Electricity and Magnetism Project

[MMS]

Hello everyone.

For this semester's laboratory, we are required to work on a project on the topic of E&M (preferably).
They've given us freedom of choice as to what we want to work on and I was wondering if any of you guys know some interesting and cool topic we (me and my partner) can study and investigate (it includes experimenting it as well).

 

[M Quack]

Coin shrinking and can crushing come to mind...

Note that this requires voltages and energies that should not be handled after a few beers.
On the positive side you can learn a lot about safe handling of high voltages and powers.

 

[MMS]

Interesting. Could you elaborate? :P

 

[ZapperZ]

Interesting. Could you elaborate? :p

I think the person that needs to elaborate here is you.

1. You never clarify at what level you are at, and what you know. It is pointless to suggest something that is way beyond what you can do and comprehend.

2. You did not describe what equipment are available to you. Again, it will be a wasted effort to suggest you do something that you have no possibility of doing.

Zz.

 

[MMS]

I think the person that needs to elaborate here is you.

1. You never clarify at what level you are at, and what you know. It is pointless to suggest something that is way beyond what you can do and comprehend.

2. You did not describe what equipment are available to you. Again, it will be a wasted effort to suggest you do something that you have no possibility of doing.

Zz.

That was kind of a joke...

Anyway, I think the course I took in E&M was pretty much at the highest level it could be taught. We covered every chapter of Purcell's E&M book (we didn't spend too long on the 9th chapter of waves since we have a course of its own about it) so I believe the level is not bad. Feel free to throw anything interesting at me.

As for the equipment available, I can't tell you exactly what it is since we've only been at the laboratory once so far and we haven't taken a too deep of a tour around it since the whole project thing was just thrown at us. However, the instructor told us that they will do their best to provide us with whatever equipment needed.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear the first time. It's just that this is the first time I'm doing something this "serious" and I have no idea what to think.
I hope I made it clearer now...

 

[M Quack]

Both of these "use" currents in the "sample" that are induced by an external field coil that is energized rapidly. Doing the calculations for that is interesting and instructive.

For the actual experiment you need quite a bit of power, and capacitors that not everybody has sitting in the back of his attic.

Ask you instructor. Chances are that you are not the first one to come up with this idea.

 

[MMS]

Both of these "use" currents in the "sample" that are induced by an external field coil that is energized rapidly. Doing the calculations for that is interesting and instructive.

For the actual experiment you need quite a bit of power, and capacitors that not everybody has sitting in the back of his attic.

Ask you instructor. Chances are that you are not the first one to come up with this idea.

I've just read a little about it and seen some videos. It's incredibly awesome and interesting. However, I kind of doubt the instructor will alow it to happen (also by the guy in charge of the laboratory) seeing the experiment requires pretty high voltages and energies. But I'll check it out tomorrow with him, maybe miracles do happen. :p

Thanks by the way!I'd love to hear other interesting experiments for projects that could be done.

 

[M Quack]

Never underestimate the pleasure physicists take in blowing things up...

I guess can crushing can be done with less energy than coin shrinking.

These things can be done in a completely safe way, but it does take some effort (enclosure such that stuff does not fly all over the place, proper grounding, safety features on the HV system, ...). A lot of what I've seen on youtube videos was not exactly safe.

Learning about HV safety would be the most useful part of this experiment :-)