GUIDELINES AND TIMELINE

Your term paper can be written on any topic that incorporates both physics and musical sound. The best topic to choose is one that you are enthusiastic to learn more about and write about. Your paper should be written at a level suitable for a general audience. Science articles published in good newspapers or news magazines (e.g. The New York Times, The Economist) provide a good model for writing style.  Links to some excellent papers written for this course by previous students are provided below.

Your paper should be about 10 pages long, typewritten. You should research your topic yourself, and use from 5 to 10 different sources. These can be websites, but you need to be very careful that they are high quality sites, containing reliable information. Books and journal articles are also appropriate sources.

 

ITEM TO BE SUBMITTED	DUE ON
Title	M 3/23
One-page proposal, including ~ 5 sources	F 4/10
Draft version of paper (optional)	M 4/20
Signed application form for the Knight Prize competition. CLICK HERE for the application form.	M 4/27
FINAL VERSION. Submit the final version of your paper BY EMAIL to Dr. Selby AND to Curran. , Name your file Lastname_FirstName.pdf.  Use PDF format. Use PAGE NUMBERS, make sure that we can see the figures. Include YOUR NAME, "PHYSICS 1204 / MUSIC 1466", and "DR. SELBY" on the title page of the paper. EARLY SUBMISSIONS WILL BE GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED!	W 5/6, 12 noon

THE KNIGHT PRIZE, AND SOME EXAMPLES OF EXCELLENT TERM PAPERS FOR YOU TO READ

Curran and Dr Selby will select three papers to be considered for the Knight Prize for Writing in the Majors:

"Awards of $300 each are offered for excellent expository writing in First-Year Writing Seminars, Sophomore Seminars, Expository Writing, and Writing in the Majors sections....Student essays are eligible for possible submission in DISCOVERIES, the Knight Institute's annual magazine of student prize-winning essays."

Physics 1204 / Music 1466 students have won the prize six times before, you can read their papers online:

Christian Madera (Spring 2008), "From the Churches to the Jails: The Majestic Profanity of the Hammond Organ"

Julia Adolphe (Spring 2007), "The Physical Spell of Gregorian Chant"

Jill McCoy (Spring 2006), "Piob Mhor Revealed: The Story and Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe"

Heng Du (Spring 2005), "Songs of Lazarus: Chime Bells of Marquis Yi and Acoustics of Bronze Age China"

Paul Hine (Spring 2004), "Musical Sound beneath the Waves"

Josh Rosenfeld (Spring 2002), "Some Physics of Whispered Inanga"

Your class has a tough act to follow, but great things are expected! Here are some more excellent term papers for you to read:

Lisa Park (Spring 2008), "Waves Underwater: The Sounds of Whales and Dolphins"

Mary Byatt (Spring 2007), "Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Armonica: Unraveling the Mystery behind the Music"

Nathan Ward (Spring 2005), "Synthesizers: The Evolution of Sound"

Peter Flynn (Spring 2004), "Nonlinearity and Chaos in Cymbal Sounds"

Liz Gall (Spring 2004), "Song from Steel: The Peculiar Acoustics of the Steel Pan Drum"