Pace

The UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy is featured in the May 2007 issue of Physics Today. While the department is often featured in this publication, the May issue is the first time that I have had anything to do with it. A photo, shown below, from the PHYS 180E course (undergraduate plasma lab) is […]

A magnetic dipole can be made by running a current through a loop of wire. Most permanent magnets are bar magnets, however, and these are still commonly referred to as producing a dipole field. In this topic we will examine a very simple case in which the magnetization of a cylinder is used to determine […]

A typical graduate student’s desk is shown in figure 1. While appearing as an unorganized cluster of paperwork and beverages, the items shown actually represent a finely tuned operation of study and productivity. The interplay of all these objects is described after the labeled image of figure 2. In figure 2 the contents of figure […]

Various exercises with an electron beam are performed as part of the undergraduate plasma laboratory at UCLA. This course (look up PHYS 180E at the UCLA Physics and Astronomy Dept.) is intended to introduce upper division undergraduates to experimental plasma physics. While acting as the TA for the course during the Spring 2006 quarter I […]

While working in an undergraduate plasma laboratory I had the opportunity to use an old device for recording data. The XY recorder is to data collection as the typewriter is to a computer. An ink pen is attached to a rail that moves according to input signals. The recorded takes a voltage input for both […]