UFV Physics Student Association (PSA)
Room A353, Building A, University of the Fraser Valley Abbotsford, BC, Canada

A PSA from the PSA: We need YOU on our roster on MCL! Join our roster by clicking this link and clicking join https://ufv.campuslabs.ca/engage/organization/ufvpsa We have 2 guest lectures happening in March! Follow us on our socials to stay up-to-date on all things UFV PSA... Want to be on our team for the 2021-2022 term? Election packages are released on March 1! Turn your post notifications on! 2021 CAP Virtual Lecture Series happen every Monday over at CAP YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/cha/UC2Jf3-T95wOWtRjUgtxmWfQ/videos If you need more information, here’s the poster: https://www.cap.ca/prog/cap-lecture-tour/2021-lecture-tour/ Have a great reading week everybody!

For those who RSVP’d for our movie night tonight, the coupon codes have been sent out! Check your UFV email and check your spam, it may have landed in there. DM if you’re having any problems. Otherwise, see you all at 8 for The Martian in our discord server!

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Here's a great video from UFV WEST if you missed their event today.

Quantum computing lecture LIVE now! https://www.youtube.com/watch

Hey everyone! Tomorrow is (virtual) Science Night Against Procrastination (SNAP) hosted by UFV PMSA. It's from 6-9PM via zoom (DM or comment for the link). Annabelle will be hosting the physics/ math/ engineering group. It's basically a study night and every hour we do a 10 minute brain break. There are prizes to be won and it's a free event to help you guys study during midterm season! Hope to see some of you there

Types of Stars You may know that our sun is a yellow dwarf, but what does that really mean?? Aren’t all the stars the same? Short answer: No. ... We have protostars, T Tauri Stars, Main Sequence stars (where our sun falls), Red Giant stars, White Dwarf Stars, Red Dwarf Stars, Neutron Stars, and Supergiant stars The Hertzprung-Russell (HR) diagram is a valuable tool in astronomy to determine what type of star it is. It has a band of the main sequence stars along the diagonal of the diagram, and the stars that lay outside it. It shows the luminosity, and temperature of the star. [2] [1] https://www.google.ca//different-types-stars-stellar-evol/ [2] HR Diagram https://socratic.org//what-is-the-hertzsprung-russell-diag [3] star life cycle picture https://ualr.edu//highlights-of-the-/life-cycle-of-a-star/ Other Photos by NASA

Wanna win a $25 gift card to Wendel's? Check out our instagram, @ufvpsa, for all the details!

Hello all! The University of Windsor is hosting a series of undergraduate seminars aimed at third and fourth year undergraduate physics students. These seminars, starting this Friday, are going to be held every Friday until February 25, 2021! Registration is free but required to attend. All details and the link to register is here: https://www.uwindsor.ca///477/undergraduate-seminar-series... If you have any questions, feel free to email us [email protected] or [email protected]

Great tip! How do you stay organized through online courses?

GRAD SCHOOL INFORMATION SESSIONS You heard it here first! Are you a third or fourth year physics student considering grad school? Are you a curious second year looking for more information? Look no further! SFU department of physics is hosting information sessions! Link for November 3rd Session: https://sfu.zoom.us///tZIuf-6orTMoHdEEzfA1hCwV3REyjV-2x_Uu Link for November 12 Session: https://sfu.zoom.us///tZMrdemrqzstHNJqAhCWxOx8PwhiR2qk8Frd

Today we remember the 14 women who lost their lives at the École Polytechnique Massacre. On December 6, 1989, an armed man entered an engineering classroom at É...cole Polytechnique de Montreal. He separated the women from the men. He opened fire on the women. He then moved throughout the school, continuing to target women in an act of violence that would last nearly 20 minutes, ultimately killing 12 engineering students, a nursing student, and a budget clerk. This was an anti-feminist attack, and still resonates in our hearts today. 14 women died for no reason other than they were women pursuing higher education and simply doing their job. We see ourselves in these women. December 6 marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Today we honour these lives lost, and work for a change. Please see the link below for UFV’s virtual vigil. https://blogs.ufv.ca//national-day-of-remembrance-and-act/

Milky Way Galaxy Our home galaxy is an amazing place! Home to an estimated 100 thousand million stars our sun is just one of the many [1] The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of ~100,000 light years! Recently, Dr Andrea Ghez and Dr Reinhard Genzel were awarded the 2020 Physics Nobel Prize "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy" [4] - a supermassive black hole! ... It also has about 10x more dark matter than stars, gas & planets combined [2] Our solar system resides in the Orion arm of the galaxy, so be sure to take a look at the pictures to see where that is! [3] Although one weird feature is that even though all the galaxies seem to be moving away from each other, the Milky Way and its neighbour Andromeda are on a collision course with each other! But don’t worry, that’s in many many more millions of years ahead of us [2] [1] https://www.esa.int//How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Unive [2] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/milky-way-overlay/ [3] https://earthsky.org//does-our-sun-reside-in-a-spiral-arm- [4] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/

Next week on our instagram, we'll be sharing the details of our end of semester giveaway! Follow us on instagram @ufvpsa for a chance to win + support local businesses!

Halloween Image : A small portion of The Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118) resembling a ghostly figurine Credit : Casey Good/Steve Timmons Location : Fort Davis, Texas

Locating Constellations (PART ONE) To locate your favourite constellations, you’re going to need a few things: * A compass or sense of directions to tell North, East, South and West (the sun is also a very great indicator)... * Preferably an area with low light pollution * Friends * *Telescopes or binoculars are optional* The best one to start off with? Ursa Minor! (Aka the Little Dipper - but that’s just an asterism, which is an informal group of stars, not the full constellation) Why is it easy? Because it includes Polaris, our North Star and has a recognizable shape of a pot. Find North Look quite a bit up from the horizon, but not straight up. See picture [1] for the shape you’ll be trying to recognize, and depending on what season it is it may be rotated along the outermost star of the pot’s handle - which is Polaris Ursa Major (aka the Big Dipper) is very close by, also shaped like a pot. See picture [2] to see what orientation and location it would be (in reference to Polaris) depending on the season. These two constellations work hand in hand. Find Ursa Major, and use the two outermost stars on the pot side to line up and guide you to Polaris [3]. Or find Ursa Minor, and by knowing what season it is you’ll get a general idea where The Big Dipper is. In the northern hemisphere, we can see Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus all year round! And if you get frustrated- an app is an easy way to start getting familiar with where to look in reference to your surrounding (I use Sky Guide for my phone and Stellarium for my computer) Tune in next week for part two! [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major_Arc [2] [3] https://earthsky.org//use-big-dipper-to-find-polaris-the-n [4] https://www.google.ca//dennis_mammana_use_the_big_dipper_c [5] my video guide from Sky Guide

Info for tomorrow's event!

Congratulations!

Sometimes, physics is pretty darn cool. This is what happens when pure samples of hydrogen, nitrogen and five noble gasses are subjected to the high-frequency p...ulsed field of a miniature Tesla coil. Here's how it works: - Each gas has a characteristic breakdown voltage and emission spectrum- note that Nitrogen has the highest breakdown voltage and only glows when very near the coil where the field is most intense whereas Neon and Helium have the lowest breakdown voltage and begin to glow many centimeters away from the coil. The color of each gas is due to a mix of the colors emitted from electron energy transitions specific to each element- the basis of spectroscopy. Go to Physicsfun for more experiments like this. See more

Save the date! Wednesday November 25th we are holding our second annual career panel featuring women who work in various STEM professions. There will be present...ations by the panelists followed by a Q&A. Bring your questions and bring a friend because everyone is welcome! Stay tuned to learn more about our panelists in the coming weeks See more

Today, November 20, we remember and recognize those who have been killed due to ignorance and hatred, targeted because they were trans or gender non-conforming.... Inspiring Trans Canadian stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Silveira https://www.queensu.ca/gnds/people/faculty/trish-salah https://pflagcanada.ca///11/TransAwarenessdaypostfb-01.jpg #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TDOR #transgender #translives #transgenderandproud #transawarenessweek #transweek #transday #transgender @goUFV

Our third Virtual Science Café is coming up! Register today and join us next week to learn about building an innovation ecosystem, together with Dr. Jon Tho...mas, UFV BC Regional Innovation Chair in Canada-India Partnership Development at University of the Fraser Valley http://sciencetalks.ca Thanks to Abbotsford Tech District University of the Fraser Valley Vancouver Foundation Abbotsford Community Foundation Envision Financial #Conexkt TEDxAbbotsford UFV Alumni Association

Less than a week away!

Are you interested in quantum computing? Ever wondered how quantum computers even work?! If you answered yes to any of these questions then we have the guest lecture for YOU! Tomorrow at 5:30PM via zoom, come learn all about Camille's PhD research with SFU Physics on Silicon Quantum Technology. Here's the link to RSVP: https://ufv.campuslabs.ca/engage/event/169762

GUEST LECTURE The PSA is so excited to announce our next guest speaker, Camille Chartrand! Camille is a PhD student at @sfuphysics Her research is based around quantum computing, specifically in the defects of silicon! Come join us on November 10th @ 5:30PM to learn more about quantum computing and Camille’s path to her PhD! RSVP via mycampuslife

Giveaway Details When: December 7-11 What: Each day, enter for a chance to win a $25 gift card to the feature local business! Who: Any current UFV student is allowed to enter (except for PSA executive team)... How To Enter: Like the giveaway post, comment (once!) why you want a gift card to the featured business & tag your UFV friends! Rules: You must like the post to enter, you may win only once, you must be following us (@ufvpsa) on Instagram for the duration of the contest, you may only enter each draw once, you must follow the featured business on Instagram Disclaimer This giveaway is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or associated with Instagram. By entering, you are confirming that you are over 18 and are that you are a current UFV student Starting Monday December 7, we will be hosting the 4 Days of Giveaways Each day, we will feature a local business that we are supporting. To enter the contest, simply like the post, comment why you want to win a gift card for the specified business and tag your fellow UFV pals all within 1 comment (you may only enter each draw once). The next morning before the next post goes up, we will be randomly selecting a winner! The winner will be announced via Instagram post. You will receive your gift card virtually through student email (except for 1 gift card which will be delivered by mail!). Wanna get a head start? Follow us, @thelocalspace @oldhandcoffee @wendelsbc @boardwalkcafegames and turn on our post notifications so you don’t miss out! T-minus 7 days until giveaway begins Woohoo!!

Thank you to everyone who joined us last night for our MCAT information session! If you missed it, no worries! Here’s the link to the presentation: https://yo...utu.be/BZOoiTabUwc Or if you just want the information here is the link to the slides: https://docs.google.com//1nKMkjqo32vjQoEiNeaAyK8RUBL/edit We’ll be posting the winner of our giveaway soon

Do you recognise our 2020 Nobel Laureate from her high school yearbook photo? Andrea Ghez' yearbook photo from 1983 was taken during her senior year at Univers...ity of Chicago Lab School. As a young girl, Ghez loved mathematics and all types of puzzles. She would grow up to become an astronomer proving that something massive, most likely a black hole, is lurking at the center of our Milky Way. Ghez shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics with Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel. Learn more: https://bit.ly/2H0P30K

Space shuttle Atlantis, Endeavour, Challenger, Discovery and Columbia! The five space shuttles marvelling us from 1981 - 2011 These were the first reusable space craft ... The space shuttle program was a HUGE step to diversity as they sent the first American woman (Sally Ride - a physicist!) and people of colour! As Canadians we contributed the Canadarm - which was such a great invention, we are on our way to making Cadarm3! Unfortunately 14 astronauts’ lives were lost during the Challenger and Columbia missions. We will always remember their bravery and risk they took to advance the human race https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/images/

#OnThisDay in 1935 Erwin Schrödinger published his famous thought experiment, Schrödinger's cat. Schrödinger imagined a cat in a box together with a radioactive... source. Alongside the cat was a radiation detector which, upon registering a radioactive decay, would cause a hammer to fall and break open a flask of deadly poison that would kill the cat immediately. The radioactive source would be selected to have a quantum mechanical probability of 50% to decay per hour. After one hour, it would be equally likely that the cat is alive or dead. According to Max Born's interpretation of quantum mechanics, exactly one hour after this macabre experiment began, the box would contain a cat which is neither alive nor dead but rather in a mixture of these two states. In the language of quantum mechanics, the cat's wave function is a superposition of the 'dead' and 'alive' wave functions. Schrödinger thought this made the probabilistic interpretation of his theory a nonsense! Born retorted that as soon as the lid on the box is lifted so we can observe the cat, the act of observation collapses the two possible wave functions into a single one, causing the cat to be definitely dead or alive. Despite his misgivings, Schrödinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Dirac for his work on formulating new theories of quantum mechanics. Read more about Erwin Schrödinger: https://bit.ly/34jmNge

Harry Potter and the Magic of Constellations To all the Harry Potter fans out there, I’m sure you’ll recognize some of the names of the following stars and constellations The Dobby constellation can be found - just kidding. That ones not based off of our stars. ... Sirius Black comes from the brightest star in the sky: Sirius! Found in the constellation Canis Major right by Orion, we can see it during the winter time in the northern hemisphere [1] [6] Bellatrix is the right should star in Orion, next to the left one Betelgeuse (soon to go supernova) We can also spot this one on a clear night soon! [2] [5] Andromeda Sister of the Harry Potter characters Bellatrix and Narcissa (Draco’s mother), this name comes from the constellation and a galaxy! The Andromeda galaxy is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way [4] Draco can be seen all year round, wrapped between Ursa Major and Minor, as it represents a dragon [3] [7] There are quite a few more, in fact a majority of the Black family in Harry Potter have constellation and star inspired names, however here are just a few we can find in our local night sky [1] https://earthsky.org//the-skys-brightest-star-sirius-befor [2] https://earthsky.org//bellatrix-orions-third-brightest-mea [3] https://earthsky.org/sky-arch/the-great-dragon-of-the-north [4] https://earthsky.org/to/find-the-andromeda-galaxy-in-autumn [5] https://www.wizardingworld.com//andromeda-narcissa-and-bel [6] https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Sirius_Black [7] https://www.refinery29.com//draco-malfoy-35-birthday-jk-ro

New feature coming your way! As we know, women are far from new to STEM and we want to highlight the best and brightest from history. If you have a fave histori...cal woman in STEM you’d like to learn more about, drop her in the comments below! Now, meet Marie: Born Maria Salomea Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland in 1867, Marie Curie was destined to make waves in the fields of chemistry and physics. Not only is she the first woman to win a Nobel prize, she is also the first person to win twice. She shared the Nobel prize for physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becqurel for their work on radiation, and was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1911 for the discovery of the elements Polonium and Radium. She almost wasn’t recognized with the first prize even though she and Pierre had worked together on the paper that led to the nomination. After a committee member alerted Pierre, Pierre filed a complaint and Marie was honoured as well. Sadly, Marie passed from aplastic anemia thought to be caused by her prolonged work with radioactive materials (she carried around radioactive isotopes in test tubes in her pockets). Although she was initially buried in a cemetery, her remains now rest in the Pantheon in Paris along with her husband Pierre. A NY Times article from April 21, 1995 said the following of her remains being moved: The ashes of Marie Curie were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris today making the celebrated scientist the first woman honoured at the memorial dedicated to the great men of France. Her and her husband’s coffins are lined with lead since they are both still radioactive, as are many of her papers and belongings which are considered too dangerous to handle without protective equipment.

For day 4 of our annual 10-day Mighty Girl Halloween Costume Countdown, we present this mini Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist and hero of the Apollo 11... mission to the moon! To learn more about Margaret Hamilton's incredible legacy, visit our blog post, "The Computer Scientist Who Saved the Moon Landing," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=20084 To share her inspiring story with children, we highly recommend the picture book "Margaret and the Moon" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/margaret-and-the-moon She is also featured in a fun activity book about pioneering women in technology, which includes a variety of hands-on STEM projects: "Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Programmers" for ages 8 to 11 at https://www.amightygirl.com/gutsy-girls-programmers Margaret Hamilton is also one of four trailblazing women of NASA featured in the "Women of NASA LEGO Building Set" at https://www.amightygirl.com/lego-women-of-nasa And, if you're looking for a fun and empowering costume for your Mighty Girl (or yourself), our 2020 Halloween Costume Guide features hundreds of options for all ages, infant through adult, on a variety of themes at https://www.amightygirl.com/halloween

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an British astrophysicist, scholar and trailblazer who discovered pulsars, going on to establish herself as an esteemed leader in her field. https://loom.ly/tYTk1sg #astronomerinfocus #astronomers #astrohistory

MEET THE TEAM MONDAYYYYY Meet Garrett (& some of his awesome projects!) Here’s what he has to say: Hi everyone, my name is Garrett and I’m the VP academic this year. I’m a fourth year physics major here at UFV and I just completed the mechatronics diploma. Outside of classes I love to snowboard, get out for bike rides, and play with my new 3D printer. Whenever you see me next, I’m sure you’ll catch me wearing my headphones, jamming out to some tunes. I hope everyone has a great and safe semester and I hope to see you all soon. Tune in next Monday for our last introduction, Halen Davies! Happy Monday y’all!