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which is struck with a hammer. The resulting strain pulses higher frequencies takes care of most of the discrepancies
are amplified and presented on an oscilloscope, permitting that would otherwise appear. Incidentally, pressing dry ice
Polaroid photographs to be taken by the students. Not only against a red hot bar results in a noise that is somewhat
is it thus demonstrated that transients really do travel up disturbing to classes going on in the building at the time!
and down the bar, but it is also shown that there is distor- We hope to develop a number of additional non-electri-
tion of the pulse due to the difficulty of getting a good cal experiments in the future, and we have been very
square blow on the end of the bar, and that there is ex- pleased with the results of the two we have performed so
traneous reflection due to the mounting arrangements and far.
to the presence of the strain gauges themselves.
Another experiment utilizes an alternating heat wave. CONCLUSION
Thermistors are mounted in two positions on an alumi- The course in "Traveling Waves" offered in the second
num bar and are connected into bridge circuits. The end semester of the junior year at the University of New
of the bar is alternately heated with a torch and cooled Mexico successfully teaches the student the principles of
with dry ice. The result is a more-or-less square heat wave distributed-constant circuits and in addition introduces him
traveling down the bar. Because of the increased attenua- to the use of the transmission line technique in solving a
tion of the higher frequencies, it appears almost sinusoidal wide variety of nonelectrical problems ranging from
at the thermistors, which are about half a wavelength from acoustics to chemical diffusion. At least as much benefit
the source. This experiment takes quite a while, because a results from "undepartmentalizing" the mechanical, ther-
period of six minutes is required to get reasonable wave- mal, and diffusion waves as from the actual knowledge
lengths. It is easy to make the low temperature side square, imparted in the course. The results of offering this course
but it is not at all easy to play the torch on the end of the for two years are quite satisfactory, and we intend to keep
bar in such a way that a square high temperature side of this course in our curriculum and to attempt to extend the
the wave results. It is fortunate that the attenuation of the analogies to some of our other courses.
electrical quantities. We thus proceed from field ideas to electric or a magnetic field. In the laboratory he learns
circuits and physical apparatus and to their mathematical how to compute deflection sensitivities, how the focussing
models. In this part of the course, we expect the student and intensity controls interact, and so on. Later on in the
to work problems such as: 1) forces in relays and sole- course, the lecture provides him with the concept of the
noids; 2) the external characteristics of dc motors and transfer function. In the laboratory he puts his knowledge
generators in the analysis of systems involving those to use in determining what configuration of components
machines (dc machines are introduced as one specific ex- (up to a maximum of three in number) lie within his two-
ample of energy conversion which can be treated in some terminal "black box."
detail along with general considerations of energy trans- In the laboratories connected with the upperclass electri-
ducers) ; 3) developing the expressions for the parameters cal engineering courses the reports are generally informal
L and C as appropriate for simple geometries, and then in nature. The student keeps a notebook, with his original
by successive approximations determining more exact re- data and write-up, which he turns in from time to time
lationships between input voltage and input current as to be graded. There are no rigid formats for the report.
the frequency becomes higher. We experimented with this type of write-up in the sopho-
This approach leads, near the end of the first semester, more course, but discovered that the reports in the upper-
directly to the more mathematical aspects of circuit theory, class years are far superior when the student has had a
and these occupy the remainder of the year. In this por- background in formal report writing. Therefore, this year
tion of the course the student studies network topology, we have returned to the formal write-up.
transients and the steady state in linear and some nonlinear Next fall we plan to continue with the laboratory ex-
networks, the use of phasors for steady-state ac analysis, periments once every two weeks. On the alternate weeks,
reduction techniques and network theorems, Fourier there will be supervised calculation periods intermingled
analysis, elementary zero-pole ideas, the design of audio with informal talks by an experienced member of the staff
and power transformers and polyphase circuits. In this on various phases of electrical engineering. We hope that
portion of the course, as well as in the first part, we have these talks will provide the student with a more specific
used an unorthodox approach. To cite a few examples: the notion of what an electrical engineer might do and will
complete solution to the differential equation for the circuit stimulate him by specifically illustrating how the material
is presented first, with concentration on the transient which he is encountering in lecture relates to practical
portions and the steady-state portions coming later; the electrical systems.
concept of Q is introduced from the energy definition,
without need for specifying the location of the dissipation THIS COURSE AS PREPARATION FOR UPPERCLASS COURSES
of energy; the zero-pole description of a network is em- At the end of his sophomore year, the student is far
phasized. As in the earlier portion of the course, the enough along with ideas and techniques that his succeeding
problems constitute an important part. courses can proceed rapidly. As a junior, he has a semester
During the second term of the sophomore year, the of energy conversion and control, a semester of engineer-
student also takes differential equations in the mathematics ing analysis, and a full year of communication systems
department and a physics course in electromagnetic theory and electronic circuits. Also, he takes a required course
which uses vector analysis freely and carries the student in functions of a complex variable and often elects further
further into the mathematical aspects of the subject. courses in physics. This is all basic preparation for the
The time devoted to the course is three lectures and senior year, when he takes physical electronics, communica-
one class during the first term, plus a three-hour labora- tion and control circuits, and chooses among courses in
tory, giving a total time of seven hours per week. In the servomechanisms, microwave tubes and circuits, switching
second term, the three lecture hours and the three laboratory theory and logical design, digital computation, and in-
hours provide a total time of six hours per week. In the dependent work.
class sections of the first term, the sophomore group is
divided into small sections of perhaps eight to ten students. EFFECTS ON THE STUDENTS
Instructors discuss with them informally the physical and The sophomore course is a difficult one for the students,
mathematical concepts which, in the lectures, are coming and we intentionally use it as a filter for the upperclass
at them at a rather rapid rate. We do not have the class courses, since we wish no student to be in the position of
section in the second term because the nature of the work finding as a senior that he should not be an electrical engi-
is more mathematical than physical, and we feel that the neer at all. By and large, the response of the students has
student can best benefit by using the time to solve more shown that they enjoy the challenge, and in rising to meet
problems on his own. it, they are developing more rapidly than before. We cer-
The laboratory experiments are designed to supplement tainly do not offer our particular plan of study as the
the lecture material. For example, in the first part of the only, or the best, solution to our original problem with its
course, the student experiments with oscilloscopes which pressures and constraints. The approach that we have
are designed especially for the purpose. From the lecture described is, we feel, one of the logical ones, and we have
he can calculate the forces on an electron stream in an now tested its practical application to our own satisfaction.