Ideas Definition and 855 Threads

So I'm a third year EE student and we have this thing called a "group project", where we work part times in groups of 2-3 students on a topic. Anyways I have been reading up a bit on plasmonics and I find it very interesting, so I was wondering if anyone might have an idea of some sort of...

For a science project we have to make an ''egg protector''. It has to have: -parachute and -base to hold egg in (I just joined 30 minutes ago and could not find a forum like this. So sorry if this is a duplicate.) Aaaaaanyways, our group has to drop it from a 5m tall height, the...

FQXi was set up to support research gambits with a chance of success but unconventional enough they wouldn't be funded thru normal channels. It has private money. We may be able to learn something by looking at the abstracts (brief summaries) of the grant winners' proposals. Here is the...

I have to teach Tires to my class and I want to do something innovative and new that will tie into Physics. Please help and any ideas you have that I could use would be greatly appreciated

I'm taking HL Chem and need to submit my research question proposal tomorrow. Any suggestions? A creative but doable research question. Thank you!

For example, here's a e-mail I recently sent to a professor. ""Hello Professor XX, Do you know if any theoretical work has been done on the atmospheric evolution of a tidally locked planet facing a red dwarf star? Especially a planet whose atmosphere freezes over on the cold side, but...

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum, I'm in my final semester studying control systems and need to design something for my project class.I was thinking of building a miniature door frame with a door that opens and closes electronically while controlled by momentary on and off pushbuttons. But what...

Hi Please don't give me another warning for posting in a wrong forum. Seriously, in my view this belong here in "General Discussion" forum. Where I'm placed these days here we have electricity blackouts several times a day, sometimes for as long as 3 hours at one time. My laptop could run...

Hi all! I've been doing a lot of quantitative analysis on research work (PhD) within the social science domain. this has involved extensive identification and explanations on any repeating themes, linkages and whether they relate and patterns between two variables. as part of this I have...

I came across this problem on another forum. Seems to be very tough. The only trivial facts are: m is of the form 4x+3 for n>1 a trivial solution (n,m) is (0,2) for n even, m^m-1 is divisible by 3 for n odd, m^m-2 is divisible by 3 any ideas?

This may not be the best place to ask, but anyways, in class we are doing an independent project. We need to analyse a technological device that uses the properties of gravitational, electrical, and/or magnetic fields (eg. MRI machine, particle accelerator, zero gravity experiments), and explain...

Camera "clicker" I need to take a picture every 5-60 seconds for about 2.5 hours. The problem is, I won't be near my camera when I do that. I want to make something to attach to the "clicker" or whatever it's called on the camera that will click it about that often. The button definitely...

One of our college's physics seniors scored poorly on the physics subject GRE and is looking for something to do for a year while s/he studies for, and retakes this test. Our student would like to find an appropriate position at a lab (academic, industrial, government...) which provides enough...

I have a huge 3rd year design lab unit coming up for the next semester. The lab is very much independent work, and I would like something in nuclear physics (preferable in plasma physics). But I have barely any experience coming up with a hypothesis/experiment of my own. Do you guys have...

Any one have any ideas or suggestions for beginner model rockets? I eventually want to make my own.

I'm looking for a way to measure force or impulse during collisions. I'm working on a project involving football helmets and collisions since it's in the news and was looking for suggestions regarding easily obtainable equipment I can possibly use to measure force or impulse during various...

I am in a class where we are studying concepts and design of programming languages. For a project we are suppose to design our own programming language or come up with some alternative project idea to do for the class. So, my question is... do ya'll have any ideas for an interesting and...

I've had a number of ideas for inventions lately. I lack a strong background in physics and chemistry to an advanced level so please try and forgive me for my ignorance as I would like to learn what I can at an appropriate pace and enjoyable manner. Sorry if to some of you more familiar with the...

Hi all, I'm writing a sci-fi story for a competition, are there any more realistic ideas of what accident can LHC cause that has massive impact on the whole earth? currently, my idea is the formation of massive black holes from quantum ones which led to the Earth being swallowed. How...

Hi All, How do I begin with this long and complicated story? I am a forth year college student majoring in physics. I began college as an architecture student, made some life-altering realizations during first year that it is not truly progress at all, just a rehashing of shapes/art school...

My mom teaches high school physics (standard level and honors/AP). I want to get her a gift that will help her in the classroom. It could be a piece of lab equipment (nothing over a few hundred dollars) or a book of experiments, or even a display that goes on a wall that students would find...

I am just a beginner of programming and till now I have done much simple programming, just like printing multiplication tables or different sequences of (*) using FOR Loop. Now, last week, my teacher introduced us to the new graphics mode of the Turbo C, and at the end of a lesson, she asked...

John Huchra Dies at 61; Maps Altered Ideas on Universe http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/us/14huchra.html?hpw

Hello... I am studying electrical engineering, with my colleagues i want to make a workshop in my university, but it's the first time we do such an activity, so we don't have ideas that may attract engineers and students from other universities... If anyone has some ideas, please share them...

Hi, I've been mulling over an idea (you know how it is, just to keep the grey matter ticking) on how to build a device for tracking...well anything... from hunting dogs to humans. The device would include a GPS (lat, long, altitude, vert & horz accuracy, UTC time) to give bearing over time...

I was wondering how you could turn an RC aircraft out to a water bomber?? I thought of installing a container in the fuselage where water could be filled but can't think of how to get water out. Any suggestions on that or any other ideas of loading the water?

Is there a material/metal that will safely react with another catalyst (fuel) material which will cause the material/metal to become very hot? They should be: - cheap materials - safe and non-toxic (before and after reaction) - controllable and long lasting reaction Looking forward to some...

Hey guys. I am required to do a presentation in physics (obviously) for about 15 mins or so. They haven't specified any parameters so what the topic can be is flexible. I wanted to something along the lines of physics that could be used in some emerging technology e.g. spintronics. Any...

hi!... friends.. am new to this phyisics forum.. can anyone assist me in doing ma final year project? please give me some basic ideas to start with... thanks in advance..

hey guys, We have a design project where we are supposed to design something cool to machine and later auction it off. My group has already come up with a plan to build a small stirling engine. I've been thinking if there could be anything we can add on to it, like a useful/fun addon...

I am a physics undergrad (senior) with an interest in optics participating with three other undergrads (ME, EE, and CS) in a solar spectrograph build. It is a pilot program sponsored by NASA that will hopefully turn into a national competition. In addition to observing as many absorption lines...

Hi, I have a device in my chest that is similar in design to a pacemaker; except that I have a coil that goes from my chest to my brain. It is called a Vegas Nerve Stimulator. I want to work with grade N-52 magnets, but I am not even allowed to have a MRI because the magnetic energy would kill...

Hi, I am having a hard time figuring out an idea I can use as my senior project in High School. I am currently in an Honors level physics class and the school year has just begun so we haven't learned much yet but. I am very interested in physics. So if anyone could help me with some ideas it...

I've finished my cedar deck and now wish to cover it with a pergola. Trouble is, my requirements are, at first glance, mutually incompatible. I want it to be rain-proof but I don't want it to be so solid that it looks and sounds like a solid roof. I've been looking at these corrugated...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rummaging-for-a-final-theory I cannot see anything new at all there. I hope other people here can help me see something relevant here. I found this while checking Garrett's twitter.

not sure if this is in the right section, but anyways, here it goes. I am going to apply for the Siemens Competition scholarship, and I need a research topic to use. I am a junior in high school, I prefer physics and chemistry. here are the allowed topics. Astrophysics Biochemistry...

There exist such interesting issue as intercalation, which seems to allow, for example, to store 4.4 intercalated Li ions per one (!) Silicon atom.The latest is a host material.I think if there will be found a material which would allow to store the same ratio of intercalated hydrogen ions...

if you have an idea on how to exceed the light barrier please post.

Hi, I am in grade 12 and this will be my last piece (and most important) of chemistry assessment. For this assigment we need to choose a quantitative experiment (ie. determining fluroide content in toothpaste, or a wine analysis etc) and then do introductory research on the background...

I've been working through the book The Story of i(sqrt of -1). It's kinda like a story with a lot of Math. The first 2 chapters deal with cubics and geometry for solving cubics functions. I understand the algebra behind it but I'm getting lost with the big picture. I need a supplemental book or...

Hi guys, I'm getting the ball-n-chain a laptop. She's starting law school soon and I think it will help a lot with being able to easily take data from school to home, vice versa, along with just giving her some more flexibility. I was hoping to get some input as to some brands/models that I...

I wanted some ideas on how to heat mud to very high temperatures to kill off some unwanted organisms living in it. A roofing torch used for 2.5 seconds on a 2ftx2ft area worked really well, but now I want to heat up mud to high temperatures on a much larger scale. One idea: an asphalt heater...

Alright, so I'm kinda new to posting here, sorry if I don't understand things fully at this time. As for questions, I have a few of them. Firstly, what is the force of gravity at the event horizon of a black hole. Since photons have no mass, what would be the force required to trap it...

So I (like probably everyone else in the world) am pretty lost on the idea of gravity. I've ready plenty stating it doesn't exist, blah blah blah. Maybe I'm holding onto what i see with my eyes too firmly, but I'm under the impression it IS real. I, however, would like a few things. I'd like a...

im a student of aeronautical engineering..im really interested to do some projects regarding aerospace topics...i dun get a good guidance here...i really wish if somebody can help wid some ideas or support...

Hello! Is there a good math or physics topic for me to study and learn this summer? I have already taken freshman physics 1 and 2 (basic mechanics and electromagnetism) Calc 1&2, and Diff Eq. In the fall, Ill be taking Calc 3, Intermediate Physics, and Advanced Mechanics, so is there something...

Link posted to CHEMED-L, I think it may be interesting: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas/ Before it was NCLB policy and teaching to the test, whoever survived and actually learned something will be now treated by student evaluated education.

I'm skipping most the details so no need to inquire -- I have finished my first year of grad school in physics and am not going to join a group until the first quarter of next year. Until then I will be taking classes and teaching; in the summer I only do the latter. I don't have qualifiers to...

History repeats itself examples; any ideas? (please!) Can please give me any ideas about examples ‘history repeating itself’ in Indian history? It’s for my history project on “History Repeats Itself”. Our teacher told us to collect the information from the internet but in spite of googling I...

Folks, I do Logic design and verification of Multi-core chips for a living (4th year in Semiconductor/Computer HW industry). I don't have much of a background in Physics outside my high school and some Applied Physics courses that I took in BS-EE and MS-EE. I don't covet a PhD in Physics, all I...