Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
Jan 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998phyed..33......&link_type=abstract
Physics Education, Volume 33, Issue 1, pp. (1998).
Physics
Physics Education
Scientific paper
This was how the chairman, Dennis Chisholm, described the morning's major topic `Higher Still' - the proposed successor to the Scottish Higher Grade and Sixth Year Studies Certificates. It was chosen for this one-day conference on 21 May as the documentation for it had been promised for 1 May. Alas, as the main speaker, Mary Webster, admitted, the materials were still `sitting in a warehouse in Dundee' and the programme has now been postponed for a year! Nevertheless the team, which included Rothwell Glen and Tony Keeley, bravely fielded a series of awkward questions from a critical audience of over 200 physics teachers. Physics with gusto
If `Higher Still' was a damp squib Rebecca Crawford's team from Glasgow Science and Technology Outreach set the place ablaze. In their first spectacular demonstration Rebecca lay on a bed of sharp nails while someone stood on top of her! This was followed by a deafening explosion produced by cornflour powder igniting in a tin can used to model a grain silo. Hydrogen was then produced by aluminium foil in a solution of caustic soda, and used to inflate a balloon before exploding it with a flaming torch. Using two 2 mW lasers the green spot produced by one was shown to appear much brighter than the red spot from the other, The Australian demonstrator explained that some of their fire engines were now being painted green instead of red as our eyes are more sensitive to green. A small low-inertia electric motor turned when attached to copper and zinc electrodes inserted first in a glass of Coke and then in a fresh grapefruit. Gas-filled sausage balloons were packed into a flask of liquid nitrogen where they collapsed as the gas inside liquefied. When the bunch of deflated balloons was removed and thrown on to the bench the results were dramatic.
As you might expect, the `best wine' was kept to the last. Kenneth Skeldon and two colleagues in the University of Glasgow have built a high voltage generator based on a resonant transformer derived from a standard Tesla coil with a high-Q secondary. This is capable of delivering around a million volts, which produce fantastic lightning flashes. A volunteer from the audience was invited to enter a huge Faraday Cage which was then subjected to these high voltage sparks! For a while the door of the cage jammed but eventually the victim emerged unscathed!
This is, of course, not just an entertainment. The Gusto show is taken into schools and targeted at lower secondary pupils about to make their subject choices. The team also gives large scale physics demonstration lectures and could play to 10 000 children in a month. So physics is fun and physics is relevant to everyday life! Support for physics teachers
Lesley Glasser chaired the afternoon session, which she opened by introducing the Institute's Education Officer. The Stirling Meeting would not be the same without the `commercial slot' presented again so ably by Catherine Wilson. Physics teachers are an endangered species and the Institute is determined to do whatever it can to support them. Plans are afoot to make sure the Schools Lectures are modified, if necessary, to take account of the educational differences in Scotland. The London-based `Physics in Perspective' course not only introduces sixth-formers to some of the frontiers of physics but gives enough free time for them to visit places of interest in the city - from the Science Museum to Soho. `So they associate physics with enjoyment!'
Another Scottish Update Course is planned for teachers, and a brand new glossy booklet, sent free to all schools, will show pupils that choosing physics is a `Smart Move'. Finally the Institute has just started a major post-16 curriculum project which will include a variety of support materials to keep teachers abreast of continuing developments in physics.
Each year, IoP Teacher of Physics Awards are given to `outstanding teachers of physics who inspire others to continue with and enjoy their physics'. Ann Jarvie, Deputy Head of St Ninian's High School in Kirkintilloch, certainly felt that this was a fitting description of their physics master Pat Cleary, who was presented with his Award at the Stirling Meeting. Of him she said `He encourages and supports his pupils. He doesn't talk down to them and he is concerned about all pupils, not just the high fliers. He has a great sense of humour and enthuses his pupils. Pat's passion for physics is all-consuming; he will beg, borrow and (almost) steal for physics! He only tolerates senior management because they supply him with money for physics!' Before giving his keynote lecture Professor Russell Stannard presented Pat Cleary with his Award. Venturing beyond physics
In this stimulating presentation Russell Stannard not only summarized current thinking in cosmology, he also considered possible theological implications. The universe is a big place consisting of 1011 galaxies each containing 1011 stars. It may be that 1030 stars have planets and so the universe could be teeming with millions of different forms of life. Is size then the most important thing for us? What goes on in the human head is much more interesting than the nuclear reactions of the sun. Surely human consciousness, associated with the complexity of the brain, is of more importance to us than mere size. In the beginning
If we ask about the origin of the universe, e.g. `How did it get started?' then we look to science for an answer. On the other hand we might ask a theological question about creation, e.g. `Why is there something rather than nothing?' Current ideas of the Big Bang are based on several independent strands of evidence which Russell discussed in some detail. Space-time
`It is idle to look for time before creation, as if time can be found before time.... We should say that time began with creation rather than creation began with time.' This amazingly modern concept - that space and time were created together - was asserted by St Augustine 1500 years ago! If time and space are `welded' together time didn't exist before the Big Bang and so we cannot ask what caused the Big Bang. Cause precedes effect. The future
The universe is expanding but at a reduced rate. Will it eventually stop expanding and start to contract? If so, will it reach a point where it again stops and starts to expand again - the Big Bounce? Or will it collapse completely - the Big Crunch? Alternatively will the universe go on expanding forever? The answers to these questions depend on the density of the universe. The density needed to make the universe start to contract is called the critical density. At present the observed density is around 0.3% of critical density. This would suggest that the universe should continue expanding forever. However, the movements of galaxies and clusters of galaxies indicate that there must be some undetected `dark matter' which, calculations show, increases the density of the universe to within a factor of two of critical density. If this is correct the density at the early stages of the Big Bang would have had to be correct to within 1 part in 1060. DIY universe
A final word of warning to anyone who aspires to building a better universe! If you make your Big Bang less violent the universe will expand and then collapse to a Big Crunch before life has time to develop. Make it more violent and gases will disperse quickly so that stars and planets cannot form. If you make gravity (G) weaker, nuclear reactions won't be triggered and only brown dwarfs will form. Life will be impossible. Make gravity stronger and only fast-burning massive stars will form. These blue giants last for only a million years and there will be no time for life to evolve.
In summary: are we in one of an infinite number of universes because the conditions happen to be just right for us or is this universe a one-off put-up job designed by God? Cosmology neither proves nor disproves the existence of God. However if, on other grounds, you are a believer, current thinking in cosmology shouldn't worry you. Thanks
To circle the world in 80 days may be interesting. To
No affiliations
No associations
LandOfFree
The 23rd Stirling Physics Meeting does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The 23rd Stirling Physics Meeting, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The 23rd Stirling Physics Meeting will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1615010