Potential Research Projects

From time to time, students ask me if there are any research projects they can work on. I have a bunch in mind.

1. The effect of error propagation on relative differences -- we often compute the relative difference (also called the percent difference) with no regard to how much uncertainty there is in the result. There are also many competing relative difference definitions that might pose some advantages over the traditional one used in lab. This is likely a Note in American Journal of Physics.

2. Review of lab manuals with respect to statistical treatment -- a cursory examination indicates that how statistics is treated varies widely from university to university. How many abide NIST guidelines?  This would likely be a larger article in Physics Education.

3. Catastrophic cancellation and its effect on relative differences -- we recently submitted for publication an article on catastrophic cancellation, which drives up error whenever subtracting quantities of roughly equal magnitude. What effect does this have on the relative difference? Answering this question could pose as a Note in the American Journal of Physics.

4. Review of lab manuals with respect to cognitive rigor -- the concept of Cognitive Rigor is used to assess the rigor of curriculum and instruction, but it has only been used at the college level rarely. This article would introduce Cognitive Rigor to college science instruction and used to compare the rigor of various lab activities collected from lab manuals throughout the U.S.  This is a major project and worthy of publication in Physics Today.

5. What is the physical interpretation of the log mean?  The log mean and the log-mean difference are used in both economics and thermal engineering. Is there a connection between these two fields? This would likely be a Note to the American Journal of Physics.

6. Reading comprehension in the lab -- I am already working on this one with a local high school English teacher.

7. Elastic collision as demonstration of p-value comparison -- we know that catastrophic cancellation and error propagation can generate wildly different results for the same physical property and measurement data. This demonstrates that the p-value of an experiment must be taken with a grain of salt. This research would use the elastic collision to produce a lab activity that can be replicated in other physics departments. The article describing the lab activity would be a good article for Physics Education or a Note for the American Journal of Physics.

8. Students gambling points toward confidence intervals --- having students wager the number of points on their lab report toward their confidence that they achieved accurate (precise and true) results could generate a lot of interest in physics departments across the country.  (E.g., "I am willing to bet 3 points that the true mass of the cart is between 240 and 242 grams.")  This lab activity could be an article in Physics Education or the Physics Teacher.

9. Progression of LaTeX in a lab semester -- we are employing LaTeX in our PHYS-4A lab but we need to develop a progression that allows students to learn its features gradually throughout the semester. This would likely be a Note for The Physics Teacher.

10. Mass calculations with error propagation -- students discovered that an unknown mass calculated in an elastic collision is due to error propagation and catastrophic cancellation. We could plot calculations of the unknown mass as a function the change in momentum of the gliders. Which collision offers mass results closest to the true value? This is likely an article in Physics Education.

11. Establish a taxonomy of error propagation results, including plots -- error propagation involves mathematics beyond the scope of conceptual-based physics labs. Can we create a chart that would allow students to estimate the uncertainty in their results without the need for mathematics?  This would likely be an article for Physics Education or a Note for the American Journal of Physics.

12. Povray and mathematics instruction -- PovRay is short of Point of View Raytracing and is free software for develop photo-realistic 3D images. However, it must be programmed. Because it offers an opportunity to learn code and requires ample knowledge of trig and geometry, it could serve as the basis of an article in a math education journal.

If you are physics student at Fresno State and you are interested in any of the above, email me at jwalkup@mail.fresnostate.edu.

John Walkup