Oh The Joys. Physics Coursework

[BLUE_CHIP]

Oh The Joys... Physics Coursework

Right.

The time has come again.
To do yet another A-level Practical.

I need some ideas, and i would be in eternal debt to anyone who could come up with something interesting and hapefully mathematical which i could do.

It has to be able to be done with the sort of equipment you would find in an A-level physics lab. However any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

It can be anything. (within reason. I can't go to geneva, to put it another way)




Tankee

 

[Adrian Baker]

Well, as an A level teacher, the best advice I can give is do something you are interested in!

Some interesting investigations that we've done in recent years (since the new A2 syllabus came into existence) are:

- Sparks (conductivity) in low pressures (flask, electrodes, pump and 5000V supply)
- Gyroscopes and procession (Bike wheel with lead 'tyre')
- energy/absorption of Beta particles (measuring cylinder, water, GM tube)
- projectiles (replica Trebuchet with varying sling length)
- Millikan experiment
- Crater sizes (big sandpit and various projectiles)
- Optimum size of hole in a parachute
- Jumping Aluminium rings (electromagnetic induction)
- The efficiency of an electric motor.
- the energy stored in a clock spring (quite mathematical and challenging)

The list is endless really though. Anything will do. If you want something mathematical you could look at the velocity of falling bodies through fluids. One of my more mathematical students did this last year. You need a wide cylinder, some ball bearings and some fluids. There is a lot of maths, and a good few factors involved such as width of cylinder, mass of balls, viscosity, etc. Also, you have to measure only the Terminal Velocity part of the fall to get accurate results.

Give it a go!

 

[BLUE_CHIP]

Ta very much Adrian I shall have a look at some of them.

 

[Carly]

You're so fluffy
As to ideas, we can discuss that over MSN where I can appear to be very knowledgeable
xx