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the SPSVolume XLIX, Issue 4 ObserverWINTER 2015-16 FAILURE AS LONG AS YOU LEARN, YOU CAN'T FAIL Space is Hard WHAT TODAY’S SPACEFARERS CAN LEARN FROM NASA’S MISTAKES Epic Physics Fails SPS MEMBERS SHARE THEIR MOST EPIC PHYSICS FAILS the TABLE OF CONTENTS SPS Observer WINTER 2015-16 • VOLUME XLIX, ISSUE 4 Guest Editor Karen Williams FEATURES Managing Editor Devin Powell Navigating Failure Navigating Failure ............................ Copy Editor 15 Superconductivity: A Superlatively Difficult Puzzle ... 17 Cynthia Freeman Space is Hard . 19 Art Director The Life of the LHC and the Death of the SSC ...... 21 Tracy Nolis-Schwab Epic Physics Fails ..........................16-23 Layout Designer PhysCon 2016 Mike Wernert Prepping for Congress . 24 SPS President Come to Congress! . 27 DJ Wagner, Grove City College SPS Director DEPARTMENTS Sean Bentley LETTER My Successful Null Result ...................... 05 PATHWAYS Accessing My Creativity App ................... 06 STARS Spring Award Deadlines ....................... 08 1 Physics Ellipse SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Named ........ 08 College Park, MD 20740 PHYSICS PUZZLER 301.209.3007 (tel) Sound Reasons .............................. 09 301.209.0839 (fax) INTERACTIONS [email protected] SPS Chapters in Action ........................ 11 www.spsnational.org IN THE ZONE Regional SPS Highlights ....................... 28 MEETING NOTES On the Shoulders of Giants ..................... 30 ON THE COVER An Experience Catered to Undergraduates ........ 31 The Mars Climate Orbiter A Delegate for US Physics ..................... 32 disintegrated in the Martian Beers, Bees, and Becoming a Better Scientist ...... 33 atmosphere because a subcon- tractor programmed its thrusters FEEDBACK in imperial units instead of the Find SPS on: What Does It Mean to Be a Physicist? ............. 34 metric units NASA was using. GET INVOLVED See "Space is Hard" on page 19. Image credit: NASA. Share Your SPS Activities ..................... 36 The SPS Observer (ISSN 2160-1305) is the maga- tise in physics education and student programs, sci- AIP Member Societies: zine of the Society of Physics Students, published ence communication, government relations, career American Association of Physicists in Medicine quarterly by the American Institute of Physics. Print- services for science and engineering professionals, American Association of Physics Teachers ed in the USA. Standard postage paid at Freeport, statistical research in physics employment and edu- American Astronomical Society OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The cation, industrial outreach, and the history of physics American Crystallographic Association SPS Observer, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, and allied fields. AIP publishes Physics Today, the American Meteorological Society MD 20740-3841. most influential and closely followed magazine of the American Physical Society physics community, and is also home to the Society Acoustical Society of America The American Institute of Physics is an organization of Physics Students and the Niels Bohr Library and AVS: Science & Technology of Materials, of scientific societies in the physical sciences, rep- Archives. AIP owns AIP Publishing LLC, a scholarly Interfaces, and Processing resenting scientists, engineers, and educators. AIP publisher in the physical and related sciences. The Optical Society offers authoritative information, services, and exper- www.aip.org The Society of Rheology Other Member Organizations: Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society Society of Physics Students Corporate Associates Simplify your search. Visit SPS Jobs on your computer, tablet, or mobile device to browse jobs anytime, from anywhere! http://jobs.spsnational.org partner in the AIP Career Network 4 Winter 2015–16 / The SPS Observer New_SPS_Ad.indd 1 2/25/2016 10:40:03 AM LETTER My Successful Null Result AS LONG AS YOU LEARN, YOU CAN’T FAIL by Sean Bentley Director, Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma you to new results that are often more interesting than what you were originally trying to find. I know because I had a seven-year version of such an experience, namely, my entire PhD. In graduate school I wanted a thesis project involving quantum mechanics and high-power lasers. When I heard a talk about how quantum fluctuations might cause laser beams to break apart, I was hooked. The talk was on the theory—no one had observed the effect experimentally. I went to the professor who led that group and told him I wanted to be the one to do it. THE MORE TIMES you don’t get the "right" answer, THE BETTER YOUR THINKING CAN BECOME. SEAN BENTLEY. Photo by Liz Dart Caron. Cogito ergo sum. You may recognize this For the next seven years, I tried. Along the way, I found many interesting phrase as “I think, therefore I am.” While results, published several papers, and ultimately wrote my thesis. However, I I won’t play philosopher here and exam- never observed the effect. ine Descartes’ words, I will discuss the After I defended my thesis, my advisor told me he had never really ex- importance of doubt and critical thinking pected the experiment to work, but he let me do it because he knew it would in this letter. lead me down many new paths as I tried to overcome the challenges of the Simplify your search. Visit SPS Jobs on Attacking a problem can be daunting. project. To him the outcome was as expected. It was not a failure, and I earned Whether in a classroom, a laboratory, or the my PhD. “real world,” you often won’t find the solution I learned much from that experience, most importantly that science isn’t the your computer, tablet, or mobile device to on your first try. That’s okay. The more times papers, it’s the process. Education should not be about simply learning facts, you don’t get the “right” answer, the better but rather about learning to think. Virtually any known fact can be found via your thinking can become. To paraphrase your smartphone in a matter of seconds. Our goal (as humans and physicists) browse jobs anytime, from anywhere! Descartes: “I learn, therefore I succeed.” should be to look at the world around us, the problems we face, and be able to You have to question what went wrong, think critically and creatively to make things better. analyze the evidence, and draw a conclu- So keep questioning, keep thinking, and don’t be discouraged when things sion. This process develops critical thinking don’t go as planned. As long as you learn from all that you do, you will never skills. Additionally, the experience can lead truly fail. // http://jobs.spsnational.org partner in the AIP Career Network The SPS Observer / Winter 2015–16 5 New_SPS_Ad.indd 1 2/25/2016 10:40:03 AM PATHWAYS | Advice from Experienced Voices Accessing My Creativity App ‘‘Spaceways.’’ That eve- ning, according to family lore, I attempted to explain how rockets worked to my dad! As a child I loved to draw rockets, ships, and airplanes, of my own imaginative designs. These sketches included cut-away views showing what their interiors were like. On March 27, 1962, my mother died. This was, of course, an enormous, almost overwhelming tragedy for a child to face. Driven by this to a large extent, I retreated Image by Bea.miau. throughout my teenage years into the world of my imagination, of science fiction and A THEORIST’S JOURNEY THROUGH SUPERSYMMETRY comic books. My favorite superheroes included scientists such as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. These figures inspired by Sylvester J. Gates, Jr. me. Sigma Pi Sigma Honorary Member, John S. Toll Professor of Physics, In the fall of 1967, I took my first phys- University of Maryland in College Park ics class. For years I had been using my imagination to build worlds within my head. One hundred years ago, Einstein com- not recognize the importance of having In this class I saw how mathematics allowed pleted his theory of general relativity. It an appropriate mathematical perspective. people to build tiny portions of the real was a feat of imagination, and, as Ein- Even Einstein first obtained a PhD before world within their heads. That astounded stein himself said, “Imagination is more he dazzled the world with his deep insights me. important than knowledge.” about nature. In my first year at MIT, I learned calcu- In honor of this anniversary, it is my very As a mathematical physicist, I spent my lus. I had always been good at math, but it great pleasure and honor to share with the younger years building that foundation. It was calculus that made me pointedly aware SPS family my own thoughts about how allowed me to use what I call my “creativ- of my creativity app. My experience showed imagination can be a source of creativity ity app,” the capacity for creativity that lies me a portion of my subconscious capable in physics. As I am only a “simple country within all of our minds. I have focused mine of interacting with my conscious rational theoretical physicist,” not a neuropsycholo- on the subject of supersymmetry. It has mind to produce solutions to mathematical gist or psychologist, I can share only my long been my hope to discover a piece of problems. This may sound mystical, but I own experiences. magical mathematics in this area. am sure it is what is meant by the idea of a Physics is the only piece of magic “muse” in other areas of human creativity. I have ever seen in the real world. Its BOOTING UP THE APP incantations are written in mathematics. LISTENING FOR CAT PAW’S FOOTFALLS IN People often share with me their creative One early indication of my creativity oc- THE MIST ideas about issues at the frontiers of curred when I was four years old and living theoretical physics, ideas that often chal- on a US military facility, named Pepperrell, Once one has experienced one’s creativity lenge Einstein’s.