Never Work a Day...

Dr. Sypher, - Oct 22 2:31PM

Hello, my name is Allyson. I am currently a junior at [...] highschool. Personally, I don't know too much about physics, but I love music. I plan on going to college for music education. Do you enjoy physics?

Re: Dr. Sypher, - Oct 25 12:31AM

Hi Allyson,

I do enjoy physics, a great deal. I think it's important to explore all kinds of subjects and find something that you really, really enjoy. Sounds like music might be that for you. A wise person once told me that if I do what I enjoy, then I'll never have to "work" a day in my life. Would you agree?

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Dr. Sypher, - Nov 05 2:14PM

Dr. Syphers,

I do agree with that completely. I find it absolutely fascinating that people can find something that they are so extremely passionate about. How exactly did you become interested in physics?

-Allyson

Re: Re: Re: Dr. Sypher, - Nov 07 4:32PM

Hi Allyson,
I became interested in astronomy at a very young age (6 or 8?) and was always looking up at the stars and moon and planets at night. When I got to High School and had already taken biology and chemistry (and math), I was told I should take "physics" next. I didn't know what that was, but when I saw a physics book and saw the chapter on "Gravity and Planetary Motion" then I knew it was the subject I had always wanted to take. And, I guess I never stopped!

-Mike

Meeting Requirements

Introduction - Oct 22 9:37AM

Dr. Syphers,

My name is Laurabelle and I am currently a Junior at [...] High School. Thanks for being our adopted physicist! My favorite subject in school is math. I play on the varsity volleyball team and plan on playing in college. I want to major in physical therapy with a minor in photography.

What's the hardest or most diffiicult part of your job?

Re: Introduction - Oct 25 12:30AM

Hi Laurabelle,

I suppose the hardest part is when you get stuck trying to solve a problem and can't seem to get anywhere. It does happen -- more often than I'd like. (We don't have an "answer book" or a teacher that already has all the answers! Argghhhh!) But then, of course, that's what makes it an exciting job experience.

What kind of photography do you like to do? I dabble in that a little bit, too…

-Mike

Re: Re: Introduction - Oct 28 7:04AM

I like taking macro photos because it allows me to accentuate little details in my subjects. I'm also getting more into landscapes and portrait photography.

What kind of photography are you into and what do you do if you have trouble solving a problem- do you leave it be and come back to it or go on to something else all together?

Thanks!

Laurabelle

Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 01 12:18AM

Hi Laurabelle,

I like to take landscapes, too, as well as architectural photos.

As for problem solving, yes I often let it go for a while and come back to it. Unfortunately, I typically do not have the option of going on to something else altogether (especially if my "boss" wants an answer tomorrow!) ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 05 11:55AM

Although problem solving is the hardest part of your job, is it your least favorite or is there another aspect that you don't favor as much? And if so, what and why?

Thanks,

Laurabelle :D

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 07 4:31PM

Hi Laurabelle,

I want to point out that even though it may be hard, solving problems is probably the "best" part of the job. It's what makes it all challenging and exciting.

So, that said, I guess I don't like going to (certain) meetings and sitting there while I could be doing something more useful. There seems to be more and more meetings of this type as one gets older and more into the management side of things.

But, overall, I still enjoy almost all aspects of my work and think it is still very satisfying.

-Mike

Workin Hard

: ) - Oct 21 7:54PM

Heyy Dr. Syphers

My name is Hailey, thank you very much for taking the time to be our physicist! I am a Junior at [...] High School, I am taking physics honestly to get one last science credit but i really like it so far. I would like to go to college for Speech Therapy, Audiology, and Pathology. I am a 6'1" basketball player and I play nationally, I hope to play in college at the division II level.

Whats your favorite thing about your job? Have you always wanted to be a physicist?

Re: : ) - Oct 25 12:30AM

Hi Hailey,

I think the most favorite thing about my job is the huge diversity of what all I get to do. I get to work on very sophisticated equipment with a team of very smart and fun people, get to travel and write and give talks, and get to work with the best young people who all seem to have lots of energy and lots of ambitions. I get to study science, which I have always enjoyed, and people pay me for it! Not bad!

As for your other question, I think I wanted to be a "scientist" since I was about 8 years old or so; it took me a while (10 years?) before I understood what "physics" was and that that was the "science" I was interested in.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: : ) - Oct 29 11:28AM

Heyy Dr. Syphers,

We just finished our forces unit in physics and now were learning about Energy.
Your job sounds like a lot of fun! How long is a typical work day for you? what is the most challengeing thing you've ever done with physic?

-Hailey

Re: Re: Re: : ) - Nov 01 12:19AM

Hi Hailey,

My work day varies, but it's usually at least 8 hours, and sometimes 10-12. But, I try to make the total work week about 40-50 hours at max. It really depends upon what is going on at the moment. It's important to take breaks, though, and re-set your mind and your energy level. And, as you might expect, I put in a LOT more hours when I was just a bit older than you; these days, I get tired a lot easier… ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike


Re: Re: Re: Re: : ) - Nov 05 11:11AM

haha understandable a lil R&R never hurts. What do you think is the most challengeing aspect of your job? how many years did it take in college to get where you are today?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: : ) - Nov 07 4:30PM

Hi Hailey,

I think the most challenging part of the job is trying to keep up with everything that is going on in the field. Things develop so rapidly. There's always new reports to read, new talks to hear, new events taking place, that it's hard to keep up sometimes. I wish I had about 56 hours in a day…

I went to school in stages. First, the typical 4-year college; then I worked for a couple of years before starting my Master's degree, which took about 3 years. Then, I took a year off before starting my PhD program, which took me another 2 years or so. So, I guess it was about 10 years of college, which I completed by the time I was 29.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: : ) - Nov 09 11:43AM

Dr. Syphers,

Thank you so much for the time you took out of your busy schedule to answer question my classmates and I had!

-hailey

Elemental Creationism

Introduction - Oct 21 4:42PM

Dr. Syphers,

Hello. My Name is Josh, and I am a Junior at [...] High School. I'm currently taking physics to better prepare me for my hoped major in college. I plan to major in Atmospheric Science, and minor in Music and Theater. I find this an interesting pairing, as do most others. I am musically and theaterically inclined. I enjoy the sciences and maths, but not English.

Whats it like working with a Partical Accelerator? It sounds quite interesting.

Re: Introduction - Oct 25 12:29AM

Hi Josh,

I think it's great that you have a very diverse set of interests. You'll find that whatever you do in life you can draw from all of them. Keep it up!

Working on particle accelerators is really a lot of fun for me. I get to work on state-of-the-art equipment, tour the world, write papers (and books sometimes) and give talks, work with some of the best people on the planet -- including lots of students and younger scientists. I think it's a job that's hard to beat.

What are you guys studying in physics right now?

-Mike

Re: Re: Introduction - Oct 29 1:32PM

We have just transitioned from forces to energy, definately the easiest of the units we have covered so far. I rather enjoy the class, and all the labs that we do in it. I guess I should with my career choice.

It would seem that your job entails alot of chemistry as of physics. This is interesting, especially when it comes to creating new elements. How do the accelerators distribute the energy created from the collision of the heavy elements? Do you use both fission and fusion when you combind the atoms? I would say fusion, but I guess that both are plausible. Fission would result in two smaller elements than what you would want, so I guess I answered my own question. Anyway thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

~Josh

Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 01 12:22AM

Hi Josh,

Some might say that Chemistry is just a sub-set of Physics; in fact you can take courses in "Physical Chemistry" in college. So, yes, there is a lot of overlap. But, when we create new elements with the accelerators, we just get one or a few atoms at a time; not enough to stock up a chemistry lab, I guess…

And thanks for answering your question for me. ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 01 6:04PM

I would not have guessed that you only gain a few atoms at a time. I would have guessed from the size of the machine you get a good number of them. Have you actually created a new element yet? Now what are Rare Isotope Beams? I remember what an Isotope is, from my chemistry class last semester, but would the beams be of energy from the Isotope? It sounds rather interesting.

~Josh

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 02 12:26AM

Hi Josh,

I may have over stated that fact. Indeed, many of the experiments here actually do detect individual particles, one at a time, which is what I meant by my statement. But, "a time" could be a very small fraction of a second, and thus there can be many -- sometimes thousands or more -- every second. So, it's all kind of relative.

What we do at our facility here is take atoms -- either from a gas, or by heating up a solid until it emits atoms that can be captured -- and then we strip away some of the electrons by applying a high voltage to the gas. That yields an atom which has more positive charges than negative -- an ion. Since it has a net charge, it can be accelerated using other voltages, giving this ion kinetic energy. We keep doing this until the ion has been accelerated through millions of volts of electric potential. (You'll probably learn more about electricity and voltage, etc, later in the school year.) Anyway, charges can be accelerated by electric fields, so that's how we get very heavy atoms up to very high speed -- that's where their kinetic energy comes from. Then, we collide these high-speed atoms into metal targets (typically) so that they can interact with the atoms in the targets, and sometimes the two nuclei stick and make even heavier atoms and interesting isotopes.

I haven't been here at MSU all that long, so I'm not sure if they have actually discovered a brand new element; but we have been the first to discover various isotopes of already known elements, and we have the best complex in the nation for studying rare elements and isotopes in great detail.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 09 1:12PM

Dr. Syphers,

I thank you for all the help you have gave me. It sounds like you have quite the job, and your work has piqued my interest. Again on the behalf of my partners and myself, I would like to thank you for all the information that you have provided us.

Many thanks,

Josh

The Daily Grin

Introduction - Oct 21 4:09PM

Dr. Syphers,

Hello! My name is Katie and I am a senior at [...] high school. I am currently taking physics because the classes I would like to study in college (veterinary technition) said it was a good idea. In school I enjoy being on the girls varsity volleyball team, along with the marching and jazz band's.

Now, I would love to know something about you. Like, what kind of physics do you use on a daily basis?

Re: Introduction - Oct 25 12:28AM

Hi Katie,

I hope you are enjoying your physics class so far. It great to see that you, and so many of your classmates, and other students I see at other schools, are into sports and music and theater and all kinds of stuff. That's really great.

I probably use basic physics that I learned in high school and my first years of college really almost every single day. In my job we are constantly doing quick little calculations to estimate things that we want to study, and then once we have a "plan of attack," we will have to do much more detailed calculations which involve higher level math and computers and stuff like that. As you might learn, there are many areas of physics, like particle physics, astrophysics, solid state physics, etc. I mainly do Nuclear Physics these days, but have worked in particle physics and astrophysics a little bit in the past. What I do for each of these is called "accelerator physics" because I study how to build particle accelerators that can be used in order to do controlled experiments in all of these sub-disciplines of physics. I think it is really a lot of fun, and very rewarding.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 04 2:41PM

Dr. Syphers,

Your job sounds very interesting and slightly difficult! Which area of work did you find most interesting or exciting to work with so far?

-Katie

Re: Re: Re: Introduction - Nov 04 4:03PM

Hi Katie,

Another student at another school asked me the exact same question the other day; here's my reply:

"It's really hard to point to one thing in my career and call that the most interesting thing I've done. I continue to learn new things every day, and the excitement of learning and solving problems and figuring things out is always there. I thought I knew a lot about accelerators (and compared to most people, I guess I do), but I just took this new job at MSU this year and we are building an accelerator which has requirements on the beams and systems which I have never had to deal with before. But, rather than saying "I don't want to do that because I don't know how," I like to say, "I want to do that because I don't know how." Know what I mean?

"Right now I'm working with a team of scientists, engineers, and technicians and we are trying to design a system that will accelerate a large variety of different atomic isotopes, smash them into targets, collect the by-products (which will also be a very large range of different types of elements), slow them down and collect them, then re-accelerate them to well-defined known energies so that they can be systematically studied -- all before most of them radioactively decay away. And I only do the "accelerator" part; there's a whole other team that figures out how to actually DETECT these nuclei and determine their energies, masses, charges, lifetimes, and so on. Then, with that information, people can better deduce how stars are made and evolve and how the universe is put together. So, that's what I'm doing right now, and I'm just never sure how to make the job more interesting than that…"

Hope that helps answer your question, too.

All the best,
-Mike

Choosing a career path...

Thanks - Oct 20 2:11PM

Dr. Syphers,

Our names are Brendan, Larry and George, and we are students at [...]. We all have enjoyed physics and mathmetics since we can remember and are very excited to learn more about physics.

Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to help us learn and entering the Adopt-a-Physicist this year.

Re: Thanks - Oct 20 7:19PM

It's good to hear from you guys at [...]. I hope you are having fun in school. What year are you all in? Juniors? Seniors?

-Mike

Re: Re: Thanks - Oct 26 2:07PM

We are definetly having fun in school and expecially physics. All three of us are currently seniors and will graduate this year. We are looking forward to your response on our last posting!


Teaching Physics - Oct 22 1:50PM

Dr. Syphers,

What made you want to become a professor in Physics? Is there something about it more rewarding to you than any other physics occupation?

Thank you,

Brendan, Larry, and George

Re: Teaching Physics - Oct 26 2:17PM

Hi Brendan, Larry, and George:

Sorry my response didn't get posted earlier; I wrote it the other day, but must have forgotten to press "send".

That's an interesting question. I've worked mostly at large, National Laboratories, like Fermilab and Brookhaven Lab, and I found that what I really enjoy is not only doing the research and development of accelerators and such, but that I really enjoy sharing what I've learned and working with younger people to see them learn and excel. Maybe I'm just older now and I feel that I want to "give back" a little bit, but then I guess I've always liked teaching -- it always felt natural to me.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Teaching Physics - Nov 08 12:52PM

Dr. Syphers

What did you do before you became a teacher? I am very interested in physics and am considering majoring in a science.

Thanks,

Larry

Re: Re: Re: Teaching Physics - Nov 08 6:27PM

Hi Larry,

I actually studied to become a teacher while in college, and taught High School physics for one year after college. Then, I got a job at Fermilab, where I worked as an "operator" in their Main Control Room, learning how to operate the large particle accelerators there. That got me very interested in the physics of particle beams and how the accelerators actually work. So, I went back to school -- while I still worked at Fermilab -- and got my Master's and PhD degrees. So, I ended up mostly designing and helping to construct and implement new ideas for particle accelerators. I kept teaching once in a while, though at the college level by then. And so, eventually (very recently) got a job as a college professor here at MSU.

I think no matter what science you may find interesting to pursue, physics will be a strong part of your necessary background. There are even departments of "Biophysics" now days. It's a very fundamental science.

Cheers,
-Mike

Black Holes

Hello - Oct 19 10:43PM

Dr. Syphers,

I am Daniel and I am an Honors Physics student at […]. Though my favorite subjects in school are more in the areas of the arts and humanities, I like to think that I have a healthy appreciation for science and math. I was fascinated by your work with particle accelerators, especially because of how prominent they have been in the news in recently due to your project and the LHC project. I was wondering, did you consider any other fields or careers before pursuing your Ph. D. in particle accelerator physics? Thank you so much for participating in this program, and I am excited to have this opportunity to learn from you.

Thank you,

Daniel

Re: Hello - Oct 19 11:17PM

Hi Daniel,

Well, in all honesty, I think in my heart that I wanted to be a scientist ever since I was a very young kid (maybe 7 or 8 years old). But, at that time, I was very interested in astronomy. In fact, the Gemini and Apollo programs were going on, and men going to the moon, so that motivated me a lot. But, as I went through Jr and Sr High School, I did think about other fields -- most notably, architecture, mechanical drawing and graphic arts, and journalism. (I was editor of our high school newspaper, which was a very good paper at a big school in Indianapolis.) But, I finally decided against a career in journalism and follow my dream to learn more astronomy and ultimately physics.

It's nice to hear from all of you at [...]. How large is your physics class?

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Hello - Oct 25 11:29PM

I'm interested to hear more about your experience with astronomy. For me, I've always enjoyed marveling at the stars—and I do this quite often—but beyond this and the occasional use of a friend's telescope, I've never gone much deeper. Nevertheless, I would say that astronomy is probably my favorite topic in science. What fascinates me about it is the sheer beauty and vastness and magnificence of space. For example, to me, the photos from the Hubble telescope are just breathtaking, and I find it incredible to think of this massive expanse so filled with wonders and possibilities. What was it that drew you to astronomy, and in turn to physics?

Our school is pretty small—only about 100 students per grade—so my physics class only has 12 people in it.

Thanks!

Daniel

Re: Re: Re: Hello - Oct 25 11:49PM

Hi Daniel,

I think I liked astronomy for the very reasons that you do. When I was very young, the Gemini and Apollo space programs were in full swing. I would go outside and look at the stars and moon and think, "what would it look like from space"? And then I'd wonder about just what I was seeing when I looked at the stars. Finally, my parents got me a (very small) telescope, and I started trying to find star clusters and planets and such. This became a hobby from the time I was about 8 years old until well into adulthood. Anyway, when I got to high school and after studying the usual math courses and biology and chemistry, it was finally time for me to take a course called Physics. I had no idea what that was, but when I saw a chapter in the book entitled something like "Gravity and Planetary Motion", I suddenly knew that THIS was what I wanted to learn about -- REALLY learn about. And I've been hooked on physics ever since.

Now, even though I don't do astronomy much any more, I am helping to build an accelerator that is going to smash heavy elements together (like krypton and uranium atoms) to reproduce conditions that can only occur naturally in stars, and hence we will learn more about stellar formation and how nuclear fusion works inside of stars. Interesting how life "comes around" full circle, eh? …

I hope you enjoy your physics class. It can be an extremely powerful subject.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Oct 28 5:52PM

Dr. Syphers,

That sounds incredibly fascinating! I don't know very much about accelerators, but the knowledge we could gain from them sounds extremely useful. I remember how, on the day the LHC project began, several of my friends were saying things like "they're making a black hole that's going to suck the earth into it!" and things like that…

I guess it would be good (and possibly reassuring!) to hear from someone on the forefront of the technology: how do these accelerators work? And is there any real risk that a black hole large enough to envelop the earth could be created?

Thanks,

Daniel

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 01 12:18AM

Hi Daniel,

You'll likely talk about electricity and magnetism next semester in your physics class. The accelerators work by creating intense electric fields that "attract" charged particles and thus give them energy; then magnets are often used to steer them around corners or in circles so that they can be accelerated again by the electric fields until they reach very high speeds (near the speed of light). The most powerful accelerator in the world was, for the past 25 years or so, the accelerator at Fermilab where I used to work. Now, the LHC has taken that title over, though there is still work to be done there before it is at its full power.

As for black hole formation, I did study that a bit a year or so ago when everyone was talking about it. The concept of a black hole is very intriguing, and very likely does occur in stellar systems. And, in "theory", there can be very tiny black holes -- but, they wouldn't stick around very long. Black holes actually radiate away; and the time it would take for a black hole (again, in "theory" -- no one has ever definitively detected a black hole, of any size) created at the LHC to radiate away to nothing would be something like 10^-86 seconds (10 to the minus 86th power -- VERY short time!!!). That's one argument against anything happening with the LHC; before a black hole in the LHC could move over and start gobbling up other particles, it would be gone! The other argument is that particles come from the sun and galaxy with energies much much larger than the LHC can even produce. So, if black holes capable of eating up the earth could be formed through particle collisions, it would have happened by now and we wouldn't be here. So, I'm not afraid of anything like that occurring from the LHC or any other particle accelerator.

But, it's a good thing to discuss. Because black holes are all "theoretical", we cannot say for certainty that things absolutely cannot happen. We can only say that it's very, very unlikely, and try to make statistical arguments to convince people of this. But, some wise-guy who wants his name in the papers can always say "Then that means it COULD happen" and try to get everyone scared. That's what went on last year or so when it was all the buzz…

I was actually asked about this when I was on Modern Marvels (episode: "Collisions"), but they only gave me about 15 seconds on TV… But it was really cool being interviewed by them!

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 01 11:28PM

Dr. Syphers,

Thanks for the reply, that explanation was more than adequate! I now feel much more informed about particle accelerators! How much time do you think it will take for the LHC to reach its full power? Also what are the implications for our understanding of the universe if the LHC reached this point? In other words, do you have any predictions about the exactly how much we could learn from a fully powered accelerator?

I'm not familiar with the Modern Marvels show, but I'll definitely want to look into it! Do you get many opportunities to be interviewed for TV shows any other types of media?

Thanks,

Daniel

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 02 12:28AM

Hi Daniel,

The LHC has had a few technical difficulties, and they are operating at only one half of their top energy. So, they will shut the LHC off for about a year or so and make the repairs they need to make to get it to go to top energy. Since they're running right now, that means, it will be about 1.5 years from now before they get to top energy. Meanwhile, they still have a way to go until they reach the total number of particles in their particle beams that they want to have. So, to get to their ultimate numbers, it's probably about 2-3 years away. Meanwhile, the Tevatron collider at Fermilab near Chicago is operating right now at its peak performance. Even though it's only 1/7 the energy of the LHC's eventual top energy, it has lots more particle collisions per second and lots of data already taken and stored on computer disks for analysis. So, it will take the LHC about 3 years or more so to catch up to the Tevatron, and eventually pass it and go way beyond.

Some of the questions that the LHC will try to study when it gets all up to speed will be, "Why do particles (like electrons, protons, quarks, etc.) have the masses that they have?" "Are there other forces in the universe, and/or other dimensions to the universe that we can learn about at these new energies?" "Can we explain why there is more matter in the universe than there is antimatter? (Which is why we exist at all, and weren't just annihilated after the Big Bang)" And other things like that…

Modern Marvels is a show on the History Channel, if you have cable tv or satellite dish. I've been in a couple of newspaper articles, and a magazine article or two. I had the back of my head in a picture in TIME magazine once -- made it big time, eh?

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 04 11:07PM

Dr. Syphers,

Wow, it sounds like this research will teach us plenty about our universe, and probably revel more questions that we haven't even considered yet!

I'm interested to know—how did you get involved all of this particle accelerator work, especially the Tevatron project? Also, what would you consider to be your dream scientific project? Or, if you could be researching anything in the universe at this moment, what would it be?

And congratulations on having the back of your head featured in TIME magazine—I'd consider that to be quite the accomplishment!

Thanks,

Daniel


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 07 4:30PM

Hi Daniel,

When I got out of college I taught as a high school physics teacher for one year, and then found a job at Fermilab as an "accelerator operator." The job taught me how to control and operate the big accelerators at Fermilab, and after working at that for a couple of years I decided to go back to school to learn more physics so that I could better understand how these machines really worked, and how to help develop new ones. This was about the time that the Tevatron was being constructed, and so I got to help work on its final construction and commissioning. It was a very exciting time, much like the LHC project today.

Researching "anything"? I guess I still like the idea of studying the evolution of the universe, astrophysics, black holes, and so forth. To me, those topics incorporate some of the "ultimate" questions of the physical world.

-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 07 10:55PM

Dr. Syphers,

I was reading an article today, and it mentioned that Albert Einstein didn't believe in the existence of black holes. Have you heard anything about this or do know why he might have believed this? Are there many physicists today who still don't believe in black holes?

Also, what would you say the "ultimate" questions of the physical world are? And do you think we'll ever find the answers to them?

Thanks,

Daniel

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 08 12:18AM

Hi Daniel,

I don't know about that fact regarding Einstein, but I do think that the idea of a Black Hole must have sounded pretty crazy to folks 100 years ago, even though solutions to his own equations suggested their existence. Sometimes scientists come up with crazy-sounding solutions to problems. Sometimes we make mistakes (often?), but we keep testing and checking our answers until we convince ourselves and others that we have good answers; then, we do experiments to verify our results, etc. Einstein probably thought it was going to be very hard to verify that Black Holes exist, and that would have been a correct assessment!

These days, I think most scientists who are up on the subject believe that black holes exist. There is very strong evidence that they exist at the center of galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy! But, they have not been "directly" seen; we can only detect the motion of stars that are circulating about the center of the galaxy whose motions are "consistent" with a Black Hole being there. Pretty cool! Check out:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/21feb_mwbh/

As for the second part of your question, check out this web site:

http://www.interactions.org/quantumuniverse/qu/

This report lists many of today's "ultimate" questions that you are speaking about.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello - Nov 09 12:13PM

Dr. Syphers,

Thank you so much for being my adopted physicist for these few weeks! I have learned so much from you and I definitely have a greater appreciation for the field of physics than when we began. It is truly inspirational to encounter a person who truly loves their work and followed their dreams! Hopefully later in life, I can say that I did the same.

It has been a pleasure learning from you!

Thanks,

Daniel

Accelerators and Technology Evolution

Benjamin from […], NC - Oct 19 6:24PM

Dr. Syphers,

Hello, my name is Benjamin and I am currently a Junior at […] in North Carolina. I have always had a strong interest in the mathematics and science. I plan to pursue my interest in these subjects by studying some sort of engineering while in college. I have found your work with particle accelerators very interesting. It is a topic I do not know much about but I cannot wait to learn more about it in the upcoming weeks. While you currently hold a PhD you originally graduated from Indiana many years prior. In your biography you state that you worked as a teacher and at Fermilab prior to receiving your Masters and then PhD. I was wondering if you ended up getting your PhD in the same topic that you majored in and why you felt it necessary to get a higher degree. I would like to thank you for participating in the Adopt-A-Physicist program, I am sure I am going to learn a lot over these next few weeks and so will everyone else in the program.

Thank you,

Benjamin

Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Oct 19 11:11PM

Hello, Benjamin,

Yes, all of my three degrees were in Physics, although the Bachelor's degree was in physics education (teaching). As for "why" I wanted the PhD, it was sort of two-fold. First of all, I enjoyed the job that I had at the time -- working at Fermilab in its Main Control Room -- and so I knew that if I went back to school I could work there (or other labs) and continue to get better positions and better pay. But, secondly (probably more importantly), I also just wanted to learn physics. I wanted to better understand how the physical world works and how it's all related. I probably would have wanted to study this subject, even if there were no degrees or jobs involved! But, it certainly helps when someone wants to pay me for it! ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Oct 27 10:44PM

Dr. Syphers,

Could you explain to me your work with the particle accelerators and how you feel your research has/will make the world a better place, or do you believe we are still in the early stages of just needing to understand the world before we can even begin to improve it?

Since I am rather interested in math and science, what classes do you suggest I take in my senior year? I also know however that classes are not everything, do you have any other advice for how I should go about my next few years?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Oct 28 12:15AM

Hi Benjamin,

Let me try to answer in a couple of ways. First off, I work on large particle accelerators that are used for basic research -- like trying to understand the basic building blocks of nature. However, there have been many, many "spin-offs" of accelerator research over the years. For instance, devices that are used in medicine, such as CAT scans, PET scans, and proton therapy cancer treatment utilize particle beams; accelerators are used in food sanitation and in such industrial applications such as making shrinkable plastics (like the plastic wrap that you find on all kinds of packages these days). And, in fact, the TV set you had in your home as a child (or maybe even still have) -- before "flat panel TV's" came out -- were particle accelerators! So, you can say that the results of the basic research may be decades away from influencing every day life (like, how do we use neutrinos in our home life?), but the development of accelerators and their associated systems have always found other applications that have had very big effects on our world.

Secondly, I do think that my efforts to help build and operate accelerators like, for instance, the Tevatron at Fermilab will end up in the long run having an impact on civilization and making the world a better place. It's hard right now to tell what that will be -- it may take many years for the results of our experiments to lead to new technologies, for instance. But, I played a role in it, so that's very satisfying to know. Of course, several thousand people have worked on the Tevatron over the years, so mine was just a small part of that. But we each have our role to play, and it took all of us to make it happen. Now, I get to do it again at MSU with our new accelerator here.

OK, as for your classes and advice… With your interest, I would try to take any/all science and math that the school offers. Is there a "second year" or AP physics course? Do you have calculus courses at your school? Take what you can. I think the MOST important thing is to find what you enjoy and are good at, and pursue that with all the passion you can muster up. Even if you're good at something, if you don't enjoy doing it it will always feel like "work". If, however, you love what you do, then you'll never have to "work" at all.

Do you have any special hobbies, sports, other interests?

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Oct 31 9:50AM

Dr. Syphers,

Wow, I never knew how particle accelerators are used in all aspects of today's life.

Yes I do plan on taking a second year of Physics, Advance Topics In Physics, I believe that course is called. I am currently taking Pre-Calculus and next year I plan to take AP Calc. I have to definitely agree with you that the most important thing is to do what you love to do.

I co-direct the school's morning news program. While it is pretty stressful to get the show ready every morning, it is a lot of fun and I am really learning how to run an "organization" and solve different problems that arise.

I have a big love for technology and I can explore my interest in the morning news program and in a class I am taking called "Computer and Network Essentials". Five years ago my school began a one-one tablet to student program. Each student has his/her own tablet PC. This gives me another outlet to explore with technology. In the Computer and Network Essentials class, we help the IT department with student computer problems. I also play on the Varsity Baseball team and play the violin.

While I can only imagine that you are rather busy, what other hobbies to you have?

Thank you.

Benjamin

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 01 12:22AM

Hi Benjamin,

That's great to hear about what all you're involved in. When I was in high school I was the Managing Editor and then Editor-in-Chief of our school newspaper. I went to a large school, and our paper was written, typeset (pre-computer days, if you can imagine), laid-out, and printed in our school -- 8 page paper (standard newspaper size) every week. It was a lot of work, and I enjoyed it immensely. But, when it came time to chose a future direction, science won out for me. I, too, did sports -- cross country, basketball, and tennis.

And, I'll tell you too, that keeping active in lots of stuff keeps your body (including brain) in shape for doing the things you enjoy the most.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 07 9:00AM

Dr. Syphers,

It sounds like you were quite busy when you were in high school.

Technology has/is really becoming a big part in our society, as a means of communication and such, besides for the actual particle accelerator, would you say you use technology such as computers and smart phones on a daily basis. How much has technology changed since you received your PhD in 1987?

Thanks!

Benjamin

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 07 4:33PM

Hi Benjamin,

I use computers and smart phones and skype and internet and all of that on a daily basis. Probably, more of an "hourly" basis. I'm typing this on my Macbook Pro, over my wireless internet at my home while I watch a Netflix film being streamed over my home network to my HD TV. So yes, technology has changed a lot -- I mean, A LOT! -- since 1987. Back then, personal computers were relatively new. The computer that I had used 48KB of memory, compared to 4 GB (= 48,000,000 KB) today and ran more than 3000 times slower than today's computers. It wasn't a "windowing" type of computer; you had to type in commands line-by-line. Email was very new, and only accessible by people at National Labs and government agencies. The web hadn't been invented yet, so there were no such things as "web pages" and such. If I wanted to talk to someone by telephone and they lived outside of my community, I had to pay maybe about 50 cents a minute or more to talk to them (long distance telephone). Cell phones were nonexistent, except that a few extremely rich business people had them (from what I saw on TV and in the movies!). CD's had just become available to the masses in about 1986; before that we all had vinyl record albums and record players with diamond-tipped needles. No iPods; no GPS; no DVD or Blue Ray; no … I remember my sister and her husband had a garage door that could be opened by "remote control". That was pretty cool! The list of changes since 1987 is HUGE!

I must say, one of the best things about being in the physics work world, and working at national labs and universities, is that you often get to be the first to use such technology as it is developed. For example, by the time people started using AOL email accounts in the mid-1990's, I had already been using email for about 10 years at the National Labs to communicate with other scientists. And the web was invented by physicists at CERN in Europe in 1991. The two very first web sites in the U.S. were at SLAC and at Fermilab, two high energy physics labs, in 1991-2. (I guess they needed two, so that they could check out how to "link" them to each other!)

Never a dull moment!

-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 07 9:07AM

Dr. Syphers,

On Thursday my school was invited to the IMAPS (international microelectronics and packaging) symposium (http://www.imaps.org/imaps2010/index.htm). My school opened it up to 20 or so interested students and I went along with 12 others. It was rather interesting experience, I got to speak to many different companies involved in the business. Prior to the conference I really did not know much at all about the microelectronics packaging industry, but I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. For the businesses involved it was really a time to learn from the others in the industry.

Are there similar events in your line of work?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 07 4:34PM

Hi Benjamin,

Yes, we have lots of events like that. Physicists spend quite a bit of time communicating with each other at conferences and such events. I will be going to the U.S. Particle Accelerator Conference in New York City this Spring, for instance. About 2000 scientists and engineers who work on accelerators or in the field of accelerator science will gather for a week and have meetings and talks and discussions about their work with each other. This particular conference meets every two years, at different places around the country; but there are several other conferences too, that report on the results of experiments that use the accelerators, for instance. It is very important to reflect on your own work and share it with others, and to hear about what they have been doing. Conferences like this are very useful part of the job, and great things to participate in.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 08 9:42PM

Dr. Syphers,

So it seems that the Adopt-a-Physicist program is about to come to an end. I would like to thank you for the your time and the interesting conversation we have had, I have really learned a lot about your field of work and how things have changed even for just the short time that you have been in your area of study.

I never realized how the work you are doing with the particle accelerators, will have such large effects on our world in the near future. I think its really cool how you have been on the leading edge of technology for the past couple of decades. I could go on with you for years about my love for technology and my opinions on the latest technologies but time doesn't allow it. I also appreciate your advice towards my future in college and beyond. I had a great experience communicating with you.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Benjamin from [...], NC - Nov 08 11:06PM

Hi Benjamin,

I'm happy that I've had an opportunity to chat with you and all the other students. When I was your age I had no real opportunity to "talk" to scientists about their work day or their lives or things like that. I think it's a great thing to be able to do, and the internet makes it so easy.

Good luck with your school year, and -- when you're thinking about college -- check out MSU! ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike

An Introduction

Introduction - Oct 19 1:57PM

Hello, thank you for adopting me in the Adopt-a-Physicist program.

To get an idea of who I am, you can view my profile.

-Mike Syphers

Hello from North Carolina - Oct 19 4:51PM

Mr. Syphers,

My name is Keenan and I am an Honors Physics student at […]. In school, my two favorite subjects are math and physics. I am also an all-Conference baseball player here in North Carolina. I am very interested in your field of accelerator physics because it seems to be one of the most specialized fields of study in the world. Particle accelerators seem to be gaining in popularity worldwide, and you seem like a foremost authority. I was wondering, what made you decide to enter this field of physical study? What do you find so unique about accelerator physics that made you chose this field for a career? I also just wanted to thank you for participating in the Adopt a Physicist program. I really appreciate it and I know that this will be a great experience for everyone who is involved.

Thank you,

Keenan

Re: Hello from North Carolina - Oct 19 11:10PM

Hi Keenan,

Good to hear from you. In a sense, I sort of "fell into" the field soon out of college. I had my Bachelor's degree, and a friend was working at Fermilab -- in the suburbs of Chicago -- and told me I should apply. It was a great opportunity, and a great job, but most of all I really enjoyed working on the large machines and learning about how they worked. I soon realized that I could (a) use the physics I learned in my 4 years of college, and (b) learn a lot of new physics and new generate new skills. I liked "turning knobs" in the control room, seeing things happen before my eyes, and then I wanted more to learn why it all happened. So, I had to go back to school to learn more physics so I could "speak the language" and go further in the subject. And, at that time, it allowed me to be connected to world-leading research while I studied, which is truly unique. The big accelerator labs are very exciting places.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Oct 26 8:39PM

Dr. Syphers,

Thank you for you post. It's so interesting the various ways that people like yourself end up in the field of study and profession that you did. But now that your official job has changed, is as much time as you would like spent doing research? I understand that you are a professor at Michigan State, and I can understand how educating young minds would be an exciting endeavor, but it seems to me that your true passion lies in researching accelerator physics and developing cutting edge technology for it.

-Keenan

Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Oct 27 3:22PM

Hi Keenan,

Very interesting line of questioning. Ever consider law? ;-)

Actually , yes I think it's a good mix for me right now. I am in a position now where I can do research, help manage a $0.6B project, and teach and mentor physics students all at the same time. And make a good living doing it! And, a big part of "managing" for me is directing efforts to solve very complex problems. So, in a technical sense, it is still very satisfying.

Cheers,
-Mike
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Oct 31 5:34PM

Dr. Syphers,

Happy Halloween! I hope the students up in East Lansing haven't been too wild in their festivities. I was wondering about your early interest in physics. Have you always known what field you wanted to be in and always worked towards that field (I guess in this case accelerator physics)? Or when you were in school did you ever contemplate different applications of physics like engineering or something to that effect.

Thanks,

Keenan

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 01 12:23AM

Hi Keenan,

Lots of students out roaming around, but behaving for the most part. ;-)

I really got interested in "science" at a young age. When I was growing up (10 years old, say), the Gemini and Apollo space programs were going on, and I loved learning about the stars, planets, sun and moon, etc. So, I started out wanting to be an astronomer or astrophysicist when I first went to college. However, I learned quickly that there weren't too many jobs in that field at that time (many more these days than back then), and so for a while I didn't know exactly what field of physics to go into. When I got the job at Fermilab after college, I found "accelerator physics" and really enjoyed the work. So, that's when I went on in that direction.

Also in high school, I did think a little about engineering and architecture, and many of my friends in science/math went those directions. I also thought about journalism, too.

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 02 11:12AM

Dr. Syphers,

As an expert in you field, what has been the most interesting thing you have ever done? Have you learned anything or discovered something that has truly fascinated you or given you a new appreciation or love for your studies?

-Keenan

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 02 8:09PM

Hi Keenan,

It's really hard to point to one thing in my career and call that the most interesting thing I've done. I continue to learn new things every day, and the excitement of learning and solving problems and figuring things out is always there. I thought I knew a lot about accelerators (and compared to most people, I guess I do), but I just took this new job at MSU this year and we are building an accelerator which has requirements on the beams and systems which I have never had to deal with before. But, rather than saying "I don't want to do that because I don't know how," I like to say, "I want to do that because I don't know how." Know what I mean?

Right now I'm working with a team of scientists, engineers, and technicians and we are trying to design a system that will accelerate a large variety of different atomic isotopes, smash them into targets, collect the by-products (which will also be a very large range of different types of elements), slow them down and collect them, then re-accelerate them to well-defined known energies so that they can be systematically studied -- all before most of them radioactively decay away. And I only do the "accelerator" part; there's a whole other team that figures out how to actually DETECT these nuclei and determine their energies, masses, charges, lifetimes, and so on. Then, with that information, people can better deduce how stars are made and evolve and how the universe is put together. So, that's what I'm doing right now, and I'm just never sure how to make the job more interesting than that…

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 03 8:28PM

Dr. Syphers,

Wow. I get the feeling that you may be one of the minorities that really loves and has a passion for what they do. Those are really incredible experiments. I may not have be the most knowledgeable, but I at least know that life is better when you do something you enjoy. But I just have a quick clarification question. Do you work with developing the accelerator or accelerating the particles themselves? Or both? It seems like the only people that would understand how to build the accelerators must know how to accelerate the particles, and vice versa.

-Keenan

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 03 11:27PM

Hi Keenan,

I tend to work on all aspects of these accelerators. As you succinctly surmised, I started out learning how to accelerate particles in existing accelerators, which led me to learn how they work, and thus ultimately learned how to build new ones. And I still do a little of all of that.

Cheers,
-Mike


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 07 5:24PM

Dr. Syphers,

Do you have any recommendations about physics to a young student that is interested in the subject? I find it fascinating, but I know nothing about the professional field and even less about the depths of the subject itself.

-Keenan

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 08 12:15AM

Hi Keenan,

One good place to start might be to go to Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) and look up physics, and then follow the various links to see if they lead you to interesting places. (I'll bet they will!) Also, the professional society for physicists is called The American Physical Society, and their web site has a section about Careers in Physics. (see: http://www.aps.org/careers/) Those two web sites should get you going!

Best of luck, and I hope you continue to enjoy your physics class this year!

Cheers,
-Mike

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello from North Carolina - Nov 09 10:12AM

Dr. Syphers,

I wanted to thank you for everything you have done with the Adopt-a-Physicist program. I have really appreciated it and have really enjoyed getting to speak with you about the world of physics. Thank you for everything.

Sincerely,

Keenan

Adopted yet again...

Another semester, another Adopt-A-Physicist session through the American Physical Society. This time, I was marked by three schools from Georgia, New Jersey, and North Carolina. There was quite a bit of discussion back and forth. Much of it was like the other sessions, but as always there were new questions and new takes on old subjects. Again, a great experience for me; I hope it was for the students! (I feel that it was.)

In the past when I have posted these discussions, I tried organizing posts by topics, or I have posted items in pure chronological order. This time, I have organized the entries by "threads" -- the threaded conversation between me and a particular student (or group of students) from beginning to end. Some of the threads are fairly long, especially the earliest ones. However, I will post each "thread" in its entirety to try to preserve the discussion. I'll be posting these over the next many days (probably for a couple of weeks or so). Hope you enjoy, too!

Note: for more information on Adopt-A-Physicist, visit...
http://www.adoptaphysicist.org/

-Mike

Another AaP comes to an end

Oct 29 1:34PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
46 Posts
hahaha. That thought did cross our minds, but don't worry we'll be good. We are unsure about our plans for halloween. D plans on launching more pumpkins though. Thank you so much for evrything and your time. We've learned a lot from you.
Goodbye from your fellow physicists,
D, A2, K and A :]


Reply:
Goodbye, everyone! I hope you enjoy the rest of your school year, and your physics class especially!
Best wishes,
-Mike

pictures...

Oct 26 10:51PM - Re: Re: ..
31 Posts
So, I was just reading through the other posts here, and I thought of some more questions. 

I really like the picture you posted of your particle accelerator! That is amazing! Where does all the "action" take place within the ring? 

I read that you had an interest in photography. I have recently really gotten into photography myself. What kinds of photography most interest you? Does your knowledge and interest in physics affect your understanding of photography?

Again, thanks for your time!

M

Reply:
Hi M,
Glad the picture helps. The "action"? Well, the particles go around and around and collide head on at two places -- I have tried to mark them with red circles in the photo here...

Each beam of particles going around contains trillions of particles. Each time the groups of particles pass through each other, only a few actually "hit" the other beam, because the particles are so small and don't take up much space. But, since they go around again they get another chance to collide again (and again, and again,... all day long).


Calculate how many times a particle (that survives and doesn't get hit!) goes around the ring (4 miles around) in 24 hours, moving at the speed of light...

(sorry for the homework problem!) ;-)

I like lots of different styles of photography, but mostly take landscape or scenery photos, myself. You can see some of my photos at my Picasa site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/syphersm/AssortedFavorites
And yes, my knowledge of physics helps a great deal. Photography is all (mostly) about exposure of the film (or, CCD these days) -- time and aperture, lenses, depth of field, contrast, etc. So, there's light ray optics, time, space, diffraction, as well as all the electonic capabilities of modern cameras -- it's essentially all physics with a lot of "art" thrown in! I think its great!

Cheers,
-Mike




Oct 28 12:41PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
37 Posts
wow what a beautiful picture!! Rochester doesn't compare to Chicago, but it does look pretty in the fall. That's cool about your kids I hope they succeed. What are you doing for halloween?
Reply:
My wife and I will be going to a party with some friends on Friday night, and then we'll be passing out out candy at the house for a few hours on Saturday. What about you?
And don't tell me you'll be launching pumpkins at the neighbors!!
-Mike

Getting there

Oct 26 10:31PM - a
31 Posts
Hi!


Another senior here. Just wondering what kind of courses you took in college, and how you came about the job you have now.


-M2


Reply:
Hi M2,
I took a lot of physics, astronomy, and mathematics -- probably half of all my courses were in those subjects. I also minored in psychology and I took a lot of education courses so that I could get my teaching certificate. After all that, there were the usual English, philosophy, art appreciation, etc., etc. I really enjoyed college a lot!

After I got out of college I got a teaching job teaching high school physics and math. I only taught for one year, because the school ran out of money and laid people off. But then I got an intro job at Fermilab which was just down the road. I found that FASCINATING and it compelled me to go back to school to study more physics and get my Masters and PhD degrees. I think it's important to really try to do what you love to do. If you love your work, then you'll always be happy working, right? AND, since you love what you do, you'll probably become really good at it and therefore earn a good living at it!

Cheers,
-Mike

Delta p over Delta t

Oct 26 1:40PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
32 Posts

we are currently learning that F=ma. what does F= delta P/ Delta t stand for? thats cool about your son and daughter. what colleges did they go to? What are your children planning to be when they graduate? Most of use are undecided, but we will probably end up going to the community college. A used to live in Illinois for 3 years. Have you ever been to Chicago? Have you ever been in a tornado before? would you ever want to study them?


Reply:
Hi,

Newton actually first described his second law in terms of momentum. He said that for an object to have its momentum altered (mass time velocity) then a force has to be applied over a certain length of time. So, F= delta P/ Delta t means that the force is equal to the change in momentum divided by the change in time. But it isn't often introduced that way these days, at least not in High School physics.

My daughter is at Purdue University in Indiana, and my son is at a local community college here where we live, near Chicago. She is studying hotel management, and he is studying emergency medicine to become a paramedic.

I've been to Chicago many, many times. It is a really beautiful city, one of my all-time favorites. I've attached a photo of Chicago taken (not by me) from the top of the Fermilab main building. It was taken at sunset one day of the year when the sun reflects off of the buildings directly back toward Fermilab.

I have not ever seen a tornado. But I've seen first-hand what they can do, and have been close before! I'm not sure I'd be up to studying them up close, though!

Cheers,
-Mike


Oct 26 10:10PM - Re: Re: ...
31 Posts
Thanks so much for your reply! We really appreciate your time!


M

Physics Hero

Oct 22 9:57PM - ...
27 Posts

Hello Dr. Syphers! I was wondering why you first became interested in physics? Did someone have a particular influence on you (like a parent or a teacher, or a famous physicist)? On a similar note, did you have a favorite physicist as a student?

~M
Reply:

Hi M,

Good to hear from you. I think I first became interested in science at a young age, like about 6-7 years old. I was very interested in the things that were going on in the space program (Gemini, Apollo, etc.) and wanted to learn all about the stars and moon and planets. It wasn't until I was in High School that I found out that "physics" was the science that talked about all that. That's when I knew I wanted to study physics (and astronomy and astrophysics!). My older sister was an influence -- she bought me my first astronomy book and a star chart for my wall! -- and my Boy Scout Master was an amateur astronomer and taught me a lot. My H.S. physics teacher was wonderful and a huge influence on me, too!

As far as a favorite physicist, another school group asked me that same question, so I'll cut and past the same answer here.

"... And, as for my favorite scientist? Newton and Einstein always come to mind. However, I have always like a guy named James Clerk Maxwell. You'll learn about him probably much later in the year. But he did a LOT of things, including the final synthesis that showed the world how light, electricity, and magnetism are all related. He also showed (using pure logic, pen and paper) that the rings of Saturn could not be solid objects -- that they must be made up of broken up rocks or small particles of some sort. It was really quite an amazing thing to calculate and convince people back in the mid-1800's. He won a prize and became famous by that calculation. He did a lot of other things, too, but those are what I remember about him, and I always thought he was a cool dude."

Thanks, M!
-Mike


Oct 23 1:31PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
27 Posts
Wow thats cool! We're learning Newton's laws right now. What's your favorite Newton's law? So far we've learned the first one and working on the second one. What's your favorite movies? We like The Hangover, Austin Powers Goldmember, Transformers, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Breakfast Club, In the Persuit of Happiness, and 7 Pounds. Do you have any kids? Do they like physics? Talk to you later!
Your fellow physicists! :]

Reply:
Hi WSHS:
Glad to hear you're enjoying learning about Sir Issac! It's hard to pick a "favorite" law of his three, but probably the second law is used the most in everyday physics calculations that it has to be my number one! (By the way, are you taught that F=ma, or are you taught that F = Delta p / Delta t ? Or both? Just curious; they're the same thing, but F=ma is usually taught in H.S., whereas the second concept is actually what Newton first wrote down...)

Favorite movies?? Well, I see and like a lot of movies, and I like all the ones you mentioned, except I haven't seen 7 Pounds. I have two kids, a daughter and a son -- they keep me pretty up-to-date on movies and such. They're both in college now. They both took physics -- my daughter did well in it (she's great at math!) and my son didn't like it so much. They're now studying business and emergency medicine.

-Mike

Adopt-a-Physicist almost over...

Oct 20 1:41PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class! WSHS
19 Posts
Wow! You've been to a lot of places, that seems cool. But we were wondering what could you possibily do in those different places related to physics? 

We were also wondering what TV shows you watched? 
D likes Gossip Girl and Greek. 
A watches How I Met Your Mother and Psych. 
A2 enjoys 90210 and also Gossip Girl. 
K also watches How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. 

Do you watch any of these? 

Your fellow phyicist.


Reply:
Hi all,

As you might imagine, every country has its series of universities and, often times, their own national laboratories. So, some of my travels are to visit those labs and schools. And then, when people want to get together for a conference or a meeting, it is often chosen to be in a big city near a university or a lab. So that's how I manage to travel to all these places.

As for the TV shows; I really feel old. I don't believe I've ever watched any of those programs. I guess I'm more into Fringe, PBS Mystery shows, Law and Order, and news shows and sports and occasionally the Simpsons...
-Mike



Oct 21 9:36AM - lots of flying junk
24 Posts

So you work with particle accelerators and i was wondering when the large hadron collider was going to be online again? and what does your company really do?



Reply:
Hi,
The LHC is scheduled to turn back on sometime the middle of next month, in about 3 weeks or so from now.

As for where I work, Fermilab is a U.S. National Laboratory run by the U.S. Department of Energy. We have almost a dozen particle accelerators here, the largest of which is the Tevatron which is the most powerful accelerator in the world. At least it will be until the LHC comes on and surpasses us. (We've held the record for over 25 years!) So, we use these accelerators to give particles -- mostly protons -- very high energies and then smash them into each other to try to unravel the building blocks of nature and reveal how everything in the physical world is composed and how they behave.
-Mike

Fav Scientist

Oct 22 12:38PM - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
23 Posts
We've heard about Law and Order, it's a pretty good show. What exactly does your particle accelerator do? What would you suggest to make to launch a pumpkin. Would you use a sling shot or a catapolt? We just started a unit on Newton's laws. What's you favorite scientist? Hope to hear from you soon!

Your fellow physicists


Reply:
Hi WSHS:
The "accelerator" I work on uses electric fields to attract and accelerate charged particles -- mostly protons -- giving them more and more energy and speeding them up closer and closer to the speed of light. We use powerful electromagnets to steer the particles around in a circle so that they can pass through the electric fields again to gain more energy. After they've gone around a few million times, they have "seen" a total of about 1000 Million volts (or 1 Teravolts) of voltage. We say that they have an energy of one TeV (Tera-electron Volts; even though they are protons and not electrons...). So, the machine is called the Tevatron. It's the world's most powerful accelerator, and has been for over 25 years. A new machine coming on-line in Switzerland and France (it's so big it goes across the boundaries of these two countries!) will soon take over as "number one." It will go to 7 TeV energies. Anyway, you can see a picture of the Tevatron here:


(It's the biggest ring in the picture -- 4 miles around!) and our lab's web site (the second web site ever made in the U.S.!!) is here: http://www.fnal.gov .

OK, so for a pumpkin accelerator, I'd probably use a sling shot. I suspect that there are many good rubbery slings out there which would be easy to get and that would be much more reliable than a catapult contraption that you'd have to build from scratch. Just my thoughts, but I don't have much experience accelerating large, uncharged objects... ;-)

And, as for my favorite scientist? Newton and Einstein always come to mind. However, I have always like a guy named James Clerk Maxwell. You'll learn about him probably much later in the year. But he did a LOT of things, including the final synthesis that showed the world how light, electricity, and magnetism are all related. He also showed (using pure logic, pen and paper) that the rings of Saturn could not be solid objects -- that they must be made up of broken up rocks or small particles of some sort. It was really quite an amazing thing to calculate and convince people back in the mid-1800's. He won a prize and became famous by that calculation. He did a lot of other things, too, but those are what I remember about him, and I always thought he was a cool dude.

-Mike

Golden Accelerator

Oct 19 3:24PM - Particle Accelerator Letdown.
14 Posts
Oh darn...there go our plans to blow up the Vatican.

Dr. Syphers, reading your profile, I was wondering...what exactly do you accomplish by accelerating gold nuclei and colliding them together? And what first attracted you to the field of physics? 
~A

Reply:
Hi,
Gold atoms are made up of 79 electrons around a nucleus of 79 protons and neutrons. Actually, its only stable isotope is 197Au, which means there are 79 protons and 118 neutrons in the nucleus! Since each proton and neutron are composed of smaller particles -- called quarks -- then there's a good chance of making "quark soup" when we collide gold nuclei. So, we strip away all of the electrons and accelerate the positively charged nuclei alone to try to generate a "sea" of quarks and gluons, at densities that likely haven't happened in nature since the time of the Big Bang. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_gluon_plasma

As for my humble beginnings, it really started for me at a young age when I became interested in the stars and planets.
-Mike

Oct 19 3:27PM - Fermilab
14 Posts
Hey! In reading your profile I was wondering what exactly a fermilab is. Also, what are y'all planning on doing with the Tevatron in two years once you close it down?

~S

Reply:
Hi S,
The term "fermilab" is just short for the laboratory where I work: the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. It's web site is: http://www.fnal.gov , in case you haven't seen it yet. Enrico Fermi was a famous physicist from the University of Chicago in the 1930-40's. He and his group were the first to generate sustainable nuclear energy from radioactive atomic nuclei and our lab is named after him.

We're still debating what to do once the Tevatron turns off. We might use it to do some different types of experiments. For instance, rather than collide beams together head on, we might use it to accelerate beams of particles and then direct them into stationary targets. We've done this before, and there are certain experiments that work well that way. Or, we might just shut it down and use the tunnel to build some different type of accelerator in the future, though we don't have a design for this use quite yet. Our budget will help determine if we can afford to keep it running, as will the various merits of the experiments that are dreamed up to use it.

-Mike

Oct 19 3:28PM - B's blog
14 Posts
How much do you get paid and what exactly does your job entail in a given day? (and by this, I mean, should I enter that field of study?)

Thanks! 
~B


Reply:
Hi B,
Personally, I think it's a great field of study. There are many uses of accelerators out there, not just for studying quarks and neutrinos, but also for medicine and industry and other uses.
Typically my day consists of many meetings, some work in our Control Room (where we run the accelerators) and sometimes I'm lucky and get to do some calculations and studies using the accelerators. But, I've been in the field for a while now; when I was younger it was less meetings and more "science." But that's OK; that's how it works. I get to travel a lot around the country and the world, have 5 weeks of vacation a year (plus holidays, etc.), and get to work with the coolest equipment, meet top scientists in all kinds of fields, have flexible work hours -- and it's just plain fun for me (most of the time). Oh, and a typical scientist at my level at Fermilab makes between 85K and 170K; I'm in the middle of that range somewhere.
-Mike

From our awesome Physics class!

From our awesome Physics class! - Oct 13 1:13PM
5 Posts
Hello Dr. Syphers! Anyways we are interested in hearing more about your job and if you could please explain in more details what the accelarator is for. What is a typical day at the Fermilab? What other areas do you dabble in? 

p.s. any chance you can help us with a project we have?

Reply:
Hi WSHS!
Anyway, the accelerator at Fermilab is used to smash particles together to see what happens in an attempt to understand the most basic building blocks of matter and energy, and to learn more about how the universe works. You can see much more about it at: http://www.fnal.gov
Typically my day consists of many meetings, some work in our Control Room (where we run the accelerators) and sometimes I'm lucky and get to do some calculations and studies using the accelerators. Besides particle acceleration, I also like to study astrophysics; it was astronomy that really got me interested in science at at young age.
Cheers,
-Mike

p.s. -- when you say "help us with a project," exactly what did you have in mind?



Oct 14 2:26PM - Re: Re: Re: Introduction
5 Posts
Mike,

 Our High School is also very small and we're lucky their has not been a situation like that in our school. 

 How is it like interacting with your students that choose to work at Fermilab with you? What are they able to do sense they have yet to graduate from collage? Is it like an internship for the students?

 Thank you for at the least, the link about dark matter. It's helpful but also lead to more questions about Fermilab. What is your position there, and do you have any involvement with cryogenics?

-BHS honors class

Reply:

Hi,
I have worked with college students, graduate school students, and even some high school students here at our laboratory. In general, the high school students have had "internships" where they visited here for a day every week or two during the school year (2 or 3 have done that with me over the years) or else they worked here over the summer for several weeks (5-10 students have worked with me that way). Obviously, they were from a local high school within easy driving distance to the lab. The college students (3 or 4) have been here for summer internships in-between school years. Graduate students are typically working on their PhD degrees, and are usually here full-time by the time they work with me. I've had about 4 of those students overall.

We can usually find some interesting work for students to do, from helping to build apparatus for an experiment, or do computer programming, or using existing programs to help sift through data, make plots, etc. We had a series of students over the past few summers work here helping to locate "gravitational lenses" in photographs taken with a large telescope in New Mexico that Fermilab helped to build.

My position is "Scientist" at Fermilab, and I mostly work on large particle accelerators -- their design, construction, operation, fine-tuning. Our largest accelerator -- the Tevatron -- is made up of electromagnets that have superconducting coils. These coils are cooled to cryogenic temperatures -- 4 degrees above Absolute Zero! -- where they lose all of their electrical resistance and hence operate with essentially no power loss. So, I don' myself do any cryogenic engineering, but I do use cryogenic equipment a lot.

-Mike

Adopt-a-Physicist Fall 2009 Physicists

Forum: Adopt-a-Physicist Fall 2009 Physicists
Thread: Michael Syphers
Title: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
- - -

Hey Michael,
Wow, that sounds like a wonderful day!! Those calculations must get pretty tricky from time to time. But, is it possible that your researching the string theory at all because K would like to know. She finds that quite interesting as well!!!!! A now wants to know what else do you do? And A2 wants to know how you got into astronomy. What made you like it at such a young age? If theres any other interesting information feel free to let us know!

Your fellow physicists...

p.s. when i say project...i mean pumpkin launcher!

- - -

Reply:

Hi Guys!


K: I, personally, am not working on String Theory, but I agree that it sounds very intriguing! Of course, as a scientist, I want to see any theory make a prediction that we can test with an experiment, and as far as I know String Theory hasn't come up with such a test -- yet! But maybe it will!

A: I like photography and tennis and bicycling, though I did a lot more of all of those things when I was younger. I also enjoy traveling, which I get to do once in a while in my work.

A2: I think it was partially the Apollo space program that was going on when I was a kid that got me thinking about astronomy. Plus, the fact that I could actually see stars from my backyard. (Not so easy to do in most places these days!) My older sister bought me a book and a star chart, and then I was hooked!

-Mike



WSHS responded to Mike Syphers's post ('Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!') with the following comment on Oct 16, 2009 at 12:28 PM EST

Forum: Adopt-a-Physicist Fall 2009 Physicists
Thread: Michael Syphers
Title: Re: Re: Re: Re: From our awesome Physics class!
- - -

Hey Michael, its your fellow physicists!!

We are just finishing up our topic on projectiles and now getting ready to do our pumpkin launch. Do you have any structural ideas or designs that would give us the best results to launch our pumpkin as far as possible.

We remembered you said you traveled to various places, we would like to tell you our favorite place we traveled.

D went to the Carribean
A2 went to Seabrook island in south carolina
K went to rome
A went to bahamas.

Where is your favorite place you have traveled to?

Your friends,

Reply:


Hi,

I haven't launched many pumpkins; but, remember: 45 degrees! (neglecting air friction, of course)

I've traveled quite a bit in my work. I've been all around the country, to Europe many times, and to Russia (Moscow, and Siberia). It's really hard to pick a favorite; I probably have favorites for different reasons. I really like the mountains, so Colorado is great, as are the Swiss Alps. For beaches, Puerto Rico is hard to beat, and Barbados and Aruba. But the beaches on the East Coast -- just for walking along and thinking -- are great, too. (The Hamptons in New York come to mind...)

In Europe, one of my favorite cities was Amsterdam, and I really enjoyed Paris, too, though most people weren't as friendly as in Amsterdam.

Have a great weekend!
-Mike

Adopted Again

Last Fall I ran a blog/discussion with three high school physics classes through the Adopt-A-Physicist program sponsored by Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, with aid from the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. The next few blog entries will be posts from that discussion. Names of students and institutions have been edited for privacy, but the content is original.



+++++++++++++++++++++++
Introduction - Oct 12 10:33AM Mike Syphers
66 Posts

Hello, thank you for adopting me in the Adopt-a-Physicist program.

To get an idea of who I am, you can view my profile.

-Mike Syphers



Particle Accelerators - Oct 12 3:22PM
4 Posts
Hello Dr. Syphers! We are three students from a high school in Wisconsin.
Dr. Syphers, have you ever read the book Angels and Demons? It talks about particle accelerators. I was wondering, is Dan's description of these up-to-date? Did he exaggerate any of these details? Or, on the other hand, have there been advances in this field since he published this book?

Reply:
Hi!
Happy to hear from you! Yes, I've read Angels and Demons -- and saw the movie, too. I've also been to CERN, where the particle accelerator from the book is located. First of all, let me remind you that one purchases that book in the Fiction section of the bookstore(!). Dan's books have been very exciting to read (at least for me), but they have about as much fiction as what appears to be fact. As for the accelerator, there really is an "LHC" at CERN, though it hasn't successfully turned on yet. It also will not be used to make antimatter in any large quantities, so that's part of the fiction. The greatest exaggeration in the story is that the LHC would produce enough antimatter to generate a large explosion, which is hogwash. Here at Fermilab, we make more antimatter (antiprotons, to be specific) than any place on earth in our accelerators. If the Fermilab machines were used to make antiprotons at our full capacity, it would take about 500,000,000 years to make a gram of antiprotons. (Wouldn't have to worry about job security, eh?)
But, the cool thing is that antimatter does exist, we can make it, it does annihilate with regular matter to form pure energy, and we at Fermilab do collide protons with antiprotons to look at the particles that get created from this energy. We do it every day. And that's not science fiction! But if you told everyone that it was enough energy to light up a 4 Watt light bulb, you wouldn't sell all that many books...

Cheers,
-Mike


Re: Introduction - Oct 13 1:42PM
3 Posts
Hello Mr. Syphers, 
 Greetings from New Jersey. Thank you for being one of our physicist's! We are very excited to have you. We here at our tiny little school are aware that you tought high school for only one year. What made you change your job? Do you miss it? Also at Fermilab was there a project which was set up for detecting dark matter that was passing through extremely cold plates in a chamber? If so did you work on it and did you discover anything?

Reply:
Hi BHS!
My H.S. teaching job was my first job out of college. I really enjoyed it, but it was a tough time for teachers at that school. It was a small school near Chicago, and there was a "tax referendum" that was voted on by the community, and they voted not to raise taxes for the school. SO, the school district laid off all of the first-year teachers. Oh well... BUT, there was a job opening just down the street at Fermilab, so I applied and got the job. The rest is ... history.
But, I never really got away from teaching. I learned my job and taught what I learned to others below me, and then I went back to college for my MS and PhD degrees. Since then, I've taught college courses quite a bit, and had many students work with me at Fermilab. So, it's still been very rewarding and teaching continues to be a big part of my life. (Like, Adopt-A-Physicist!)
As for the Dark Matter search, I personally did not work on that experiment. You can find more about it (if you haven't already) at: http://ppd.fnal.gov/experiments/cdms/
Best,
-Mike

Simulating Gravity -- Part II: Let's go to Mars

Following up from last time (if you remember, last time -- it's been a LONG time), how would one send a rocket ship off on a trip to Mars from the Earth, with the minimum amount of energy being used in the process?

Think of the problem this way. First, as usual, one makes some "simplifying assumptions." Assume that the Earth and Mars are both in circular orbits about the Sun. Not too bad an assumption for this purpose, actually. So, what trajectory would we like our spaceship to take? We'd like for it to undergo an elliptical orbit about the Sun, an orbit which tangentially intersects both the orbit of the Earth and the orbit of Mars. For reference, let Earth's orbit have a radius of be 1 A.U. from the Sun; then Mars' orbit has a radius of 1.52 A.U.

Imagine firing the rocket's engine until it attains a velocity v_0 that is oriented tangent to the Earth's orbit. Then the engine is turned off, and the rocket will begin to orbit the Sun in an elliptical orbit. Using the spreadsheet from last time, one could adjust v_0 and plot the orbit that results; for some particular value of v_0, the new elliptical orbit will extend out to the orbit of Mars. An example of a solution is shown in the Figure below:





To arrive at this figure, I manually adjusted v_0 in the spreadsheet we used last time (PlanetOrb.xls ). Starting with the condtions

x=0, y=-1, vx=v_0, and vy=0

I varied v_0 until I got the desired result. I found that v_0 = 2*pi * 1.098 = 6.899 works pretty well.

To check, how would we calculate the required speed?

As usual, we employ the laws of conservation of energy and momentum to arrive at the formula:

v_0^2 = 2 GM / r0 / ( 1 + r0/r)

where r0 is the radius of the Earth's orbit, and r is the radius of Mars' orbit. Plugging in numbers you should find that v_0 is in very good agreement with what was found with the spreadhseet.

Now that we can compute the required speed of the rocket, the remaining question is "When do we fire the engines?" If we launch the rocket when the earth is at x=0, y=-1, as in the above graph, then we want Mars to be at x=0 and y = +1.52 when the rocket arrives at that point! So, that means there is a particular time at which the launch needs to take place. This is why rockets cannot be launched on their space missions at just any 'ole time. By looking at our spreadsheet calculation, I find that the rocket reaches the desired coordinates somewhere around time t = 0.710 and 0.725. That is, in about eight and a half months. (Remember, t is in Years in our spreadsheet.) This also tells us that there is a bit of a "launch window" of opportunity for setting off our rocket. Much outside of that time window, and the rocket and Mars will not meet up.

So, the rocket must be launched at a specific time, such that after its 8.5 month journey, Mars ends up opposite the sun from where the Earth was located at launch time. And all of this can be readily estimated using a spreadsheet program, using the definitions of velocity and acceleration, and application of Newton's Universal Law of Gravtiation.