Summer project ideas? Possibly a cyclotron?

WormBanshee

I'm looking for some sort of project to do this summer. I was looking around, and I heard about making a small, home-made cyclotron, but it sounds like materials would be hard to get and expensive.

So, does anyone have any examples of a great, preferably time-consuming project that I could complete over the next two months? Something about particle physics, or electromagnetism, waves/optics, or even just a fun contraption to build to study/demonstrate classical mechanics would be cool.

I'm a third year Math/Physics double major with a minor in computer science, so I have some amount of skill/experience and would prefer to tackle a more difficult and interesting project. Preferably a project that wouldn't be too expensive.

Thank you, any suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated (especially if you can explain or give a link to an explanation of how to do it).

Aero51

Build a Pulsejet or if you're into electricity an ionocraft!

Bobbywhy

particle physics: Wilson cloud chamber

electromagnetism: magnetic Foucault Pendulum interacting with terrestrial magnetic field

waves/optics: spectrograph to measure emission and absorption lines of sunlight

WormBanshee

Thanks :) these all seem like cool ideas.

manueldois

A Betatron.

Its an electron particle accelerator and easy and simple to build if you'r not aiming for very high energies.
You can find info about on the wiki and google books.
I just don't have the tools to build that... if you succeed show us what you made :)