Year 10 physicists at work
On Wednesday 21 September 90 students from Year 10 visited the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge to participate in the annual Physics at Work Exhibition, which showcases many uses of physics in everyday life, along with applications of physics in research and industry. The objectives of the exhibition are to inspire and enthuse GCSE Physics students, as well as promote careers in science, technology and engineering – read Year 10 student Abby H.’s reflections from the event as follows:
What I enjoyed about the Physics at Work Exhibition was seeing the science put to use. In the day we saw six workshops and presentations. The first one was about mechanical engineering. I found this interesting because I got to learn about how mechanics think and how many people's thoughts go into a building before it is even built. For example creating a walkway onto a ferry from the port seems simple at first but if you think about it the engineers have to take into account about how the sea moves, e.g. up and down, side to side, and diagonally, but it also rocks. They have to think about how to make it withstand all of this action as well as the weight of the people walking across it every day.
My favourite workshop of the day was when we learned about the Atomic, Mesoscopic and Optical Physics Group. The representatives from the group showed us the impressiveness of surface tension. Did you know that a bubble’s walls are 100 times thinner than human hair? They taught us that a bubble is round because it tries to use as little energy as possible to create the walls so it can save the rest up. In the day we also learned about semiconductors, superconductivity, the thought process behind everything that is made, and the Atomic Weapons Establishment. In conclusion, I found this a very fun and helpful day as I learned even more about the topics I had learned about in class, and some new things too that will help me throughout my GCSE studies.
The group enjoyed presentations from industry, including Rolls-Royce, BP, MathWorks and the Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, as well as demonstrations and talks from people at the cutting edge of research, such as those from the Astrophysics, Optoelectronics and Semiconductor Physics Research Group. During the visit our students were able to gain first-hand experience of what is happening in the world of science today, and we hope this will help to promote to the girls the exciting variety of science-based careers that are available.