The purpose of this page is to:

· Document the impact my publications have had on academic and other communities

· Describe the nature and even some of the limitations of this impact.

· Argue that my past research is well suited to my present and future research plans.

The numbered links (1, 2, 3, ..) refer to the papers in my publications list (with the lowest numbers representing the most recent articles). The other (unnumbered) links provide documentation, usually in the form of excerpts copied directly from the internet and converted into pdf files.

I. Organization of Publications

a) Plasma physics and acoustics

i. experimental (21, 20, 12)

ii. theoretical (19, 17, 13 )

iii. with undergraduate physics majors (16, 15, 8)

b) Expository physics articles, suitable for:

i. advanced graduate students and beyond (6, 5, 2)

ii. college physics majors (18, 14, 10, 7, 4)

iii. introductory and pre-college science (3, 1)

c) Two articles of interest to, and readable by, the general public (11, 9)

II. Impact on the Academic Community

A Google-Scholar search indicates 16 citations for these articles. I suspect this is rather low for 21 publications. While there is evidence that the Google search failed to uncover old references to some of my earlier work in plasma physics, I do not think my work gets cited much by researchers. Most of my papers involve explanations that are simpler (or at least different) than the original work. For example, the recoilless absorption associated with the Mossbauer Effect (6) is counter-intuitive and would fascinate any physics major. My co-author informed me that others had to “do cartwheels” to recover what (6) does in a few steps. It should be no surprise that researchers do not often build on my ideas. On the other hand, students can and do benefit. For example, the current Wikepedia article on this effect quotes (6) as one of only seven references on the Mossbauer Effect. And, the University of Washington website for the student lab on the Mossbauer Effect lists our article as one of only ten references.

Another example of my work influencing education involves Bell’s Theorem, which (9) explains without equations, and in a way that largely ignores quantum mechanics. The paper was reprinted in Theodore Schick’s anthology on the philosophy of science, and this apparently has prompted a philosophy professor the University of Alabama in Huntsville to include my article as required reading. Furthermore, a philosophy professor at Grossmont College devotes entire week to my article! My 1997 article on transverse bending waves (7) was selected by the American Journal of Physics as an editor’s choice pick. Finally, a reference to my most recent article (1) already appears a University of Iowa website that documents student demonstrations. This article appeared in The Physics Teacher in October 2008, and was cached by Google on the Iowa website in April 2009.

It is interesting that my articles on both the Mossbauer Effect, as well as Bell’s Theorem, were initially rejected. The editor of the American Journal of Physics accepted (6) only after I submitted a photocopy of article on the same subject that had previously appeared in his journal. The simplicity of my approach was evident upon casual inspection. My article on Bell’s Theorem was rejected by a physics journal, and subsequently accepted almost without revision by the Philosophical Quarterly. I had hoped for a similar experience with General Relativity, which is fascinating because it denies the seemingly “self-evident” truth of Euclid’s Geometry, a question that has been examined by great philosophers such as Kant and Hume. The problem is that General Relativity requires that spacetime possess intrinsic curvature, which seems incomprehensible to physicists who learned vector calculus under the (false) premise of Euclidean geometry. I made two attempts to explain this curvature within the context of conventional ‘flat’ calculus, one short and one long and detailed. Neither seems to please the reviewers. I still plan to make one more attempt with General Relativity … eventually. To me at least, it is the simplest way to understand why spacetime must be ‘curved’.

III. Present and Future Research Plans

I made my first plywood sailboat in 2006. Shown above are what I call Amphibious Wading Barges, constructed in 2009 for the collection of matrix by Dr. Charles Ciampaglio and his geology students. My next project involves the design and construction of what I call the Grand Lake Family Sailing Barge. The design goals are simple to state, but not easy to achieve: This sailing barge should (1) hold at least two adults and a child, (2) cost less than $300 to build in a “month of weekends”, and (3) be easy for one adult and one child to build using simple tools and limited skills. This motivation and scope of this project is concisely described in a brochure.

As outlined in the aforementioned brochure, the design and construction of this Family Sailing Barge poses interesting physics, engineering, and even social questions suitable for students in their first two years in a technical degree program. Of many topics pertinent to amateur boatbuilding we have: (1) studies of glue strength, (2) Styrofoam absorption of water, (3) calculations of hydrostatic equilibrium and (4) estimating boatbuilding costs. The latter ties into two themes that appear in a freshman physics course, namely: estimation and error analysis.

Since I am primarily interested in articles with student co-authors, I do not expect a large publication count from this research. But 5 of my 21 publications had student co-authors, and I hope to increase that number, which is appropriate since most of my publications are pedagogically oriented.

I am not sure where or how to publish articles on amateur boatbuilding. But there seems to be interest in this type of research. For the past year or so, my own website is ranked first out of 21,800 websites when I Google words such as: bending wood for boat building. To ensure that Google wasn’t returning a Wright State website because I was from Wright State, this ranking has been verified using computers at Chicago, as well as the San Fransisco Bay Area.