Wooster Physics Senior Theses

Senior Independent Study Guide

2008

• Mateo Chinchilla, Percolation via Electrical Conduction
• John Gamble, Foundations of Quantum Decoherence
• Howard Henry, Self-Organized Criticality: An Investigation of Pseudo-Random Bead Drop Dynamics
• Kirsten Larson, An Optical Study of the Infrared/Radio Correlation of Galaxies
• Kelly Patton, Experimental Observation of Solitons Propagating in a Hydro-Mechanical Array of One-Way Coupled Oscillators
• Joseph Thomas, When Does Hot Water Freeze Faster than Cold? Investigaton of the Reproducibility and Causes of the Mpemba Effect
• Mark Wellons, A Simulation of a Charged Pendulum in Electric and Magnetic Fields

2007

• Mike Davis, An Investigation of Dielectric Permittivity as Related to Concentration in Mixtures of 7CB and MBBA
• Stephen Poprocki, Bayesian Source Direction Determination for Gravitational-Wave Bursts
• Jon Rosch, The Effects of Compression on Conducting Spheres as They Pertain to Studying Granular Percolation
• Danny Shai, Monte Carlo Studies of the Globally-Coupled Ising Model
• Sarah Suddendorf, Good to the Last Drop: Percolation Through Hypercubic and Random Lattices for Integer, Fractional, and Fractal Dimensions
• Danny Tremblay, Creation of a Two-Dimensional Negative-Index-Material
• Nathan Utt, Heat Capacity Anomaly in a Nitrobenzene+Dodecane Mixture
• Lisa May Walker, Spacetime Whirlpools

2006

• Jeremy Hohertz, Simulation of Synchrotron Radiation from Relativistic Particles in Tangled Magnetic Fields
• Andrew Kindschuh, Self-Organized Criticality: An Investigation of Energy Dissipation and Bead Pile Dynamics
• Kathy McCreary, Characterization of BEEM Performance
• Katherine Olaksen, Physics and Free Will: Models of Top-Down Causation in Physics
• Angie Triplett, Simulating the Path of a Fastpitch Softball Pitch

2005

• Andy Brinck, Comparison of High and Low Flux States of the Microquasar XTE J1748-288
• Austin Carter, Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy of InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots
• Mark Lightfoot, Measuring the Coexistence Curve of 8-Arm Star Polystyrene in Methylcyclohexane
• Saleh Satti, Phase Transitions and Dielectric Anisotropy in Nematic Binary Mixtures: Comparing 7CB and MBBA Mixtures to 5CB and MBBA Mixtures
• Daniel Utley, Measuring the Reflectivity of Semiconductor Mirrors Using Light-Intensity Ring-Down in a Half-Symmetric Resonator

2004

• Katie Frato, Experimental Studies of Signal Noise in Gene Regulation in the Inducible Antibiotic Resistance Pathway of Escherichia coli
• Nick Harmon, Chaos on S²:The Newtonian Two-Body Problem on the 2-Sphere
• Tom Spears Searching for Possible Correlations of γ-Ray and X-Ray Emissions from Active Galactic Nuclei
• Nithya Venkataraman, The Turbidity and Correlation Length Amplitude of 8-arm Star Polystyrene in Methylcyclohexane Near The Critical Point

2003

• Clinton Braganza, The Turbidity of 8-Arm Polystyrene in Methylcylochexane in the One-Phase Region Near the Critical Solution Point: A Small Step in Determining the Effects of Polymer Architecture on Critical Amplitudes
• Daniel Brubaker, A Mechanical System Designed to Exhibit Bistable Stochastic Resonance
• Christie Egnatuk, Kaluza-Klein Theory
• Nick Hanson, Two-Dimensional Clustering Transitions in Vibro-Fluidized Hard Spheres
• Ryan Hartschuh, Measuring the Coexistence Curve of 8-Arm Star Polystyrene in Methylcyclohexane
• Bradley Lignoski, Decoherence, the Classical Appearance of the Quantum World and Quantum Evolution
• Jeffrey Moffitt, Self-Erasing Perturbations of the Abelian Sandpile Automata
• Rebecca Urban, Dynamics of a Steel Bead Pile Exhibiting Self-Organized Criticality

2002

• Sara Connolly, Synthesis and Deformation of Smectic-A Liquid Crystals
• Matthew Krivos, Effect of a Dropped Bead's Kinetic Energy on the Self-Organized Critical Behavior of a Bead Pile
• Christopher Locke, The Turbidity of an 8-arm Star Polystyrene in Methylcyclohexane Near the Critical Temperature
• Joshua Martin, The Investigation of Possible Candidates for a Calamitic and Discotic Mixture and the Physical Properties of the Eutectic Mixture N4
• David J. Miller, The Flux Creep Automaton
• Derek Somogy, Ammonia Emission in Star Forming Region S235 A/B

2001

• Lauren Ault, Cosmological Nucleosynthesis
• Drew Bouchard, Neutral Dielectric Anistropy in a Binary Liquid Crystal Mixture
• Rachel Mary Costello, Visualization of Objects in the Vicinity of a Black Hole
• Scott Hughes, An Investigation Using Cellular Automata and Differential Equations to Model Magnetic Flux Creep Through a Type II Superconductor, Represented by an Array of Coupled Josephson Junctions, Using a Standard Square Lattice, as Well as a Non-traditional 6-Fold Symmetric Lattice
• Amy Lytle, A Structural and Optical Study of Evaporated Droplets Containing DNA
• Chris Templeman, Kinematics of Granular Material in a Two-Dimensional Couette Shearing Cell

2000

• Geoffrey Bonvallet, Placement of Bright S88B Objects on a Hertzprung-Russell Diagram Using Visible Light Measurements
• Sridhar Chandramouli, Noise Enhanced Propagation in an Array of Schmitt Triggers
• Sean English, The Formation of Complex Lenses from Evaporated Droplets Containing DNA
• Andrew Nowicki, Measurement of the Turbidity of the Critically Composed Binary Fluid Mixture Succinonitrile and Water in the One-Phase Region Near the Critical Solution Point Using Light Scattering
• Timothy Sir Louis, Self-Organized Criticality in a Bead Pile
• Zakir Thaver, Chaos in the Brain: A Nonlinear Time Series Analysis of Electroencephalograms

1999

• Joshua Bozeday, Noise Enhanced Propagation in an Electronic Array
• Madhujit Ghosh, Measurement of the Heat Capacity of the Binary Fluid Mixture of Succinotrile and Water Near the Upper Critical Consolute Point Using Adiabatic Calorimetry
• Manon Grugel, Λ
• Andrew Kuck, Noise Enhanced Propagation
• A. Christine Rauch, A Study of the Phase Transitions of Mixtures of the Nematic Liquid Crystals 5CB and MBBA
• Paul Rebillot, Static Traversable Wormholes and the Violation of Null Energy Conditions
• David Walkenhorst, Reducing Viscous Drag Using Microbubbles

1998

• Jason Darfus, Photometric Measurements of Variable Stars as a Tool to Determine Astronomical Distances
• Jodee Jones, Kinematic Parameters Important to Biological Motion: A Macroscopic and Microscopic Analysis
• Jonathan Keim, Classical Electron Theory For a Non-point Charge
• Bryan Prusha, Nonlinearity and Computation: Implementing Logic as a Nonlinear, Dynamical System
• Woody Shew, Taming Chaos in an Array of Pendulums

1997

• Erica Bramley, Electro-optics of a Smectic A Liquid Crystal Doped with Nanoparticles
• Delaney DeMay, Examining the Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Phases of a Physiological Mixture
• Christopher Ditchman, Investigation of Transients and Static Modulated Phase in the Nematic Liquid Crystals 5CB and CCH-7
• Noah Johnston, An Exploration of the Ueda Oscillator Using Analog Computers to Map the Three Dimensional Phase Space to Two Dimensions: A Look into the Future, Using the Techniques of the Past
• Francesca Mascarenhas, Hearing the Shape of a Sound: The Physics of Colliding Bars
• Anindya Mukherjee, Illuminating an Endpoint
• Ali Rauf, Predicting Earthquakes
• Christopher Spillmann, The Kinetics of Palmitic Acid Self-Assembled Aggregates

1996

• Darwin Keith-Lucas, η: An experiment measuring the turbidity of the binary fluid methanol-cyclohexane, determining the elusive exponent η
• Ali Özgenç, The Kinetics of Fatty Acid and Phospholipid Solid Self Assembly
• Salman Saeed, Frequency Dependence of the Modulated Phase in 5CB
• Cyrus Screwvala, The Chaotic Tumbling of Hyperion: Moon of Saturn

1995

• Ronald Craig, Flexoelectric Effect in the Nematic Liquid Crystal 5CB (4-cyano-4'-n-pentylbiphenyl)
• Anne Flewelling, Phase Transitions in a Monolayer of Phospholipids: Using the Langmuir Balance Technique
• Paul Hall, The Turbidy of the Binary Fluid Mixture Methanol-Cyclohexane Near the Critical Point: the Measurement of the Fisher Critical Exponent η
• Priyavadan Mamidipudi, Effects of Magnetic Fields on the Modulated Phase of 5CB
• Andrew Martin, An Automated Analysis of Swimming Behavior in Paramecium Tetraurelia
• Jared Ripps, An Investigation into the Structure of Agarose Using Laser Light Scattering

1994

• William Antel, Chaotic Dynamics on Rippled Surfaces
• John Cuff, Electric-Field-Induced Freedericksz Transition in the Nematic Liquid Crystal 5CB
• Rohan Defonseka, Measurement of the Heat Capacity Anomaly of the Binary Fluid System Triethylamine-Water Near the Critical Solution Point Using Adiabatic Calorimetry
• Michael Hunter, Spatiotemporal Chaos on a Sphere of Duffing Oscillators
• Stephen Nichols, Study of the Effects of an Electric Field on Agarose Gel by Neutron Scattering

1993

• Joshua Fagans, The Fourth Dimension Unveiled: A Preliminary Reconnaissance of Four Dimensional Objects from Mathematics and Physics
• Peter Hourigan, New Nematic-Smectic-A Transition Instability in Di-Heptyl-Alkyl Azoxybenzene Liquid Crystal Focusing on Anchoring Breaks and Transitions
• Nikfar A. Khaleeli, Adiabatic Calorimetry Measurement of the Heat Capacity of the Binary Fluid Triethylamine-Water Near the Critical Point
• Asad Khan, The Chaotic Behavior of a Single-Mode Semiconductor Injection Laser Coupled with an External Feedback Cavity
• Linda D. King, An Investigation of the Excess Volume Effect of the Binary Liquid Mixture Perfluoromethylcyclohexane + Isopropyl Alcohol
• Taka Kumashiro, Quantum Metaphysics: A Dialogue in Search of Knowledge
• Christopher J. Levy, Self-Organized Criticality in a Conical Sandpile
• Mark McKinney, Chaos in Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals
• Joseph Neff, Signal Recognition Using Chaos and Control Algorithms

1992

• Christopher Hamilton, Controlling Chaos with Weak Perturbations Using the Dynamics of Chaos in a Dripping Faucet as a Base
• Erich P. Ippen Jr., Numerical Simulation of Chaotic Resonance
• David H. Kime, The Venus Puzzle: Tectonics and Terrestrial Planets

1991

• Richard C. Bailey, A Study of Electro-Optic Properties of Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals as a Function of Sample Curing Time
• Mark L. Bricker, A Dynamic Light Scattering Study of a Nematic Liquid Crystal in the Presence of a Magnetic Field
• Alice D. Churukian, Chaos in a Dripping Water Faucet
• Karl A. Crandall, Determining the Bend Elastic Constant of the Liquid Crystal Di-Heptyl-Alkyl Azoxybenzene (Using Freedericksz Transition)
• Douglas A. Halverson, A New Method for the Experimental Investigation of Self-Organized Criticality
• Andrew O. Mellinger, Multiple Time Dimensions
• Victor T. Norton, The Belousov-Zhabotinskii Reaction: a computer simulated study of bromate oscillators and autocatalysis
• Jonathan F. Partee, Adiabatic Calorimetry Measurement of the Heat Capacity of Triethylamine-Water Near the Critical Point
• Thomas M. Taczak, BumperPool: A New Region for Chaotic Billiards

1990

• Dennis Kuhl, The Excess Volume Effect of the Binary Liquid Mixture Perfluoromethylcyclohexane + Isopropyl Alcohol
• Susan Leitholf, Ion Beam Mixing in a Bismuth Silicon Bilayer
• Karen McEwen, Avalanches in an Hourglass
• Naseem Rahman, Electrical Properties of an Infinite Grid of Resistors

1989

• Bryan R. Johnson , Calculating a Dimension of a Strange Attractor
• John M. Mandryk, Using Energy Relationships for the Verification of the Modeling of a Vaulting Pole Based on the Elastica Theory of Euler
• Donald L. Mosteller, A Photon Correlation Spectroscopy Study of Brownian Motion
• John G. Scudder, Escape! A Computer Solution to the Restricted Three-Body Problem
• Craig E. Selby, Coexistence of the Binary Fluid Perfluoromethylcyclohexane-Isopropyl Alcohol

1988

• Supratik Burman, An Analysis of the Wave/Particle Nature of Statistically Independent Photons
• Sergio DeSouza-Machado, A Computer Simulation Study of Deterministic Dissipative Systems Exhibiting Chaotic Behavior
• Gregory D. Elfring, An Introduction to Fractal Geometry and its Applications
• Todd Ewers, Observation of Phase Transitions in Ceramics, Cyclobutanes, and Cycloheptanes by DSC Methods
• Vonda Fairbanks, The Excess Volume Effect of Methanol-Cyclohexane in the One-Phase Region
• Ashok Mittal, A Study of Brownian Motion Using Photon Correlation Spectroscopy
• Palani Sakthivel, Coefficient of Expansion of a Thin Aluminum Film
• Stephen G. Stafford, Turbidity Measurements in the Near Critical Region for the Binary Mixture Polystyrene Diethyl Malonate

1987

• Kevin P. Andrews, The Coexistence Curve of the Binary Fluid Triethylamine-Water
• John B. Fanselow, Adiabatic Calorimetry Measurement of the Heat Capacity of a Near Critical Binary Fluid
• Scott R. Gunselman, The Physics of a Racquetball Racquet: The Sweet Spot
• Daniel O. Hogenboom, A Study of Brownian Motion Using Light Scattering
• Ashok Mittal, A Study of Brownian Motion Using Photon Correlation Spectroscopy
• Terrence B. Khoo, A Study of the Proper Order Parameter for Binary Liquid Mixtures
• Mike LaVilla, Cyclic Voltammetry Study of the Vitamin B12 Complex TRNS-Aqua Cobalt III
• Scott P. McLean, A Biomechanical Analysis of the Power Generating Phases of the Front Crawl Stroke
• George F. Miller, A Technique for Determining the Contact Time of a Golf Club-Ball Collision and its Relationship to Club Velocity
• Eric Parker, High Resolution Stand-Alone Video Processor
• Anna C. Ploplis, Turbidity of Polystyrene-Diethylmalonate Near the Critical Point

1986

• Solomon Ngubane, Heat Capacity of a Binary Fluid Mixture: Methanol-cyclohexane

1985

• Bill Andrew, A Test of the Lorentz-Lorenz Relation in an Isobutyric Acid and Water Binary Fluid
• Charles Partee, Heat Capacity of a Binary Fluid
• Raheel J. Rae, Automated Classification of Stellar Spectra
• Kent A. Thurston, An Analysis of Optical Spectra of Cataclysmic Variable H2252-35

1984

• Polly Groth, Empirical Strain Modeling in California: Use of Very Long Baseline Interferometry
• Douglas A. Iams, An Analysis of Simultaneous Optical and Ultraviolet Spectra of SCO X-1
• Polly Wardwell, The Coexistence Curve of Methanol-Isooctane

1983

• Robert Cohn, Effects of Acetone Impurity in a Near-Critical Mixture of Methanol and Cyclohexane
• Jeffrey B. Parker, The Design and Testing of an Apparatus for the Measurement of the Ultrasonic Properties of Liquids

1982

• Arvind Ahuja, Thermal Expansion of Bovine Femur as a Function of Temperature
• Steven E. Hoell, Photographic Studies of Vortex Dynamics in HE II
• Ann Mowery, Light Scattering in a Near-Critical Binary Fluid Mixture
• Lori Pederson, An Investigation of the Heat Capacity of the Binary Fluid Mixture Nitroethane-3-Methylpentane Near its Critical Point

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