I actually just finished my IB EE in physics this week (good choice by the way, I honestly think it's the easiest subject for the EE), basically the best advice I can give you is do something simple and do a good job of it! I would say doing an experimental essay would be the best choice for...
Yup, simply use the right hand rule. You know the current is going to the right (positive x) and to levitate the rod you would need a force going up (positive y). So by using the right hand rule you should be able to find the direction of the magnetic field.
I thought I could possibly use Poisson's ratio for rubber to calculate it, but I'm not sure what formula I could use. This might even just be too complicated for my level right now.
Assuming you caught your bus we can make the two displacements equal each other:
displacement of bus = displacement of you - 16m
d1 = d2-16
v1t+0.5at² = v2t-16
Then solve for t. There's probably other ways of solving this algebraically, this is just the first one I thought of.
Don't forget: the string makes an angle of 28.0^\circ with the vertical. In your work you decided to change that so it's 28 degrees to the horizontal for some reason. (I'm hoping I read the question correctly, this is my first time on the forum)
I'm in the middle of doing an experiment where I find the heat dissipation by hysteresis through the stretching of an elastic band. I have experimentally found out how much heat is dissipated, but I was wondering if there is a way to theoretically find out the dissipated heat, most likely by...