“Experimental AMO is an opportunity for you to see all the wacky things they promise you happen in physics theory classes. “Your professors weren't lying when they say atoms behave really weirdly,” Zhang says. He also enjoys seeing physics come to life. His current research involves trying to implement a simple quantum algorithm in real life through an experiment on a single ion of the element strontium. As Zhang explains, while everything is made up of atoms and molecules, AMO physics examines the uniquely atomic and molecular properties that occur at very low temperatures, or when a single atom is trapped in free space, for example. Since his junior year, Zhang has worked in the lab of Isaac Chuang focusing on quantum information, as well as atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. “Or you want to solve it just because you can.”Ī desire to understand the world around him is what drives Zhang’s studies, as well as his research. “Sometimes problems just stick and then you just have to solve it,” he says. “But I do physics, so that is not an acceptable answer.” While everyone else carried on playing the game, Zhang says he worked out that the sunset should be delayed by a few minutes at their current height. “Usually people will think, ‘Maybe that’s it,’ and move on,” says Zhang. Someone suggested it was because they were up so high. Once, while playing a board game with some friends on the 30th or so floor of an apartment building, Zhang says the group noticed that the sun seemed to be setting later than would be expected. Trying to understand the science underlying an observation is something Zhang thinks about often in everyday life. “Computers are cool and math is fun, but I really like this particular way of thinking - being able to understand something from first principles.” “What draws me to these academic fields is that I tend to be pretty analytical,” he says. Zhang says his double major allowed him to pursue all three of his academic interests, forming what he calls a “math and friends umbrella.” At MIT, he is double-majoring in physics and mathematics with computer science, and minoring in music. Zhang has since pondered the science behind many more observations - and played scales of a more traditional variety. So I wondered if I could make an entire scale.” When he succeeded, Zhang says he wanted to know how it worked. “A rubber band produces a different pitch when you pluck it, depending on the material and depending on the tension. “When I was little, I would stretch rubber bands across cabinet and drawer handles,” says Zhang. Senior Tony Zhang says his curiosity about physics was piqued by an unlikely source: a rubber band.
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