Zach Van Engen from Sioux Center, Iowa, presents research at Iowa Section of American Association of Physics Teachers

2015 Dec 7

Engineering and physics students Kolter Bradshaw and Zach Van Engen presented their summer research on "Viscous Fluid Motion in a Horizontally Rotating Cylinder" at the Iowa Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (IAAPT) in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 7.

"The state section sends a general invitation to its members inviting them to present something of interest to other physics faculty," says Physics Professor John Zwart, who has been a member of both the IAAPT and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) for nearly 30 years. "I thought Zach and Kolter's work would be interesting to the audience, so I invited them to present."

IAAPT aims to improve the teaching of physics and facilitate discussions about physics, and, although most IAAPT presenters are college or high school faculty, student presenters are welcome.

"Zach and Kolter's presentation was well received," says Zwart. "They were studying the behavior of viscous fluids by putting a fluid sample in a hollow cylinder and seeing how the fluid affected the rate at which the cylinder would roll down an inclined ramp. They did this for many different samples."

Bradshaw and Van Engen had also presented their research at Dordt's Summer Seminar Series. The research has the potential to run long term, and Zwart expects future students to continue work on the project once they graduate.