Fall 2009 Courses

Physics 161 - Physics I This course is a calculus-based introduction to physics. Students interested in majoring in physics, engineering, mathematics, computer science, or other sciences are likely to take this course. We concentrate mainly on classical mechanics as described by Isaac Newton. Fluids will be discussed at the end of the course.

Physics 436- Statistical Thermodynamics This is an upper-level course suited for students in physics, engineering, and possibly chemistry. We examine both the microscopic world of statistical mechanics and the macroscopic world of thermodynamics. The mathematical development of the theory is particularly stressed.

 

Past Courses

Lynchburg College (Fall 2002 - Spring 2008)

Physics 141 (lab) - College Physics (1 time)
Physics 142 (lab) - College Physics (1 time)
Physics 161 - Physics I (6 times)
Physics 162 - Physics II (6 times)
Physics 209 - Experimental Physics (1 time)
Physics 309 - Classical Mechanics (6 times)
Physics 318 - Quantum Mechanics (3 times)
Physics 333 - Computational Physics (4 times)
Physics 432 - Optics (2 times)
Physics 436 - Statistical Thermodynamics (3 times)

Recent Conferences, Workshops, and Short Courses

* Gave talk entitled Soccer Physics from Sheffield at the Fall Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, October 8-9, 2009. My talk won the Frank R. Haig Prize for best paper from a four-year college. Click here for my PowerPoint presentation.

* Attended the Gordon Research Conference called Physics Research and Education held at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, June 8-13, 2008. The focus of the conference was on computation and computer-based instruction. Click here for a conference photo (I am in the second row from the back, seventh over from the left.).

* Gave talk entitled Mathematica examples from the LC undergraduate physics curriculum at the Fall Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at Radford University in Radford, VA, November 2-3, 2007.  Click here for my PowerPoint presentation.

* Attended the Gordon Research Conference called Physics Research and Education held at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, June 11-16, 2006. The focus of the conference was on electricity and magnetism. Click here for a conference photo (I am in the fourth row from the bottom, eighth over from the left.).

* Gave talk entitled Three-Year Study of Tour de France Modeling at the Fall Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD, November 4-5, 2005.  Click here for my PowerPoint presentation.

* Attended the Gordon Research Conference called Nonlinear Science held at Colby College in Waterville, ME. The conference was held June 26 - July 1, 2005 and brought together the world's leading experts in nonlinear science. Click here for a conference photo (To find me, begin at the bottom right. Count four heads to the left and then four going back.).

* Attended the Activity Based Physics Faculty Institutes workshop at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. The workshop was held June 19-24, 2005 and focused on introductory physics teaching. Click here for a photo of the workshop group (I am on the far right of the back row.).

* I arranged for Lynchburg College to host the 2005 Spring Meeting of the Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The meeting was held March 11-12, 2005; meeting details can be found here. I gave a talk entitled Modern Application for Introductory Physics: Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. Click here for my PowerPoint presentation. Click here for a photo of me giving my talk and here for second photo.

* Gave talk entitled Check on Model Robustness: 2004 Tour de France at the Fall Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, November 5-6, 2004. My talk won the Frank R. Haig Prize for best paper from a four-year college. Click here for my PowerPoint presentation. The final two slides of the presentation are PDF files showing tables of results. Click here for the first and here for the second.

* Attended the Computational Physics for Physics Educators workshop held at Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ, July 11-17, 2004. The workshop was run by the National Computational Science Institute and focused on the use of computational techniques in physics education.

* Attended the Gordon Research Conference called Physics Research and Education held at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, June 13-18, 2004. The focus of the conference was on classical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. Click here for a conference photo (I am in the fifth row from the bottom, seventh over from the left.).

* Completed the National Science Foundation Chautauqua Short Course "Data Analysis and Visualization Using Mathematica" held at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN, May 16-18, 2004.

* Gave talk entitled Model of the 2003 Tour de France at the Spring Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at the National Science Foundation as part of the Washington Academy of Sciences Capital Science 2004, March 20-21, 2004. My talk won the Frank R. Haig Prize for best paper from a four-year college. Click here for my PowerPoint presentation. I got to meet and chat briefly with President Bush's science advisor, Dr. John Marburger, III. He serves as Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Click here for a photo of Dr. Marburger talking to conference participants; I am on the far right waiting to introduce myself.

* Completed the National Science Foundation Chautauqua Short Course "The History and Future of Aeronautics" held at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, CA, June 11-13, 2003. Click here for a picture of my Chautauqua class (I am the second from the left.).

* Attended the Workshop for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty held at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD, November 7-10, 2002.

* Attended the Workshop on Opportunities in Materials Theory held jointly at the National Science Foundation and Georgetown University, October 14-16, 2002.

* Gave talk entitled A FUN General Education Course: Physics of Sports at the Fall Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers held at Radford University, October 4-5, 2002. My talk won the Frank R. Haig Prize for best paper from a four-year college. Click here for a picture of me giving my talk. Click here for a picture of me receiving the best paper award. Click here for my PowerPoint presentation.

My current research work is in a couple of areas. I have an interest in the physics of sports.  My first book, Gold Medal Physics, is pitched at a level that does not exceed introductory physics.  I cover great moments in sports:  "The Play" from Cal's win over Stanford in 1982, Doug Flutie's "Hail Mary" pass in 1984, Lance Armstrong's incredible Tour de France feats, Bob Beamon's epic jump in 1968, Greg Louganis' (shown on cover) gold-medal diving in 1984 and 1988, Katarina Witt's majesty on ice, David Beckham's banana kicks in soccer, Al Oerter's Olympic dominance in the discus throw, and Taiho's legendary sumo triumphs.  I also unveil a College Football Prediction Contest.

I spent my first sabbatical (2008-09 academic year) as a member of Matt Carré's Sports Engineering Research Group at the University of Sheffield in England.  I developed codes to extract drag and lift coefficients from trajectory data of soccer balls (non-spinning and spinning) in flight.  Some of the lift coefficients Matt and I found are for spin parameters not yet tested in today's wind tunnels.

Brandon Cook, who graduated from Lynchburg College in May of 2007, worked with me on a project that involved determining rules of thumb for successful soccer kicks.  We examined the free kick and the corner kick.

During the summer of 2007, LC physics major Crystal Moorman worked with me on a project dealing with computational gravity.  Before the summer got going, we published a paper that dealt with the golden ratio in a coupled-oscillator system.

During the summers of 2003 and 2004, I worked with Benjamin Lee Hannas (LC '03) on a model that predicts stage-winning times in the Tour de France. Our models did quite well; we missed the overall time in 2003 by just 0.03% and the overall time in 2004 by just 0.05%. Our Tour de France work was the subject of a newspaper article that appeared in the July 14, 2005 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  Click here for a copy of the article.

As a long-term project, I am learning what is called the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. FDTD is a popular method in computational electrodynamics.

Publications since coming to Lynchburg College:

• Gold Medal Physics, John Eric Goff, The Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2010.  ISBN:  9780801893216 (hardback), 9780801893223 (paperback)
• Trajectory analysis of a soccer ball, John Eric Goff and Matt J. Carré, American Journal of Physics 77 (11), 1020-1027 (2009). (PDF version)
• Golden ratio in a coupled-oscillator problem, Crystal M. Moorman and John Eric Goff, European Journal of Physics 28 (5), 897-902 (2007).  (PDF version)
• Parameter space for successful soccer kicks, Brandon G. Cook and John Eric Goff, European Journal of Physics 27 (4), 865-874 (2006). (PDF version)
• Inclined-plane model of the 2004 Tour de France, Benjamin Lee Hannas and John Eric Goff, European Journal of Physics 26 (2), 251-259 (2005). (PDF version)
• Heuristic model of air drag on a sphere, John Eric Goff, Physics Education 39 (6), 496-499 (2004). (PDF version)
• Turning Around Newton's Second Law, John Eric Goff, The Science Education Review 3 (3), 97-102 (2004). (PDF version)
• Model of the 2003 Tour de France, Benjamin Lee Hannas and John Eric Goff, American Journal of Physics 72 (5), 575-579 (2004). (PDF version)
• A Fun General Education Physics Course: Physics of Sports, John Eric Goff, The Physics Teacher 42 (5), 280-283 (2004). (PDF version)

My thesis research at Indiana created a theory for the photon-drag effect in simple metals. Under the direction my advisor, Bill Schaich, my work represented the first fully quantum-mechanical calculation of the static second-order surface response. Now, what is photon drag? Well, when light hits a metal, some of the light's momentum is transferred to the metal upon reflection. Free electrons pick up that momentum ("dragged" by the light) and currents are established parallel to the metal's surface. The light cannot go too far into the metal, so the electrons are pushed only a little ways perpendicular to the surface (that leads to a voltage).

Publications of thesis work at Indiana University:

• Theory of the photon-drag effect in simple metals, John Eric Goff and W. L. Schaich, Physical Review B 61 (15), 10471-10477 (2000). (PDF version)
• Hydrodynamics theory of photon drag, John Eric Goff and W. L. Schaich, Physical Review B 56 (23), 15421-15430 (1997). (PDF version)