Friday Flyer - December 4, 2015

Spotlight on the Virtual QuarkNet Center: The Virtual Center is a home for teachers who live far from a geographic QuarkNet center. They meet monthly by videoconference and gather for a few days each summer. They went to New Mexico in August 2015 to visit physicists at Los Alamos and take advantage of the location, visiting the VLA radio observatory and doing their own observations under the clear New Mexico night sky. "It was a great scientific program," says mentor Dan Karmgard. Wabash College physics professor Danielle McDermott, who does research at LANL, arranged much of the activity and joined the team of Virtual Center mentors. Far from a QuarkNet center? Interested? Contact: Dave Trapp or Mike Wadness.

News from QuarkNet Central: International Masterclasses has a new informational circular posted. If your QuarkNet center has not yet registered, please do so this month (preferably) or next; consult the videoconference schedule and contact Ken Cecire. Also, masterclass orientations are coming up in January. We will contact registered centers about scheduling these.

Physics Experiment Roundup: DUNE, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, is a true international collaboration. Read about it in CERN Courier. 

Resources: A life in physics is full of questions. What is dark matter? Symmetry has an answer. What good is particle physics, anyway? Ask Don Lincoln. How can I instrument a frisbee? Find out how. 

Just for Fun: You're at the Oscars. A hush descends upon the glitterati; it's the Academy Award for Best Short Physics Film. The envelope opens and the winner is, yet again, The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge! OK, that never happened . . . but here is all you want to know about that famous oscillation. (And please send us a note if you still have a film loop projector.) 

QuarkNet Staff Teachers:
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Bob Peterson: rspete@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu