IB Physics Project Ideas - Analytical or Experimental?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around selecting a topic for an extended essay in IB Physics, with a focus on whether to pursue an experimental or theoretical approach. Participants explore various ideas and suggestions for potential projects within the constraints of the essay's word limit and timeframe.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a preference for a theoretical project, suggesting classical field theory as a potential area of interest but seeks further ideas.
  • Another participant suggests considering programming to model physical phenomena, offering examples such as the movement of charges in electromagnetic fields and gravitational interactions between masses.
  • Suggestions for experimental topics include Stefan's Law related to ice growth and incorporating meteorological data.
  • A participant indicates a lack of programming skills, which may limit their ability to pursue modeling projects.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants have not reached a consensus on a specific project topic, and multiple competing ideas and preferences for theoretical versus experimental approaches remain evident.

Contextual Notes

Participants have varying levels of experience and knowledge in physics, which may influence their suggestions and preferences. The discussion does not resolve the suitability of the proposed ideas or the feasibility of the projects within the given constraints.

Who May Find This Useful

Students in the IB program or similar educational tracks seeking inspiration for physics project topics, particularly those interested in the balance between theoretical and experimental approaches.

guitarphysics
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Hello, I'd really appreciate some opinions on this- I'll get a chance to do an extended essay for the IB program and I'm choosing physics, obviously. I'm not quite sure what to work on. I can choose to research something relating to experimental physics (where I design an experiment to find a relation between different physical quantities) or relating to theoretical physics (where I create a model for something, or maybe give an analytical discussion of a topic).

It can't be something too broad, since the essay has a word limit of 4000. I get about 6 months to do this project, so once I start I'll have a long time to learn stuff if I need to. I'd rather do something more theoretical than experimental. Any thoughts on what could be good? I'm thinking classical field theory could be interesting to look into, but I have no idea what I could do related to that subject.
 
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It might help to explain what level of education you have and what 'IB' is.
 
Yeah, you're right, sorry. IB is international baccalaureate- it's *sort of* like A levels.
I'm pretty advanced for a high school student- I know calc, classical mechanics (only a bit of Lagrangian stuff, though), undegrad level EM, and some relativity (as well as garden variety first year physics stuff- fluids, waves, etc.).
 
Do you know any programming? Then you could try to model something you find interesting.

Movement of charges in weird electromagnetic fields, start with something straight forward.

Two masses orbiting each other due to gravity, add in more objects or forces for more fun.

Voltage in some circuit.

Stefans Law, regarding growth of fresh ice floating on water. Add in heat fluxes, meteorological data for more fun.

This thread had some good suggestions as well: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=766646
 
Last edited:
Some really cool ideas, thanks! Unfortunately I suck at programming so I won't be able to model anything :(. But we'll see..
 

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