Thirty-five current and prospective physics students flew out to Southern California this fall break for an all-expense-paid trip that included stargazing and a trip to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, along with Hollywood and Venice Beach.
The trip, coordinated by physics professors Chiara Nappi and Ed Groth and cosponsored by the physics department and Caltech, allowed students to experience "an exciting application of the physics that they studied in the classroom and to show them the relations of the classroom to current research on gravity and gravitational motion," Nappi said.
The group was mainly comprised of sophomores enrolled in a course on classical mechanics, though a mix of juniors, seniors and graduate student chaperones also attended.
"There were all levels of expertise and it was very exciting for sophomores to be on the same trip with older students," Nappi said. "The dynamics worked out wonderfully."
The students echoed Nappi's remarks.
"We were with all other students with the same kind of mindsets and who all think in the same kind of analytic and vigorous thought processes," Avi Ziskind '07 said. "It was very nice to be able to discuss things with them."
The trip began with two nights in Joshua Tree National Park, a desert where students can see the night sky without interference from city lights. At the park, a society called "The Sky's the Limit" taught students about astronomy, showing them galaxies and nebulae that are not generally visible.
Nappi also arranged for students to visit Caltech, the Palomar Observatory, the Mount Wilson Observatory and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Older students were given the opportunity to interview with Caltech's graduate school.
Many students are also planning to apply for summer internships with the different institutions, Nappi said.
But the major draw for students was the free trip to California.
"It was an incredible experience," Penny Enomoto '08 said. "Who wouldn't want to go? I got to see incredible huge telescopes, went hiking. On top of that, the physics department paid for everything."
"It was a really great trip," Nappi said. "I think that everybody got something out of it."
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