Dear Physics Community,
How far – there is actually some scientific basis for six feet for physical distancing, but it may not be enough. In addition, enclosed rooms present a problem.
Physics Events
- Wednesday, April 8, 4-5 pm – Office Hours for Graduate Students with Peter Fisher and Nergis Mavalvala
- Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
- Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
- Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri
Physics Department
Tuesday Lunch Talks – the next date is April 14. Please contact Anna Frebel (afrebel@mit.edu). If you would like to give one.
The latest installment in the dark matter saga
Found – room temperature superconductivity (from Leonid)
Academic Continuity Meeting
The meeting today focussed on remote learning and how it is working. Krishna led the discussion and many shared what they had heard from students.
- Technology generally working well, bandwidth adequate
- General appreciate for asynchronous presentations, eps. from those in other time zones. Can stop for breaks, back up to pick up something missed, etc.
- Positive vibe around synchronous presentations – easier to engage through chat, different sorts of people ask questions. Zoom office hours seem to work well, as do breakout rooms for smaller classes. Lectures work IF the students engage – this means changing the flow every 7-10 minutes with a demo, problem. Polling helps.
- There are problems with synchronous lectures – it is hard to sit in a room alone and engage, distractions from family don’t help. When asking for questions, instructors have to work to get a response, eps. if many students are not on video. What seems to work well is if TA monitors chat for questions and brings them to the instructor’s attention. Breaks and changes to flow every 7-10 minutes are key.
- Workshops on engaging for teachers and advice for learners from TLL.
Kudos to Rob, Samuel, Yu-Ting, Rachel, Riccardo, Michael, Gabriel, and Aram for correctly identifying this picture as a resolution target to aerial and spaceborne optical imaging. The particular target dates form the 1960’s, but if you look up and down the road, there are other targets from other eras. The ideas it the white bars have incremental widths allowing direct measurement of the resolution. Interestingly, analysts use the National Image Interpretability Scales or NIIRs to express resolution, which is based on the ability to identify features rather than a numerical value.
Here is one more. What is it? You have to be specific. Lat. 40°01’47.99″ N Long. 74°19’32.08″ W
Peter