Alexander builds and flies remote control airplanes, plays the bagpipe, and performed as a dancer at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He'd like to pursue a career as a theoretical physicist. Alexander says, "I love solving puzzles and designing my own theories of how things work."
Alexander became fascinated with quantum physics in general and the photoelectric effect in particular. He enjoyed experimenting and wanted to learn more.
Alexander built an apparatus that heated a zinc plate. He mounted it on an electroscope, which measured the number of photoelectrons emitted. He charged the plate by rubbing silk against a PVC pipe and then rubbing the pipe against the zinc plate. He then heated the plate to different temperatures and recorded how long it took the electroscope to read zero – that is, until the plate had spent its charge. As he hypothesized, a heated plate discharged photoelectrons much faster than a cool plate.
