and Math major
and Math major,
(and maybe CS)
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We started work this summer on Tuesday, 30 May 2006. We ended on 4 August.
This summer, we...
Meet the Molbeamers:
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and Math major |
and Math major, (and maybe CS) |
SUMMARIES
Ben:
As many past molbeamers have remarked, the summer research passed quickly. I guess time flies when you’re doing quantum physics. It is somewhat bittersweet to realize that the work is done for this summer because we have accomplished much, but I will not be returning next summer. Graduation looms at the end of the coming academic year.
Initially, the theory behind our work intimidated me, but within a week I had a basic understanding of what we were doing. However, even after obtaining this basic understanding, I had to devote many, many hours to reading and thinking about the beam and the physics behind it. I only wish I had time to investigate the beam further. There exists a seemingly unending number of details and quirks in this project that can be frustrating at times, but ultimately worth tackling, since we become better physicists in the struggle. I feel as if I have learned a lot and explored some incredibly complex, but interesting and rewarding areas in physics.
Charles was a great partner over the summer; when we put our brains together, we could usually get a lot done. I imagine he will lead the pack next year with an established understanding of the project and also some solid experience with the programming involved. I started to learn C++ at the beginning of the summer, but eventually let Charles handle the programming side of this operation since he has real experience in such matters and I do not. In the day-to-day work, I found the physical process of maintaining the beam to be very fun. Also, I actually enjoyed grinding out numbers on the computer, running simulations, and doing analysis, thanks in part to my predecessors who built efficient programs to aid in this work.
I am grateful for getting the opportunity to work with the molecular beam and to contribute something to its great legacy. I would like to thank Charles for all his help and professor Cederberg for his great kindness, his guidance, and patience while explaining the theory to me. This has been the best summer in a long time and I will never forget it.
Charlie:
This summer absolutely flew by. Professor Engbrecht said at the beginning of the summer that all of Professor Cederberg's students started off with the glassy stare after being lectured for three hours on what it is they'll be doing, but Ben and I managed to catch up just like the past groups. I think we both learned a lot, as well as having a good time. The air conditioning certainly didn't hurt with either of these.
We started out really both doing the same thing. We split up all the tasks, so we both got to do plenty of simulating, fitting, and so on. Then there was a lot of "you simulate while I read this textbook and try to figure out what's going on." Eventually, Ben took the steering wheel for most of the machine operation, only calling me over to help when there was an unusually big pile of things to deal with. This allowed me to spend a lot of the summer just learning C++.
The only really productive thing I was able to do with the C++ this summer was go into RFChecker and change "H:/" to "A:/" but I also managed to make it through the better part of several textbooks. Next year I look forward to making a lot of progress towards getting some of the more awkward MathCad worksheets turned into C++. One of the previous MolBeamers told me that it's possible to turn caffeine into code, and I expect I'll be doing a lot of that.
I'm glad Ben was here this year to help me learn things, since he's just got a lot more experience in physics than I do. I expect we'll get to do a bit more work during the year, but it'll be strange to have someone new next summer (when I'll have to be the old guy who knows whats going on). Professor Cederberg, of course, had answers to more questions than we could even come up with. It'll be fun to keep working on this project with him.
There is still a question we did not answer this summer:
How does KI taste on potatoes?