Undergrad Research Opportunities - Ideas Needed

[CAF123]

I am in my second year of my undergraduate studies and I am involved in a research society. Does anybody know of/can recommend any projects that I could do ?(either individually or part of a group). I am not sure of all the apparatus/instrumentation that the university has, so any ideas would be great and I can check later.

Many thanks.

 

[CWatters]

On another forum I recently saw this paper referenced. It appears to be a simple LENR type experiment. If you feel like risking your future career it might be interesting to replicate, improve or disprove...

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...RvbWFpbnxvaGlvdG9pb3xneDpjZGMzM2VjNGQwY2ExZDc

Interesting results but needs calorimetry.

 

[Drakkith]

What area of science?

 

[CAF123]

@Drakkith I am probably looking to do something in experimental physics/applied physics
@CWatters thanks for your suggestion, I'll check it out.

 

[CAF123]

Two things that I have come up with myself are:
1) Place a coin in a vacuum bell jar (or some other sort of vacuum container) and use a stroboscopic camera to measure variations in the spin frequency of a particular coin and see if this changes depending on the coin used.
This is just an idea - i'am not sure if the apparatus will be sensitive enough or how I will set the coin in motion initially.
2) Use a torsion balance to essentially replicate the experiment by Cavendish ( ie I believe he measured the density of Earth and G )

I am not sure if either of these two experiments are realistically plausible. Can anyone offer some advice?
Many thanks.

 

[Bobbywhy]

I am in my second year of my undergraduate studies and I am involved in a research society. Does anybody know of/can recommend any projects that I could do ?(either individually or part of a group). I am not sure of all the apparatus/instrumentation that the university has, so any ideas would be great and I can check later.

Many thanks.

Since your interest is clearly strong, I encourage you to continue onwards. You say "I am not sure of all the apparatus/instrumentation that the university has". Since your project depends largely on these, why have you not discovered what resources are available?

Every University has professors with "favorite" projects or subjects of interest. Why have you not spoken with them? If your (group's) project is in the area of interst of one of the faculty's, then it seems that resources and support would become available, not to mention the technical expertise.

Has your research society any guidelines for selection of projects? Are there any senior members of your society who might suggest projects?

Do let us know here on PF about the progress of your research...share your results!

Cheers,
Bobbywhy

 

[CAF123]

Hi Bobbywhy,
Our deadline for project ideas is the end of October. By then we need to have submitted our ideas, assessed the cost of the materials and have some sort of idea of how to get hold of them; either by the university or buying them in.
One of our members had the thought of creating a linear particle accelerator from scratch and then using it to examine substructure of materials and how electron bombardment is affected by the material.
We do have a senior member of the society; she essentially advises us on the feasibility of the experiments and the liklihood of attaining such apparatus for experimentation. When I brought up my two ideas posted on my last thread, she said the apparatus for the coin experiment might be a bit costly and that the torsion balance would be something to consider because she has not seen this before in a sort of lab environment.

 

[CAF123]

Our group decided to investigate why hot water freezes faster than cold water. Would anyone have any good links that could describe some experiments, any of the background theory etc.. Or ideas that we could try?

 

[jtbell]

A Google search for "Mpemba effect" might turn up something.