Physics Shopping

I was lucky enough to win the prize for physics and the maths prize at school in this years prize giving and with this comes £10 for each prize to buy a book each. So I started the book hunt by finding various different recommended reading lists and then by trawling though pages and pages of books from amazon and waterstones. In the end I had a lot more than than just 2 books but the problem was, the first time this has ever been a problem rather than a positive, they were all less than £10! In the end I bought 6 books...

The first was 'the universe in a nutshell' because Steven Hawkins seems to be statutory reading for physics students and it looks like a good book to receive as a prize. I hope that I read it all before it becomes a chore but that seems increasingly unlucky as my pile of articles and magazines increases...

The second was for the maths prize 'Does God Play Dice', I chose it partly because it is by Ian Stewart and also because it is about chaos theory which is quite physicsy. It will probably be a good idea to have read this by the time I get to any interviews, that and have finished Fermats Last Theorem considering how much I talk about how much I love maths!

And then I really didn't have to buy anymore books but this one was far too tempting! It was recommend to me years ago when I used to go to gifted and talented lectures on Saturday mornings in London. It was only £2.00 so it would have been stupid not to really! Its all about dimensions, all the reviews said how good it is and it's only 99 pages! I really can't wait for this to arrive, I think I'll read this one first!

All the websites I read recommended the Richard Feynmen lectures so I really had to buy one and since wave particle duality is something that makes my head spin I decided to try this one first! I'm really looking forward to this one too!

Of course I didn't buy 6 books all for myself so this next one is for my nerdy physics buddy since its her birthday next week! I hope she likes it but I'm pretty sure she will because really who couldn't, its got to be awesome right?!

And the last book is for my friend for Christmas even though its months away but her name is Alex and she's applying to do maths and university so I couldn't resist!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Neutrinos

I have been wanting to write a post about the neutrinos discovery for a while but of course that would require a lot of research which I didn't exactly have time for so I waited. Of course if this is true then it will be revolutionary which is a little scary but mostly exciting!

I just finished watching this programme on BBC iplayer and it explains the whole thing beautifully. What we previously have thought and why, how the experiment worked and what they found, what this could mean all in 50 min and it doesn't feel rushed at all. A really enjoyable programme and I just can't wait to find out how it all ends! I only had a vague understanding before watching this so really think it's great for beginners!

Near the end of the video they start talking about string theory a bit and it seems that I absolutely dislike the idea of it completely but keep getting drawn in. I understand that maybe there are more dimensions in the bulk (the bit outside of our universe) and we just can't imagine it because its like nothing we've seen but it seems so impossible! Its like the first time I found out that time isn't constant but the feeling just doesn't go away!

This video describes the dimensions idea quite nicely.

More Excuses...

Here I am again after a few weeks of no posts and I feel the need to explain my absence. Though of course it is of no interest to you at all, it makes me feel better if my laziness is justified! Well not exactly laziness because I really have been doing physics! Almost too much physics in fact!

So a lot of time was taken up with my UCAS form. Even though I told you that I had finished my personal statement it turns out that my teacher had other ideas... After returning it to her several times I finally managed to convince her that the day before the deadline was really leaving it late enough and off it went! I was happy with my personal statement at the time and of course I was over the moon with my choices but now I feel anxious and edgy whenever I think about it. Was I too enthusiastic? And is my statement really anything more than mediocre? I made the fatal mistake of offering to read through some other peoples statements at school and couldn't help but notice if they sounded exactly like me or better than me...

And now I feel sick at the thought of Oxford. I really don't think that I am good enough to go there so why on earth should they?! The only comforting thought is that I would truly have regretted it if I hadn't even applied because I honestly would love to go there. But I won't let myself be disappointed. I would just as equally love to go to any of the other choices. Physics is physics after all and that is pretty much the only decision that I'm 100% happy with. Well most of the time... And at least if I fail miserably with the physics aptitude test next Wednesday I don't have to worry about the interviews anymore! Because I watched a video about the physics interviews and I honestly had nightmares about it!

Recently I started revising for this physics aptitude test and that was around the time I started getting quite panicky about Oxford. I also made the mistake of looking at a few Internet forums and people were calling the tests easy! So far I haven't got more than 40% in a test so I guess I'll just have to do a few more practises and hope I get better...

Experiments!

We've had a few really cool experiments in class recently and I'd like to share them with you because well you know, that's basically what I do here.

Sneakoscope

Gyroscope

This first experiment isn't particularly cool but at the time I had literally just finished the Harry Potter series and was probably still suffering a mild case of post potter depression. So naturally I found the similarities between a sneakoscope and a gyroscope so amazing that I had to tell anyone who stood still long enough about it at lunch! I also started mentally referring to physics as defense against the dark arts. However I just found some pictures and maybe I let my imagination get the better of me again... So a gyroscope is pretty much a spinning top but the point is that it precesses like hydrogen nuclei do in an MRI scan. It isn't exactly magic but after a few failed attempts to get the spin fast enough for a precession it sure feels something like a miracle when it actually works! I learnt a few things that lesson including the comforting proof that I wasn't trapped within a dream (inception reference... maybe I watch too many movies...)

Another experiment that was really interesting was made even cooler by the fact that it was completely spontaneous. My teacher literally decided to get a bucket and go outside on the spur of the moment and I'm really glad he did. Every now and then you come across a piece of physics and you can completely understand the theory of it but you still have that doubt that it can really work. This was one of those times! My teacher told us that he could swing a bucket of water (a very full bucket) over his head and stay dry. Its a pretty well known fact that physics experiments often go badly so I considered it the height of bravery my teacher attempting this! But it worked! And even though it would have been incredibly funny if it had gone wrong I would have been severely disappointed all the same!

And then on Friday we got to do an experiment which I think was supposed to be a treat but it really wasn't... We were using a simple pendulum to find g and as you can imagine with 8 data sets and 3 repeats each it was extremely monotonous. I'm pretty sure I hypnotised myself with the pendulum at one point because you kind of enter a trance counting this metal ball swing back and forth! And at the end of all this I found g to be 13.4 when it is supposed to be 9.8 - so not worth it!

Now because I have to end on a high I'll tell you about an experiment we had to demonstrate the kinetic gas theory. Basically we had this tube and as we increased the voltage it was the same as increasing the temperature. you could see the particle gain energy as they jumped higher and pushed the polystyrene up higher.

Oh and my teacher promised we can use a metal detector some time next week!