Solar Astronomy

by Stephen Ramsden, 5:00-5:30 pm

Stephen W. Ramsden is the founder and director of the world's largest solar astronomy and solar spectroscopy hands-on STEM program, the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project. The global nonprofit organization is named in the memory of a fellow veteran. Ramsden will talk about the critical need for physics and mathematics instruction and the need to introduce elementary and middle school students around the world to physics and mathematics. He will discuss his experience in creating the massive, global program with no help from university or government entities. The completely grassroots organization is dedicated to ending radicalization and extremism by early intervention with science. 

The Physics of Music

by Michael Ruiz, 5:30-6:30 pm

Michael Ruiz is a professor of physics at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. In this talk, he will use a musical ear-training exercise in conjunction with Lissajous figures to establish the simplest ratios for the frequencies of the major scale, or the musician's scale. Then he will proceed to use strings and pipes to arrive at a harmonic series, or the physicist's scale. He will show how the harmonies pervasive in Western music emerge naturally from the analyses. He will offer examples in classical music and jazz, including a piano performance.