driven and pessimistic and may have trouble with the “yellow hat” positive and optimistic point of view- vice versa. Through understanding one’s own personality, one can build a foundation platform to view their environment from and also use that same understanding to adjust their perception and view problems to suit an external perspective. This link explores the many personality temperament tests formed throughout history. http://www.businessballs.com/personalitystylesmodels.htm#four%20temperaments%20four%20humours

Class Projects

Questions about Class Projects

-Can these be more life type questions, or do we need to stick within the bounds of school?

The most important thing is to choose a project which truly interests you. If possible, try to have some science involved. For example, it could be an art project for which science or technology is needed to produce.

Billy's Project

I have begun this section, and will be adding to it later. Currently, I consider using the problem of "finding a topic for this project", which is low on my scale. I feel using my research project is too involved to involve it in this involvement. However, what about problems like- "Getting American society to be more concerned with its state than however concerned only requires watching TV on the issue, rather than participating." Or just speaking to large groups in general. Or an easy (not time expensive) method of applying to multiple jobs with quality in the applications. Or Methods to market the transition to low impact energy resources (Green). Basically I wanna save world.

Green Hat comments

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

combining ideas comments

questioning/observing comments

analogy comments

reminding comments

anomaly comments

White Hat comments

Here are some of my questions that may lead to information gathering for the first problem:

1) What information exist that indicates that the American society is not concerned with the state of the nation?

2) What percent of the American society is not concerned with the state of the nation?

3) What constitutes "concern"?

4) How does one participate in the affairs of the state?

5) Where do most people get their information about the state of the nation?

6) How does one interpret the legitimacy of the information that one receives?

Black Hat comments

Yellow Hat comments

Red Hat comments

I feel that most people don't really care about the state of the nation, and that is a problem.

I feel that most people are only concerned with their own personal affairs, and that is a very selfish and narrow point of view.

I don't think people possess the necessary know-how to properly evaluate complex situations.

I don't think people have the critical thinking skills to correctly interpret information.

I think people take what others say to be true as long as the information matches somewhat with what they suspect to be true.

Blue Hat comments

Tom's Project

Here's a question that's popped up in my research. I don't know if it's amenable to the crowd sourcing we seem to be after with this Wiki, but:

Suppose you have a heterojunction (2 materials) where you've figured out how to change the energy levels (i.e. conduction band, valence band, etc.) in one of the materials. What can you learn from this?

Here's something from an entirely different subject:

It isn't hard to find students that are math-averse, that is they are turned off by math and mathematical sciences often from a psychological barrier such as 'this is too hard' or 'somebody else can do this better.' I suspect this isn't a necessary part of math and science education. What can be done to improve student's attitude toward these subjects? Jumping off points are:

[4]

[5]

Green Hat comments

Well, there's certainly a lot to dig through in the blog link I posted. Here are a couple ideas throughout:

(1) Avoid Pseudocontext http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?cat=89

(2) Try to decide if problems are inherently interesting (and therefore don't need context). http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=7763

(3) Employ new media tools to both generate questions AND find their answers: video, pictures (cell phone, satellite, etc.), google, even news http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8153

(4) Try to level the playing field (see TED talk video)

(5) Engage students by getting them to ask questions they want to answer

These ideas come from a blog written by a math teacher who is interested in getting students motivated about math. I would like to address engagement in science in general.

One possibility for a deliverable of my project would be to try to write my own interesting and engaging problem based on some of the guidelines I've been finding on this blog, and hopefully through other sources as well. In some sense, this seems too narrow of an engagement with the topic I proposed. Maybe I could try to produce a short article which addresses my issue, and contains an example problem that signifies my findings.

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

Step beyond the traditions of the past: (1), (3)

taxonomy B

Create the right atmosphere for engagement: (2)?, (4), (5)

combining ideas comments

questioning/observing comments

analogy comments

reminding comments

anomaly comments

White Hat comments

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Blue Hat comments

Lewis' (Or is it Lewis's?) Project

Non-conservative Lagrangian dynamics

In typical Lagrangian dynamics,

where T is the kinetic energy, and U is the potential energy. In this formalism, there is only room for forces which can be written as a potential. Thus, the Lagrangian depends upon strictly conservative forces. Non-conservative forces (Such as friction) cannot be written as a potential, and thus cannot play a part in this formalism as it is defined.

Is it possible to find a way to include non-conservative forces into Lagrangian dynamics? I think that this will be the project I work on. The other is just something I worry about in the privacy of my own home.

Green Hat comments

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

combining ideas comments

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reminding comments

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Blue Hat comments

Aaron's Project

Project Definition

I've worked for a company that produced very high powered UV lamps for curing polymer inks in high speed, large format printing applications. The lamps used were mercury vapor lamps and their nature requires that they be powered by a constant current source.

The standard technology for powering these lamps was a magnetic ballast. A new, solid state technology came along to power these lamps which the industry called an electronic ballast.

We found that the output of the lamp (UV Irradiation) changed pretty dramatically when powered by the electronic ballast compared to that of the magnetic ballast. The plot below illustrates the difference. When we measured the UV output from the lamp with a radiometer we could see that the output of the lamp fluctuated with the 60 Hz AC that was used to power the magnetic ballast while the output of the lamp powered by the electronic ballast appeared to be constant. Even more interesting was that the the output from the electronic ballast driven lamp was about 40% higher than the average output of the magnetic ballast driven lamp.

Both the magnetic ballast and the electronic ballast output an AC signal but they are significantly different. The signal output by the magnetic ballast was essentially the same form as the 60 Hz AC that was used to power the ballast. The electronic ballast signal was a 40 kHz signal with the wave form that was resultant of the switching circuitry in the ballast. It's kind of a mixture of a sine wave and a sawtooth, but I don't think the shape is significantly important; I could be wrong though.

So, when we put the same power across the lamps, we were measuring about 40% more UV output from the lamp driven by the electronic ballast compared to the lamp driven by the magnetic ballast. This difference was confirmed in the field. A job that took a 16 kW lamp driven by magnetic ballast could be done with a 12 kW lamp driven by electronic ballast.

My project is to try and find the mechanism behind the increase in irradiation output that results from the use of the electronic ballast.

Green Hat comments

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

combining ideas comments

questioning/observing comments

analogy comments

reminding comments

anomaly comments

White Hat comments

Here is a link to a description of ballast:

[6]

Black Hat comments

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Red Hat comments

Blue Hat comments

Theory

Summer's Project

Project Definition

My background degree in Fashion Design and Production has lead me to manage production for a start-up apparel company. I oversee a team of Artists and Graphic Designers and assign design concepts to them for production. One of the main problems I am faced with is communicating my design concept vision to each individual artist/designer for fulfillment. I find that road blocks emerge and different challenges affect different creative minds. I want to explore how I can help creatively mentor each artist/designer to best fulfill the design concepts that I assign. I am looking to develop a formula that can be curtailed towards each different creative personality that I interact with.

Can you please give a simple example here to help us better understand the issues?

Green Hat comments

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

combining ideas comments

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reminding comments

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Kelley's Project

Ok, so I have a final interview for Teach for America. You have to give a five minute teaching lesson on a topic of your choice (for me it would be high school science of some sort), and have a brief activity at the end (still in the five minutes) to test the student's understanding.

Green Hat comments

Ideas so far:

Standard model of atom: an introduction to protons, neutrons, and electrons, and how they stick together to make atoms. Use marshmallows and pretzel sticks to make... say, Helium.

Series and Parallel resistors: Borrow Pat and Vince's beautiful lightbulb switchboard to show the difference between the two.

Ask the students what evidence might you expect for atoms and molecules to exist? One expected answer is that when they bounce off an object the move that object. Their push would be not smooth (discrete impulses). How would you observe this?

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

taxonomy B

combining ideas comments

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White Hat comments

Facts:

1- The lesson and tester activity have to be finished in five minutes

2- The lesson has to be assigned to a grade level (i.e 9th grade math)

3- There has to be a list of objectives posted on the board previously, and all objectives must be met in the five minutes (i.e English- learn the difference between nouns and verbs, be able to distinguish between nouns and verbs, use a noun and a verb in a sentence.)

Black Hat comments

Yellow Hat comments

Red Hat comments

Secondary students have a difficult time grasping abstract ideas, such as gravity and electromagnetism.

Blue Hat comments

Rachel's Project

So I guess the big 'project' that I need to work on this semester is getting myself into graduate school. I would like for my project to have two major aspects of it:

1. The most efficient way to study for a major exam (specifically the GRE...yikes)

2. Engineering an effective personal statement which can more or less just be tweaked a little for different schools

Green Hat comments

I have heard the following rumors (myths?) which supposedly help in studying for an exam:

1. Study in multiple places for the same exam

2. Take short, frequent breaks while studying

3. Start with general concepts then get more specific

4. Listen to classical music while studying

5. Eat peppermint while studying

7. Study at the same time everyday

6. Always wear the same perfume while studying (then make sure you wear that perfume when taking the GRE)

7.) Get the practice book available for old exams. Study it.

8.) Depending on the field of study you may not need to take a GRE (Material science for example often doesn't require a physics GRE).

9.) Find on the web strategies for taking multiple choice exams.

idea taxonomy comments

taxonomy A

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combining ideas comments

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reminding comments

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White Hat comments

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Red Hat comments

White/Red comment- Listening to classical music while studying has been scientifically proven to help you retain information. I experimented on myself in like, fourth grade when we had to memorize a bazillion prepositions, and it totally works. The end.

Blue Hat comments

Alex's Project

I actually have a couple of projects I'm considering. The first is not really relevant to school but it's something I really need to work on in the near future. I teach yoga sculpt (a yoga class with some aerobics and weights) and want to come up with a completely new class. I've taught the same one for the duration of my internship with the studio that I work for and want something completely new for my students so they don't get bored. Using the hats and having some input would be super helpful for this task. The second project I'm considering is more science oriented. I'm working with Dr. Wiencke on Senior Design and his project had me wondering about possible sources for high energy cosmic rays.

Green Hat comments

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Nathan's Project

So...as much as it pains me, I think I will go with a senior design inspired project - looking at fractals in various areas of physics. The vast majority of papers and books I have read look at them as purely geometrical objects, i.e, use them to create realistic looking trees and forests for graphics purposes, or saying that river systems or the veins in the body kind of look like they have a fractal pattern, etc - I am curious where they arise in physics settings rather than geometry (maybe even necessary conditions for them to appear, which I should probably know by now anyways). The example from my senior design project is that they show up in magnetic spin waves, but I would like to know about other physical systems that exhibit fractal behavior and maybe in what ways these systems are related.

Or, how penguins walk on ice. HOW DO THEY DO IT??!?

Green Hat comments

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Blue Hat comments

Michael's Project

At the surface, science (physics, in particular perhaps) and ‘artsy’ things, like music, painting, literature, and dancing, would seem to be antonyms. One is based on rigor, precision, objectivity (the erasure of the human component), control, carefully scrutinized experiments, peer reviews… One culture’s overriding norm is to discourage or outrightly shoot down new ideas that seem to come too much from one individual’s imaginative daydreaming. See second paragraph under “creativity is solitary work” in [7]. In contrast, the other celebrates spontaneity in music-performance and thing-creation. It is subjective.