I went to a science demonstration as part of science week which included exploding custard, rocket balloons and the power of carbon dioxide which I found very interesting. I also went to a lecture about the universe given by a visiting professor also as part of science week this was very interesting and I found it very enjoyable. Then I went to the optics lab with my supervisor and I saw the Newton's rings experiment. I had a very good first day, I though it was very interesting and found it very enjoyable, I also found the staff very helpful.
Day 2,
I was given a tour of the physics department, I saw the optics laboratory, computer laboratory, chemical laboratory, the workshop and the postgraduate laboratory. I liked this because I got to see all the different equipment used in experiments and analysis. I also used equipment used to teach students how to create circuits. Then I went to the gas yard to make dry ice from carbon dioxide, then went to the lab and used the dry ice in an experiment. The experiment showed how alpha particles decayed from a radioactive source. I really liked doing the experiment and using the radioactive materials because I like nuclear physics.
Day 3,
Firstly we installed an operating system onto a computer. We also looked at all of the internal components of a computer. This will be very beneficial for future work with computers. Then we carried out the freefall and pendulum experiment used to find the acceleration of gravity. We were also shown an experiment to demonstrate what happens when a magnet is passed over a semi-conductor with a current flowing through it. I really liked doing the experiments today and working with computers.
Day 4,
Today we finished the freefall and pendulum experiments by putting our results into a graph in microsoft excel. Here are our results:
These are the freefall results.
These are the simple pendulum results.
Then we went to a lecture about Charles Darwin as part of science week, this was very interesting. Then we did another experiment to investigate the fundamental frequency of a stretched string with length. I really liked doing this experiment.
These are the frequency of a string results.Day 5,
Today was our last day, in the morning we did another experiment. The experiment was to measure the wavelength of monochromatic light using a helium neon(HeNe) laser. Our result was 632nm. We really liked this experiment. Then we went to a lecture on heat and mechanics this was very good. We really enjoyed doing our work experience at U.L. and would like to thank John Sweeny and everyone in the physics department who helped us.
