Ever wonder why the big waves hit the beach every ten seconds?
How those redwoods can be so tall? Just how snapping shrimp
snap? There are many natural phenomena in California that can
be explained by classical physics. Lars Bildsten and KITP
postdoc Phil Arras have introduced a new undergraduate physics
course at UCSB that teaches fluid mechanics and its naturally
occurring applications. In this Chalk Talk, Lars and Phil will
show you a few of the more exciting examples they have uncovered!
Lars Bildsten is a permanent member at KITP and professor in the
Physics Department at U.C. Santa Barbara. He received his PhD
in theoretical physics from Cornell University in 1991, and was
at Caltech as the Lee A. DuBridge Research Fellow in Theoretical
Astrophysics until 1995, when he was appointed assistant professor
in both the Physics and Astronomy departments at U.C. Berkeley.
Phil Arras is a postdoctoral researcher at KITP. He received his PhD in physics from Cornell University in 1999 and was a researcher at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics until 2002, when he moved to KITP as an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow.