This years investigations
It's become a bit of a tradition that I post my students research questions on the blog so here they are. The have 3 weeks to produce a first draft, at that point I will post my reflections, these will be available to subscribers only. As I get older and hopefully wiser I am becoming more direct in my advice to students when they choose their research questions. If I don't think I could write a good IA on it I simply say no and suggest a more do-able alternative. When asked to come up with a topic probably 90% (wild guess) of students Google "IA physics ideas". 4 of my students had suddenly developed an interest in salt concentration and refractive index. In my opinion this is a bad topic. I know they are related but why? What is the formula relating them? I have no idea. How will you know if your results don't fit the expected relationship? I don't allow this example. Most students get their ideas from the Internet, what's wrong with them getting them from me or my website?
So, here they are.
Skipping rope tension and frequency.
Height of reservoir and power output of a hydro power generator (I have a small one).
Velocity of sound and temperature.
Frequency of a stretched elastic string and length.
Initial angular acceleration of pivoted rod and position of pivot.
Maximum speed of a wheel travelling in a circle and surface friction.
Range of a slingshot and angular velocity.
Distance travelled by target sliding on a rough surface and mass after being hit by cart and its mass.
Angular acceleration by a constant torque of a plasticine cylinder of fixed mass and its length.
The velocity and angle of a projectile with constant range.
Frequency and amount of water in a singing wine glass.
Intensity and path length of light in a milk suspension.
The velocity of a wave in a slinky and its stretched length.
The time taken for a turntable travelling at a given velocity to stop and its mass.
Ski jump range and velocity.
The height reached by a punch bag and the speed of a colliding mass.
The maximum height of pogo stick jump possible without fully compressing the spring and the mass of the jumper.
Angle and range for a projectile.
Range of a projectile balloon launched horizontally and radius.
I have actually done 16 of these 19 investigations, pity I'll have to retire soon. (not that soon though)