Department of Chemistry & Physics g 100 Campus Drive g Weatherford, OK 73096-3089 PHYSICS ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Spring 2006 http://www.swosu.edu/academics/physics g [email protected] g Terry Goforth, Editor one full mile to the four-way speaking on “The International stop. Turn left (east) and go Space Station: What does it do, about ½ mile to Cedar Canyon what have we learned, what's PHYSICS E. (Pass up Cedar Canyon W.) GRADS Turn south (right) and drive next?” NAMED about 0.4 miles. The sign “JONES 20" will be on the east DISTINGUISHED After receiving a B.S. in Engi- (left) side of the road. Turn neering Physics from SWOSU, ALUMNI down the driveway. (The house Ms. Gard started her career at Now everyone knows what we is not visible from the road.) knew all along. We have some ALUMNI ARE WELCOME!!! NASA’s Marshall Space Flight pretty special graduates. This Center where she performed year, two have been singled out Science is a way of trying not design, computational analysis for recognition as SWOSU Dis- to fool yourself.– Richard and testing on the International tinguished Alumni. John Feynman Space Station’s (ISS) environ- Aaron (‘64) and Dr. Benny Hill mental control, life support, MELISSA (‘57) will be honored for their thermal and fire protection sys- many accomplishments at the GARD WILL tems. In 1998 she was tempor- SWOSU Convocation on May SPEAK AT BANQUET arily assigned to NASA Head- 13, 2006. Keep your eye on Take a trip to the International quarters in Washington, D.C. SWOSU’s News and on the Space Station. For $20 mil- where she worked on Congres- Physics Alumni Web Page for lion, you might hitch a ride on related activities. More infor- sional materials related to ISS. mation about these high achiev- a Russian rocket. Or for the Melissa then transferred to ers is presented later in the much more reasonable rate of NASA’s Johnson Space Center newsletter. $12, you can get a fine meal, where she served as Technical the company of friends old and Assistant to the Deputy Pro- new, and an evening learning gram Manager for ISS Opera- ALWAYS GREAT about the ISS at the 25th An- tions. Following that assign- FOOD! The nual Spring Physics Banquet. ment she was the Mission Man- Physics and This year’s gathering will be on ager for the third and sixth ex- Engineering Club Saturday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in Annual Shish-kebab peditions to the ISS. She is will be held on the SWOSU Conference Cen- currently a Senior Manager in Saturday, 6 May ter (at the corner of Davis Rd. the ISS Mission Evaluation 2006 at 6:00 p.m. The location and 7th St. across the street Room, leading the engineering will be Dr. Jones’ house. from Milam Stadium). team that monitors ISS system To get to the Jones Estate, take operations and performs anom- exit 84 (Airport Rd) from I-40 Alumna Melissa (Missy aly resolution. Her awards in- and go south on Airport Road Dubiel) Gard (‘89) will be clude the Silver Snoopy award - SWOSU PHYSICS ALUMNI NEWSLETTER , page 2 SPRING 2006 the astronauts’ personal award College of Health Sciences to A bridge is too complex to for ensuring crew and mission work on his post-graduate degree calculate all of the forces in- safety - and the NASA Excep- in Osteopathic Medicine. Casey volved, and so engineers con- tional Service Medal. Wells (Ninnekah) has chosen to struct a mathematical model pursue an advanced degree in relating the forces that they think will be important. Meas- In addition to food for both Medical Physics. To further prepare for his studies, Casey has urements of real bridges, or of body and mind, the evening begun his graduate career by physical models, verify that a will include the annual induc- picking up additional courses in mathematical model is good tion of new Sigma Pi Sigma biology and chemistry here at and yields the values of con- members and presentation of SWOSU. Casey also continues stants in the equations of the awards and scholarships. to serve the SWOSU student model. Unfortunately Mois- body and physics program by seiff extended his model far Mark your calendars and make using his considerable beyond where it had been tested. His design called for a your reservations now. Just let background tutoring students in visually stunning bridge, a beginning physics courses. us know your plans–you can narrow and thin ribbon of Congratulations Chris and Casey! always pay at the door. We roadway gracefully suspen- just need a head count for the ded from two soaring towers. caterers about 3 days in ad- Make everything as simple as Moisseiff’s plan would use vance. Hope to see you there! possible, but not simpler. – less steel and cost only 8 Albert Einstein million dollars, so his version is the bridge that was built–and besides, Moisseiff PHYSICS AND was famous. ENGINEERING CLUB THE OFFICERS COLLAPSE The bridge’s extreme flexibility Pres: Moin Khan OF THE TACOMA allowed it to oscillate in the VP: Santosh Bhatt NARROWS BRIDGE wind and led to its nickname, “Galloping Gertie.” At times Sec: Bhaskar Basnet Dr. Charles Rogers the roadbed became a sinu- Treas: Micah Perkins ous sine wave with ampli- The Tacoma Narrows bridge Publ Rel: Michelle Schuldt tudes so large that a car in a was opened to the public on Historian: Vishnu Pokhrel valley would disappear from July 1, 1940. At 1.8 km long, Spn: Dr. Tony Stein the view of a car in a valley it was the third longest sus- behind it. About 10:00 a.m. pension bridge in the world at on November 7, 1940, Leo- that time. As originally de- CONGRATULATIONS, nard Coatsworth, a news signed by Clark Eldridge, it editor for the Tacoma News GRADS! would have cost 11 million Tribune, drove onto the bridge This year two dollars to build, but eastern with the family dog, Tubby, in SWOSU Physics financiers would not lend the the back seat. The roadway students received money to build it unless an was rising and falling 3 feet their diplomas at engineer of their choice revi- every 90 seconds. Suddenly convocation. Chris Robertson sed the plans. They chose a stiffening line broke loose (Meeker) received his degree in Leon Moisseiff, a world fa- and the bridge began to twist Biophysics and is off to the OSU mous bridge designer. SWOSU PHYSICS ALUMNI NEWSLETTER , page 3 SPRING 2006 about its center line, pushing At first it was supposed that force of winds, but Farquhar- the left sidewalk 28 feet be- the bridge’s collapse was son showed that the complex low the right sidewalk. Then caused by the wind exciting a interplay between the struc- the left sidewalk rose and the natural frequency of the ture and the wind must be ac- right sidewalk fell, and so on, bridge–a resonance pheno- counted for. The field of every 5 seconds. Coats- menon. Under this guise bridge aerodynamics was worth’s car was thrown a- pictures of the bridge collapse born, providing gainful em- gainst the curb in the oppo- have made it into numerous ployment for engineers and site lane, but Coatsworth physics text books. The exci- safer bridges for the public. managed to crawl out a win- tation mechanism was dow. The terrified dog would thought to be the formation In questions of science, the not come. and shedding of vortices in authority of a thousand is not the lee of the bridge, but the worth the humble reasoning of Not able to stay on his feet, expected period for this was 1 a single individual.–Galileo Coatsworth clung to the curb second, not the measured 5 Galilei as he crawled towards the seconds. East Tower 150 meters a- NEWS FROM way. As he neared the tow- Frederick Bert Farquharson, CLUB WE-BE- er, he met Winfield Brown, a Professor of Civil Engineering college student, who had ear- at the University of Washing- GONE lier walked across the bridge ton, took measurements and Travels of the for the thrill of the roller coas- filmed the collapse. He was ter effect for the price of the onsite because he had been Physics and Engineering Club dime toll. They both made it assigned to find ways to make to safety. At 10:30 a.m. a the bridge stiffer. (He also The past year has been as large chunk of concrete drop- managed to reach eventful as ever. Our spring ped from the central span. A Coatsworth’s car to rescue short while later the rumble of Tubby, but when he reached trip took us to Colorado Galloping Gertie reached a inside, Tubby bit his finger Springs in the great state of crescendo: the air was filled and drove him off.) Later Far- Colorado for the Space Sym- with the shrieking of twisting quharson made a scale model steel girders, the sharp gun- of the bridge and discovered posium’s job fair. It was an eye- shot sounds of snapping ca- that straight winds could opening experience for all of us, bles and popping bolts, and excite a torsional mode with a the grinding of concrete a- 5 second period–exactly what particularly our Senior (and gainst concrete. One of the had destroyed the bridge. some Juniors) who waited in line two suspension cables slip- The oscillation frequency was for the interviews. It was parti- ped from its saddle atop a independent of any aspect of tower, and, at 11:02 a.m., a the wind, provided that the cularly gratifying to see employ- 200-meter-long section of the wind speed was large e- er after employer emphasizing roadway tore loose from the nough.