Project Ideas

**NaptownKnight** · July 26, 2007, 07:59 PM

At my High School we are required to do two projects a year. We get themes for these projects and choose whatever project we want, as long as it relates to the theme. This year's first theme is "Time and Space", I know there is a TON of stuff I can do but I was wondering what some TWCers thought. I mean it's all to easy for me to think that I can do a project on the theory of relativity or the string theory, but I don't want to bite of more than I can chew, and quantum physics scares me (physics scare me

). BTW Yes I am in school already, we are on a "year round schedule", where you get three week breaks for fall, winter, and spring but only like a month and a half for summer.

**chris_uk_83** · July 27, 2007, 02:10 AM

Why not take two atomic clocks and synchronise them. Then accelerate one up to the speed of light and bring it back again. Then you can show the effect of time dilation to everyone!

More seriously though, what sort of level is this aimed at, how long is the project meant to be and what is it supposed to entail?

**MattErickson** · July 27, 2007, 02:28 AM

Yeah, like what type of project.
Also, what grade are you in?

**Juvenal** · July 27, 2007, 03:10 AM

Why not do something empirical?

For example, you could prepare a simple questionnaire for other students asking them for estimates of various distances around the school that you can determine by measurement or calculation.

Get people to fill out the questionnaires at different times of the day and week. It needs to be short so they can fill it in on the spot.

Eventually you will have a lot of data that you can do cute statistical analysis on.

You could investigate questions about what factors influence people's estimation accuracy - such as age, gender, time of day, whether they had breakfast, favourite colour/rock band/pin-up etc.

You could even investigate willingness to fill out the questionnaire properly if you have a student list.

**chris_uk_83** · July 27, 2007, 04:56 AM

If your title is "time and space" why not do bottle rockets? The 2 litre plastic bottles with water and a bike pump. There's loads of great physics in there. You've got aerodynamics where you investigate the shape of the rocket and the fins. There's pressure and conservation of momentum for the actual propulsion mechanism (water being forced out of the back of the rocket). Then there's projectile motion and mechanical dynamics for the actual flight path.

You can link it to space because you use rockets to get into space. I've got a few links on this topic if you decide to do it. Plus the experiments are damn fun!

**Shatterer** · July 27, 2007, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by chris_uk_83

If your title is "time and space" why not do bottle rockets? The 2 litre plastic bottles with water and a bike pump. There's loads of great physics in there. You've got aerodynamics where you investigate the shape of the rocket and the fins. There's pressure and conservation of momentum for the actual propulsion mechanism (water being forced out of the back of the rocket). Then there's projectile motion and mechanical dynamics for the actual flight path.

You can link it to space because you use rockets to get into space. I've got a few links on this topic if you decide to do it. Plus the experiments are damn fun!

I made one of those in my backyard the other day...I didn't expect it to shoot so well.

I haven't gotten around to doing it again though because I've become concerned about safety risks. Last time, all I did was poke a hole in the bottle cap, build pressure and manually release the cap - my only protection was a hockey mask for goalies.

But I do second this recommendation though, as long as you take the safety precautions.

**NaptownKnight** · July 27, 2007, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the ideas! Keep it up plz. BTW I am a senior in high school, and we have to do a power point with some kind of original work.

**chris_uk_83** · July 27, 2007, 06:06 PM

it's really really hard to actually come up with anything completely original unless you work in a research group at a university. I bet anything you come up with will be googleable. Which actually makes things easier, since you probably just have to do something that you've thought of yourself rather than something that nobody else has ever done. You can google the physics. Hooray for google, and hooray for work dos.