Help with IB Extended Essay Physics Experiment Ideas

[utp9]

TL;DR Summary

Need help with ideas for an experiment for my investigation for an essay and need some advice on any experiments that have abundant background theory & info available online

E.g. pendulums & harmonic motion, slippage down an inclined plane, etc.

I'm having trouble coming up with a experiment to investigate for my IB Extended Essay as well as formulating my research question. Does anyone have any recommendations on similar (in terms of classical physics & abundance of background theory) physics experiments that can be done?

 

[russ_watters]

Can you provide the details of the assignment?

 

[utp9]

Can you provide the details of the assignment?

Sure!

"The IB Extended Essay, or EE, is a mini-thesis, you will choose a research question as a topic, conduct the research independently, then write an essay on your findings. The essay itself is (maximum) 4000 words."

I'm doing mine in classical physics and looking for some inspiration for an experiment to base mine around.

 

[berkeman]

I'm doing mine in classical physics and looking for some inspiration for an experiment to base mine around.

• Build your own sextant and compare your position data gathered by using it versus your cellphone GPS location
• Build your own mechanical clock, powered either by a spring or by weights (like a grandfather clock). Experimentally determine the accuracy of your clock and suggest improvements that could be made
• Build your own accelerometer, and make measurements of the acceleration of several different cars (and convert those measurements into dynomometer-type plots of horsepower vs. RPM)
• Wind your own springs with different materials, and conduct tests to correlate your initial calculations for their characteristics versus how they actually turned out. See this post by @jrmichler for example:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-shape-and-heat-treat-diy.994837/post-6406851