[YAPA] YAPA Picnic and summary of last meeting

[Roy McCullough]

To: YAPA participants 
 
Subject: Picnic 2010
 
This year’s picnic will be held at the Zitto Zoo on Wednesday the 9th of June.
Guests are welcome anytime after the pool opens at 3:30. Burnt offerings will be served up around 5:30 and will consist of Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and anything else that we catch in the backyard. Condiments, ice tea and lemonade will be provided. Bring anything else you would like to drink and a covered dish / desert. Please call or e-mail Dick by 3 pm Tuesday the 8th so he can get an accurate count. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the ‘Zoo’
330 482 5169 or 330 550 3652   rjzitto at ysu.edu
 
 
What you missed:
The last regularly scheduled YAPA meeting for 2009-2010 was very busy.
 
Mike C. introduced two puzzles… 1.  A spoon touching the top of moderately spinning tea in a cup “froze” the surface of the tea while the fluid below continued to spin.  Variations with no tea, different temperatures, etc. yielded enigmatic results.  As yet, no one has a clear explanation for the phenomena observed.   2.  In considering the resistance to movement of a rolling ball, Mike’s calculations suggest that the normal force appears to originate from in front of the ball, well beyond the point of contact.   Much discussion ensued, but none of the explanations offered met with Mike’s acceptance.  
Mike also contributed two other interesting observations.  1. Tea bottles are shipped with reduced internal pressure.  This leads to interesting resiliency of a sealed bottle versus one that has been opened.  2. Copper released under a strong magnet (see Gregg’s contribution below) shows eddy effects, without needing to be in a tube.
 
Jodi shared 1. video information on 3D images from Amazon (part of the sales pitch for 3D TVs).  2. the enjoyment her students have in reading the “There Are No Electrons” book by Amdahl while doing their electricity unit and 3. Images she and Roy took of the regions of the sky around the constellation M100.
 
Gary made a plea for support for Newspapers in Education and expressed appreciation for Sue Ann Taylor’s efforts in that endeavor.  He shared  a YouTube video (time warp) showing the slow motion effects of a water drop striking and its corresponding echoing effects.
 
Robert initiated a discussion of linear grading as opposed to increasing the weighting later in the course to emphasize that students later in the course should have more background knowledge to draw upon.
 
Gregg made available very strong rare earth magnets (and coolers for transport) from Gabriel feeding tubes.  More of these will be available FREE in the fall for those interested.  Several uses, from the eddy currents discussed above, to lighting LEDs with minor movement and looking at the fields involved were explored.
 
Cindy shared: 1. her construction of paper rulers with different markings she uses to help students understand uncertainty 2. her Physics of Sound students using rolled paper added to fipples to pretest their instrument designs.  In the process, their observations of limits to the device lead to a discussion of the cutoff frequency of wave guides.
 
Larry gave away extra holiday lights and celts that he had on available.  In discussing his work at the state department of education, he pointed out that they are still seeking comments on the new state standards, instructional plans especially for pre-K through 8 and discussed some of the alternatives being considered for replacing the OGT. 
 
Dick shared his and Pam’s willingness to host the picnic mentioned at the top of this report.
 
 
 
 
  		 	   		  
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