www.coecxs.org

The Hairy Science Maryam, Abdullahi, Daniel, Mohamed

Introduction

What is the project about? The project is about learning what Physics truly is.Why is it important to investigate this area of science?Its important because you need Physics for a lot of things in life, including transport, technology etc.. Physics is the fundamental building blocks of our world and what forces act between them. What expectations did we have of physics and physicists when I started.What we thought of physics was about numbers and formulas, but after this project we have a better view of how all there formulas and numbers actually are useful in our everyday life.

Aim/Motivation

Our aim is to: We want to know Maryam and Daniel thickness of their hair.

Lists to investigate this area; why is it important either to other sciences or individuals, community or society? This area is important because if we can find the width of one strand of hair we can use this to find the width of other objects.

How has being part of GTP changed my appreciation for physics?

We learnt how physics isn’t just about equations all the time, but with those that we do can be used to solve real life problems such as the finding the width of a strand of hair. School makes look Physics boring, but GTP lets us see how Physics in university actually is. Without GTP, I would of never realised how fun physics could really be so we’re really thankful and grateful we had such a great program.

How has our understanding of science, scientists and career opportunities changed through this experience. Relate to the work that you have experienced in the lab or the department.We understand the wider opportunities we have in the subject of science. The hair diffraction experiment is a vital part in our everyday lives, scientists use diffraction to find the size of things we cant measure with our bear eyes. The AFM experiment is really useful to see things we cant see with our naked eyes with high resolution. AFM is used to see bacteria and other deadly things and we can possibly change these and cure deadly diseases.

Conclusions

Write your conclusion hereWe learnt a variety of things including how diffraction works and how it feels to be in a scientific society. We now understand how it is to work around a comfortable science community. The title “Physicists” sounded very boring and repetitive, we thought all they did was research and study theories, but now we understand its more fun and the theories are also very fun. After these three days at La Trobe University we are definitely considering on carrying on our physics to year 12.

Acknowledgements- The name of department you have been working in: Names of Mentors: David Hoxley, Paraschos Atsikidis, Hannah Coughlan - The Growing Tall Poppies Science Partnership Program

Reflection about the job opportunities that physics can open up for me.Try and list all the types of pathways and careers physics can give, e.g. nanotechnology and others that you would not have known about.We never knew the opportunities studying physics opens up to us, there were quiet a bit we already knew such as Engineering, but some surprised us such as; Becoming a doctor, a pharmacist and even becoming a pilot.How important is it to know the types of jobs you can follow to the subject choices you make?In our opinion it is very important to know what type of jobs we can follow on with our physics because we can see the level of importance that it has.

The Australian Synchrotron Ripple Tank diffraction pattern Diffraction Patterns of laser light through different size slits

Briefly describe what you did and how.What data did you collect and what did it mean

We used a machine that extracts the data from the laser to our computers and we put it onto the graph below using Microsoft Excel. This graph shows the wave lengths and the effects of the hair on the laser.

Charles La Trobe College

How is this project related to a real world problem? This can be useful for a variety of problem, such as curing diseases that we cant see with our naked eyes.

Challenging Stereotypes of what I thought physicists were like

Male vs female stereotypesWe thought that physicists were people who waste their time just doing equations just for fun which really bugged us for a while. We thought that was extremely boring and also we thought that it was people who just worked on unneeded theories that won’t help anyone in the real world.Can I identify with physicists and physics?Some of us are thinking of becoming a physicist, but most of us have other things in mind.Do I think I am able to do physics, am I capable?All of us are aware that physics has some challenges but we know we are capable of handling it.Has it changed my mind about studying physics or staying in physics studies?As said in the beginning of this segment we didn’t think highly of physics because of how society has placed that subject in a boring position but now we are gladly to say that after working with GTP we learnt that physics is fun and is an important part to the world and plays a massive role that has changed us for the better.