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HM Senior Publishes Scientific Article

In case you missed it, the online newsletter scarsdale10583.com recently reported that a Horace Mann School senior has published a scientific article on arXiv.org. arXiv.org is “a free distribution service and an open-access archive for [millions of] scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.” It is maintained and operated by Cornell Tech, a “technology, business, law, and design campus located on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan.”

From scarsdale10583.com:

Ram Narayanan Publishes Scientific Article

Scarsdale resident and senior at Horace Mann School Ram Narayanan recently published his work “Role of Long-Range van der Waals Interaction in the Coefficient of Static Friction,” in the open-access archive, arXiv.org.

We are very familiar with static friction in our everyday life:  when you try to slide a heavy sofa on the floor, the resistance from the floor that keeps the sofa in place is static friction. The relative strength of static friction between any two materials, such as ice-on-ice or aluminum-on-wood, is described by a factor called the coefficient of static friction. Selecting materials with low coefficients of static friction is critical in fields like engineering, with 2D van der Waals materials like graphene emerging as top choices for this purpose. Although the coefficient of static friction is a very important quantity in engineering and electronics, currently, there is no theoretical method to predict the coefficient of static friction between two surfaces. In addition, the role of intermolecular forces such as van der Waals forces in the origin of macroscopic static friction is not well-understood.

Ram developed a new model on the premise that the primary forces that contribute to static friction between two 2D van der Waals materials are Casimir forces, which are quantum mechanical van der Waals forces with relativistic contributions. He then went on to calculate the van der Waals forces between two layers of van der Waals materials, with which he derived a theoretical equation for the coefficient of static friction that generally agreed with experimental results. In his work, Ram found that the coefficient of static friction does not depend on the electromagnetic properties of the surfaces, but instead only on how they are shaped. The equation he has derived has a plethora of uses in the fields of nanotechnology and nanoengineering, where scientists are struggling to reduce the static friction between small parts. Whereas scientists and engineers previously had to test the coefficients of static friction for novel materials using experiments, Ram’s results would allow them to predict these coefficients computationally.

Ram worked on the project under the guidance of his mentors, who are the other three authors in his research paper. Most of his work was conducted during his summer stay in Carbondale, Illinois. Prior to the publication, Ram has already presented his work at numerous events including the Southern Illinois University Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Conference, the Horace Mann School SciTech symposium, and the Berkeley Carroll Multischool Research Conference, for which he was his school’s designated keynote speaker. The Terra NYC STEM Fair honored his work by awarding him Third Place in the Physics & Space category.

Outside of physics, Ram is enthusiastic about physics and astronomy, and he particularly enjoys bringing his learning to others. At Horace Mann School, he is the president of the Physics Club as well as the build coordinator and Astronomy competitor for the Science Olympiad team, in both of which he has competed for more than three years. He has been a longtime volunteer science educator at the Hudson River Museum, where he currently mans the solar telescope and spectral tube demonstrations for visitors. In his free time, Ram enjoys ultimate frisbee, violin, and Indian carnatic singing.