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Eric L. Michelsen UCSD Serf 317 MC 0424 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093 |
Buy my new book, published by Springer:
Available locally at the UCSD bookstore. From Springer: Quirky Quantum Concepts
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Eric L. Michelsen |
UCSD Physics |
Web page rev 4/15/2024 |
Public speaking: I enjoy speaking to interested groups about physics, and Science for Human Rights. See some of my slide sets below.
Past Teaching:
Phys 2B Electricity and Magnetism: Spring 2013, Winter 2014
Phys 110A Classical Mechanics, Fall 2013.
Physics 1B Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2012: http://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses/spring2012/physics1b/
Physics 130B Quantum Mechanics, Fall 2011: http://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses/fall2011/physics130b/
Physics 2C, Winter 2011, Spring 2011.
Personal web page: http://physics.ucsd.edu/~emichels/personal.html
Personal Amnesty Internation page: http://physics.ucsd.edu/~emichels/ai.html
“To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.” --George Orwell
“But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” --Hermann Goering
Python plotting scripts: barc.py pgmf.py
Presentations for the Public:
Fleet Science Center Sharp Minds Quantum_Collapse_Fleet.pdf
San Diego Philosophy Forum: SD_PhilosophyForum.pdf
Biomedical Ethics
Reuben H. Fleet Senior Mondays: APOLLO Lunar Laser Ranging
Reuben H. Fleet Ethics in Science
Rotary Club and Optimists Club
3rd Grade Science Class
SD Wetlab Citizen Science SD_Wetlab.pdf
Scientific and Engineering Presentations:
Quantum Nonfluctuations There are no quantum fluctuations, nor EM vacuum fields.
Quantum Decoherence: Real and Fake (PDF)
Monte Carlo and Markov Chain Monte Carlo
Periodicity and Lomb-Scargle
Period: End of Story? Updated algorithms for improved period detection.
What’s not wrong with Super_Luminal_Neutrinos.pdf (PDF)
Introduction to Gravitomagnetism (powerpoint)
Signaling and Modulation
Baseband signaling and carrier modulation
We Deliver Repeating,
Bridging, Switching, and Routing
IP (Internet Protocol) Operation
Technical details of how IP operates
Layer 2 Framing Technical details
of some bit stream formatting methods: HDLC, Ethernet, DS1 & 3
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Quality of Service (QOS)
Digital Security
San Diego Computer Conference: Introduction to Data Communication
Instructor Tools: Tips for UCSD Physics Instructors (includes full documentation for ‘testmake’ and ‘scangrade’)
testmake creates multiple forms of a test
New version 2.0: calculates numeric answers and decoys with arbitrary arithmetic expressions that you provide
testmake takes a text input file of multiple choice questions and answers, and produces multiple versions (“forms”) of the test.
- Each test version has the questions and answer choices in random order.
- Produces answer keys, which can be automatically used by scangrade.exe for grading the Scantron response files.
- Output is text, which can be LaTex if you want, or can be copied and pasted into any word processing program, such as Word.
- Can calculate numeric answers and decoys using arbitrary arithmetic expressions that you provide.
- Can use your numbers, or create random ones according to your specifications.
- Use the same numbers on each form, or even different numbers on each form
New version 1.3: scangrade simplifies Scantron grading
- Easy to use. Works with existing Physics Department practices.
- Your grading spreadsheet can use the scores, with no hand editing: student IDs start with ‘A’.
- The author is willing to make upgrades, as needed.
- The scores spreadsheet includes all answer keys, to document exactly how everything was graded.
- Supports multiple Test Forms and their keys simultaneously. No need to sort Scantrons.
- All the Scantron information is retained; nothing is discarded arbitrarily. Every response sheet produces an output line, either with a score or an error message. Nothing is left out.
- Includes full per-question statistics, in easy-post layout for simple, secure posting of grades to the web.
Windows versions: scangrade.exe testmake.exe
Linux and Mac versions available on request. Please let me know.
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Cool research project: Lunar Laser Ranging
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Fun web pages:
Beauty, Life, and Logarithms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-7tcTIrers&feature=youtu.be
Slow motion at a trillion frames
per second, literally. You can see a light pulse travel across the table, and
through a bottle. The video at the
bottom is the best, including both slo-mo scenes, and describing how it
works. There are also FAQs. http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/
Faces
of the Moon The Elements Song, by Tom
Lehrer Physics Songs
Cornstarch,
The Movie
Cool slo-mo Slinky fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCMmmEEyOO0
Free source code: Keyword parameter library, header file, sample program
Trigonometry
Simplified (2 diagrams)
The purpose of the “Funky” series of documents is to help develop an accurate
physical, conceptual, geometric, and pictorial understanding of important
physics topics. We focus on areas that don’t seem to be covered well in
most texts we’ve seen. The documents are intended for serious students of
physics. They are not “popularizations” or oversimplifications, though
they try to start simply, and build to more advanced topics. Physics
includes math, and we’re not shy about it, but we also don’t hide behind
it. Without a conceptual understanding, math is gibberish.
These are all works in progress. Please send me your comments. Now with PDF hyperlinks and physical constants!
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Quirky Quantum
Concepts.pdf Now published in paperback by Springer. QuirkyQuantumUpdates expands on the critically acclaimed Quirky Quantum Concepts. |
Wave mechanics, 1D scattering, matrix mechanics, angular momentum, spin-1/2, updated quantum electromagnetic interactions. "This is really well written, and the concepts are explained confidently and clearly. Great idea." -- physics research associate |
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So far, introduction to quantized fields, field states, and the connection to Quantum Mechanics. |
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Funky Mathematical Physics
Concepts.pdf |
Bible of Object Oriented Programming. Updated for C++11. Numerical analysis, statistics, Laplacian operator, tensors, much more. “... most excellent tensor paper.... I feel I have come to a deep and abiding understanding of relativistic tensors.... The best explanation of tensors seen anywhere!” -- physics graduate student |
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Funky
ElectromagneticConcepts.pdf |
Cleaned, clarified, expanded, and corrected ... "Finally, a systematic approach to boundary value problems." -- physics graduate student |
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Downwind faster than the wind, Boltzmann distribution, entropy, free energy, meet Mr. Mole, chemical potential, black body radiation, Bose-Einstein condensation ... |
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Downwind faster than the wind, mechanics concepts, from basic principles through Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, including rotation, constraints, oscillations, and more. |
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Special and General Relativity: relativistic mechanics, valid reference frames, spacetime diagrams, and more. |
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A simple introduction to microcontrollers for those who’ve never seen the inside of one. |
Other stuff: Skeleton Calculus.pdf