DrR Physics

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DrR Physics

An educational website to offer students from around the world some guidance through their study of IB Physics.

30/10/2023

Sorry for the recent lack of activity on this channel - being back at work with a small toddler has been pretty hectic!

Last week I managed to have a short trip away to Boston over half term, which included a visit to MIT. More pics to follow, but I particularly enjoyed the names engraved on the buildings around their main quad. How many do you recognise?

16/07/2023

Had a pretty choppy ferry crossing yesterday on the way back from holidays, so I got my phone accelerometer out to see what it showed. Looks like our old friend, simple harmonic motion, at about 0.25 Hz.

I wonder if my students feel the same nausea hearing me talk about this as I felt on the boat yesterday? 🤢

20/01/2023

We've been building boats in Engineering club this term, and getting ready for testing day. Lots of interesting designs - monohull, hydrofoil, catamaran.

Who do you think will win?

10/01/2023

Space dad and astronaut lad

24/12/2022

Another cool physics phenomenon due to the blisteringly cold weather here. This weather phenomenon is called 'snow dogs' - similar to a rainbow but visible on both sides of the sun.

Apparently this can happen when it is very cold on a clear, bright day. Sunlight passing through hexagonal ice crystals floating high up in the atmosphere causes dispersion of the light, like a prism.

06/08/2022

An amazingly detailed photo of the nearest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri, taken by the Webb telescope and showing incredible detail of solar flares ..... or alternatively a close up shot of a piece of chorizo sausage.

A little prank posted to Twitter by French scientist Etienne Klein has tricked a number of users, and consequently caused a bit of a stir in the scientific community.

04/08/2022

It's never too early to start them off with some . Introducing our new mini physicist, baby George, who arrived earlier this week. He's still struggling a little bit with his trigonometry, but he'll get there.

04/05/2022

Why is it hotter in the summer than in winter? Many people know that it is something to do with the tilt of the Earth's axis. However, what many miss is that it is the angle at which the sunlight strikes the surface is key (not the distance from the sun) - 'square on' in summertime, at an oblique angle in winter.

Nice practical to demonstrate this idea I found from the . Sticking some thermochromic (i.e. Temperature colour changing) plastic to a globe with a heat lamp.

02/05/2022

Nice relaxing Bank Holiday away in Whitstable as summer term ramps up. Managed to find some nice physics themed IPAs here too from . Double slit and action at a distance. Loving the can art too!

11/03/2022

Here we have a hand cranked Van de Graaff generator (the classic physics experiment with the metal dome that make your hair stand on end) connected to two plates. Turning the handle causes charges (i.e. electrons) to be transferred, giving one plate a positive and one a negative charge. The ping pong ball is coated in an electrically conductive paint, so 'picks up' a load of charge and one plate and 'drops it off' at the other - effectively allowing an electric current to be shuttled across the gap as it bounces backwards and forwards.

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