Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Magnetohydrodynamic Salt Water Drive, Noah Schmelzer

Physics Student Work

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is the behavior of conducting fluids in electric and magnetic fields. Plasmas, liquid metals, and water are all examples of a conducting fluid with magnetic properties. Much of MHD is fluid-flow and the effects of electromagnetic fields on them, but propulsion is also a possibility. A magnetohydrodynamic salt water propulsion system was constructed to observe the effects of salinity on resistivity, and then on the overall efficiency of the drive. Salinity of water and corresponding resistivity was altered to optimize fluid velocity. The apparatus used was a rectangular tube with permanent magnets perpendicular to aluminum electrodes. The fluid …

Automated Detection And Analysis Of Meteor Events Using Nightly Calibrations Of Observed Stars, Alexander Mitchell Evich

Physics Student Work

Abstract:

Every night we experience the celestial phenomenon of meteors falling to Earth. Meteors are chunks of space debris composed of mostly rock or metal, which light up the night sky and are more popularly known as “shooting stars”. I used an all-sky camera to observe these meteors. The all-sky camera is a low light sensitive camera with a fish-eye lens so it can observe the whole night sky. If a meteor occurs, the ASGARD motion detection program saves a video of the event along with the summary of each frame of the event. I calibrated the images to get …