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Modeling Solar Sails (Jr IS guest blog post by Nate Smith)
Solar sails utilize the change in momentum of photons as a means of propulsion. This allows spacecraft with solar sails to significantly reduce their mass, since they do not have to carry onboard fuel (in comparison to traditional rocket-based spacecraft). This project aims at designing a program to display the dynamics of a solar-sail-based spacecraft…
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An underwater “scramjet engine” (Jr IS guest blog by Jack Mershon)
I have always thought that one of the most outdated technologies we currently employ in the large scale is propellers for ships. While this isn’t a critical fault in our world it does lead to a lot of inefficiencies. Modern trade ships and super-tankers use millions of tons of fuel annually. This does a great deal…
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Aerodynamics of concave surfaces (JR IS guest blog by Collin Hendershot)
My name is Collin Hendershot. For my Junior Independent Study project I observed the effect of concavity on the aerodynamics of high speed automobiles. The two important aerodynamic characteristics of automobiles are downforce and drag. Downforce is the force of air pushing a car toward the road and drag is the force on the car…
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A Physicist Studying a Chemistry Experimental Method (Jr IS guest blog by Zane Thornburg)
Absorption spectroscopy is popular form of chemical identification and characterization. Typically, light is passed through a sample once and the intensity of the light after passing through the sample is measured. If light is absorbed by a sample, we expect the amount absorb to increase if the concentration of the solution or the thickness of…
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Storing Memory in Light (Jr IS guest blog by Avi Vajpeyi)
When we say that two particles are quantumly entangled, we mean that the particles cannot be looked at independently even when separated by great distances. This means that if we measure one particle, we will automatically get the measurements of the other. This concept is spooky, and can be useful in studying the nature of…
