Astronomy Day at ECSU April 24, 2001
Schedule
Opening Remarks Ms. Valenta Wade President, Society of Physics Students-ECSU Chapter Student Presentations Ramatoulie Bah, Katrina Banks, Torreon Creekmore, Vincent Davis Introduction of Guest Speaker Ms. Valenta Wade President, Society of Physics Students-ECSU Chapter Guest Speaker Dr. S. Raj Chaudhury Refreshments Planetarium Activity Presentations/Closing Remarks Ms. Katrina Banks Treasurer, Society of Physics Students-ECSU Chapter
Guest Speaker
Dr. S. Raj Chaudhury is a tenured Associate Professor in the Physics Department at Norfolk State University and the Director of the BEST Lab (Bring Education and Science Together), a Center Of Excellence. Since 1992 he has been involved in a number of science education research projects that use emerging technologies for the teaching and learning of topics in science. He has been a PI or co-PI on several projects with NASA, NSF, U.S. Dept. of Education and U.S. Dept. of Energy. Significant among these has been Project ESS, the NASA/NSU Cooperative Agreement for Research and Development in Earth System Science (1994-98), which has led to strong undergradaute research, scientific visualization and science education projects being developed in the BEST Lab. He has served on several local and national advisory boards related to science education. Dr. Chaudhury serves as Coordinator for a consortium titled Project A.T.O.M. (Acentuating Technical Opportunites for Minorities). A physics graduate of Vassar College, Dr. Chaudhury received his Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA in 1992.
Student Presentations
Tunneling of Matter Wave Through a Delta Function Type of Barrier Team Mentor:Dr. Abdul Latif Choudhury Members:Ramatoulie Bah, Katrina Banks, Torreon Creekmore, Vincent Davis The Schroedinger equation for a matter wave with non-zero mass with a positive rigid delta function potential sitting at the origin is set up. A wave starting from left side of origin should classically be forbidden to penetrate through the rigid delta function type of the wall. However, the equation for the matter wave can be solved for both regions left and right rigorously. The spectral relation of delta fuction and the property of the delta function that if it is multiplied by a reasonable fuction retains only the value of the point where the argument of the delta fuction vanishes is used. This result one can obtain from the theory distributions. Since only one dimensional case is being dealt with, a differential equation is arrived at which is inhomogeneous and a second order. Since only scatter is being looked for, the energy of the system is assumed to be positive. A plain wave solution is obtained by using the reside theorem of complex analysis for both left and right hand side of x-axis separately. The solutions are matched according to the quantum mechanical prescription. It is found that the result yields completely identical results. This result can be interpreted as the left hand solution completely tunnels through the potential barrier to the right hand side of the origin.
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