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Four fundamental forces - gravity, electricity, the strong force and the weak force - control all of the subatomic interactions that exist in our universe. The strong force dictates interactions between molecules in a nucleus while the weak force governs the process of radioactive decay.  The scientific community currently understands the first three forces well, but obtaining knowledge about the weak force has challenged physics researchers for decades. Andrew Morrison ’14 and Jacob Davidson ’15 are contributing to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aCORN Project, to gain a better understanding of the weak force.

Dean of Faculty Patrick Reynolds visited Professor Gordon Jones’ “Physics 190: The Mechanical Universe” class last week to help illustrate some laws of physics.  Lying on a bed of nails, Reynolds demonstrated the difference between force and pressure. In comparing a bed with a single nail to one with hundreds of nails in both cases the force (Reynolds’ weight) is the same, but the pressure is different.  On a bed of hundreds of nails the force is spread over many nails in the same way that pressure depends on the area over which a force is spread.

Hamilton physics concentrators Nick Sylvester ’13, Jill Hallak ’13, Kerkira Stockton ’14 and Brandon Wilson ’14 have spent the summer conducting research for the aCORN collaborative, a project being carried out by five universities and colleges and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Four main forces govern the behavior of all matter in the world around us: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear. Physicists believe that, at large enough energies, these four forces can be described by a single theory rather than four separate theories. Working for his second summer under Professor of Physics Brian Collett and Professor of Physics Gordon Jones, Edward Lamere ’11 is working on a project to increase the accuracy of an experiment that links the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces called aCORN.

A physicist is different from a biologist or chemist in that his data will always be open to debate. No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to flawlessly measure a physical value, whether it is momentum, magnetic field, or moment of inertia. According to him, uncertainty behaves asymptotically – the range of error gets closer and closer to zero but never reaches it. Scientists are especially fond of tacking more decimal places onto physical constants, like gravity. They make it their goal to alleviate uncertainty as much as possible.

Three Hamilton College faculty members will be promoted to the rank of professor, effective July 1. Associate professors Gordon Jones, physics; Craig Latrell, theatre; and Ann Owen, economics, will receive the title of professor.