The Society of Physics Students at UC Santa Cruz

1) Please join me in directing thunderous applause toward Professors Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner and George Brown for last week’s special careers discussion. Everyone who attended now has an absolutely perfect and precise knowledge of exactly what they will do after graduation.
Additionally, Mathematica was had by Brenna and John, although some of us suspect Brenna stuffed the ballot. Otherwise, we have 478 SPS@UCSC members named “Brenna”, all of whom attended last week’s meeting and put their names in the tin. Oh well.2) As Rion mentioned below, there was no second BBQ last weekend, unless you had one and didn’t invite me, which was your loss. I would have brought some killer gumbo. This Friday sounds good, though. How does it sound to you? More details soon.3) This week’s meeting will take place on March 2nd, 2006, in ISB 231/235, at 5 PM, and, despite its somewhat unpredictable nature, the relevant initial conditions are as follows:

Speaker: Prof. Peter Scott, UCSC, emeritus
Topic: Deterministic chaos, nonlinear dynamics, the Lorenz equations and the Lorenz water wheel

Prof. Scott has done a lot of work on chaos and nonlinear dynamics, and will be speaking specifically about the famous Lorenz equations, those describing several chaotic systems such as, appropriately, the Lorenz attractor, and a certain kind of water wheel. If you don’t already know something of the Lorenz attractor, you need more James Gleick in your life.

There won’t be pizza, but the coffee, soda and snacks will be out in full force, if snacks can even be said to have force.
Oh, and two more copies of Mathematica for Students will be randomly distributed.

Hey, this is up a little earlier than last week. It’s amazing what having no immediate midterm can do.

–James

This list format suits me well, I think:

1) Thanks again to Professor Greg Laughlin for his presentation last week. Even though his laptop was AWOL, the subject matter was cool enough that the chalkboard version was totally adequate. In fact, some of us liked his talk so much that we went home and destroyed our laptops in solidarity.
We also got rid of two more Anonymous Donor Brand Mathematica for Students copies. Congratulations to Aviva and Kennet.

2) Movie night and the BBQ: Each event was a total success, despite the extreme cold at the College Nine/Ten Community Room. Lots of food disappeared, and one more copy of Mathematica disappeared, too, this time to Ron. However, we have so much food left over that we’re having another BBQ this weekend. Details are forthcoming. Hopefully the temperature won’t be zero kelvin like it was on Saturday. Seriously. Zero. Kelvin.

3) This Thursday’s meeting is out-of-the-ordinary: From 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM, Thursday Feb. 23rd, in ISB 231/235, we’re featuring at least three faculty members talking about careers in physics. Professors Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner and George Brown (our SPS faculty advisor, in fact) will be addressing the issue of what career options are available to a physics major, whether they go on to graduate school or not. There will lots of time for Q&A, so bring your curiosity. Pizza will be served. NOTE THE SLIGHT CHANGE IN TIME: 5:30 PM, not 5 PM. Yes, there will be pizza there, and we’ll give away two more copies of Mathematica, naturally.

Wow, that Law of Extremely Short Notice comes in handy. Yet it’s not in any of our textbooks. Curious.

–James

We had another classic meeting last Thursday.

Please join me in round of wild, web-based applause for Professor Michael Nauenberg’s stupendous presentation. He’s asked me to pass on the following references for articles he’s written on the subject:

“Curvature in Orbital Dynamics”
American Journal of Physics 73, 340 (2005) [link to abstract]

“Robert Hooke’s Seminal Contribution to Orbital Dynamics”
Physics in Perspective 7, 4-34 (2005) [link to abstract]

The full articles can be accessed from the computers in the library, as can hundreds of other articles, through the magic of university subscriptions!!!1!1!!eins!! Go to the library’s Electronic Journals page to solve all your problems, physics-related or otherwise.

Next meeting in two weeks, on December 1st, 2005 at 5 PM in ISB 231. If you didn’t make it to this last one, there’s now huge pressure on you to make it to the next one. So much, in fact, that you might want to consider increasing your surface area. Just a suggestion.

More info later. As always.

–James

I’m sorry to say, but the BBQ for this Friday and Saturday did not work out. So instead we are going to try and swing it for next Friday. So that is Friday, March 3rd probably some time after 4pm. We will work out the rest of the details during the week, so stay tuned.

– Rion

This week is packed:

1) During last week’s meeting we did a lot of yammering and planned some stuff. Check the minutes for a more complete synopsis. Congratulations to Rob and Lori for winning copies of Mathematica for Students. Rob actually did everyone’s homework right there in the meeting, so it was a positive situation for all involved.

2) This week’s meeting, which occurs Thursday, February 16th, 2006, at 5:00 PM in ISB 231/235, features Professor Greg Laughlin talking about extrasolar planets. Prof. Laughlin is affiliated with Lick Observatory, and his presentation should be extra interesting in light of all the new info and conjecture regarding the solar system that’s been happening lately.
We will also be giving away two more copies of Mathematica, and some snacks. The snack distribution won’t be based on a drawing, though. Just help yourself.

3) SPS Movie Night: This Friday, February 19th, at 7:30 PM, in Thimann 1, we’re watching The Elegant Universe, which should fulfill your need for beautiful and sophisticated speculation in theoretical physics. I know it fulfills mine. You should come, and bring friends. It’s a nice big room.

4) The Legendary First Annual SPS BBQ is this Saturday, February 18th at 2 PM at the College Nine/Ten Community Room, which is kind of behind Social Sciences 2, up by the Nine/Ten apartments. It’s a BBQ. There will be food and stuff. You are invited. We’ll probably be around till 4 PM, so you should come whenever. We’ll also be giving away another copy of Mathematica. Why do I enjoy saying that so much? BBQ!

More later? Sure.

–James

Here’s a list of some stuff:

1) Join me in thanking Professor Anthony Aguirre for his sublime talk last week. We’re currently begging and pleading with him to come back and give an expanded Part 2 at the first part of spring quarter. Check this space frequently for details.

2) Mathematica for the SPS masses: In case you missed the news (and you wouldn’t have, because you go to every meeting and listen to every single word I say with the utmost attention, right?), an anonymous donor has blown our minds and has given us ten copies of Mathematica for Students to distribute among our members and affiliates.
Extra.
Super.
Cool.
To do so, we’re going to draw names out of a hat (or a hypercube or a tabletop singularity or something) to give away two copies at each of the next four meetings, and we’ll also give away two copies at the upcoming Legendary First Annual SPS BBQ.
Please join me in wholeheartedly thanking Mr. or Ms. Anonymous for their extraordinary generosity.

3) The upcoming Legendary First Annual SPS BBQ. Stay tuned.

4) This Thursday’s meeting is a Steering and Planning and Information Meeting. It’s still on February 9th at 5 PM in ISB 231/235, and we’ll be discussing everything from the SPS t-shirt to fund-raising ideas to the BBQ to field trips to Lagrange polynomials, but there won’t be a speaker. Unless we can get Jacqui and Veronica to give a quick presentation about electron spin. We’ll see how it goes.
Oh, and, yes, there will be Lagrange polynomials at the BBQ.
So come to this Thursday’s meeting ready to exchange ideas, make things happen, and generally solve all of Science Hill’s problems in a single hour.
And you may possibly win a copy of Mathematica for Students.

5) There was probably a fifth issue, but I’ll just reiterate that SOMEBODY GAVE US TEN COPIES OF MATHEMATICA! And you might get one! That’s so awesome. Sorry, but this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day to the SPS. Thanks again to Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, whoever they are.

More later, of course.

–James

(P.S.- I finally got the quotes page up. Fun times. I should have some more pictures for you guys soon, whenever I get around to formating them properly. –Rion)

We here at the SPS firmly believe in the Law of Extremely Short Notice. As such, this week’s meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, February 2nd, at 5 PM in ISB 231, and its behavior at infinity can be reasonably approximated by the following expression:

Speaker: Prof. Anthony Aguirre, UCSC
Topic: “Finding a home in the multiverse”

Prof. Aguirre does theoretical cosmology, and his title pretty much says it all. Any further description I give can only serve to dilute his talk’s significance, like I’m doing right now.

Snacks. Coffee. Indeed.

Also, we must recognize and thank Prof. Stanley Flatte for last week’s talk. The movies were extra cool, and the way he tied it all in to the Schroedinger equation was an added bonus. We all went home afterwards feeling adequately quantized.

–James