Science Apparatus
Hi First Year scientists!
Do you want to make your science reports look fantastic? Then click on the link below to download a sheet with some of the common science apparatus you will be using in Mr Mallon`s science lab.
You can print out the sheet and cut out the pictures of test tubes, beakers or flasks when needed for your report.
Mr Mallon
I hope you are enjoying your summer holidays.
Just in case you are feeling bored, which I doubt it, here is a wee picture summary of some of the things we did last session.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer holidays.
Music by the Jelly Bricks…..Only Smile
Ever wondered which is faster between light and sound?
Well our new standard grade physics class along with our technician Mr McKenna set out to race sound and light.
We used a special machine that activated a flash lamp when it detected sound. So the light flashed at the same time as the sound was created.
Can you think of anything in nature where sound and light are created at the same time?
Who will win the race. Check out the video!
During my visit to CERN I had the privilege to speak to particle physicist Rolf Landau. Rolf gave our sixteen strong Scottish physics teachers (plus about fifty English physics teachers) three lectures on the history of particle physics.
Rolf also hosted a couple of question and answer sessions about various aspects of what is happening at CERN.
It was Rolf`s introduction about the curiosity that is needed to become a great physicist that caught my imagination.
I took the opportunity to ask him to record that advice to the many Scottish young people who are about to take up Physics.
You`ll find the recording below.
Rolf works on antimatter and was a consultant to Dan Brown`s Angels & Demons movie.
[display_podcast]
Hi Physics luvvers! Here is your last Nasty Nine of the season. Remember it is only nasty if you have not studied;-)
Started Standard Grade Physics with my new S3.
We thought about what we would explore on our two year journey as though we were embarking on a similar journey into space.
As a class we wrote down what areas of knowledge and expertise would be needed to make the space journey successful.
Well what we wrote down was remarkably like the topics we will be studying over the next few years.
Well done S3 and the best of luck for your Standard Grade journey into physics.
Colliding Particles – Episode 2: Big Bang Day from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.
OK so you have chosen to study physics over the next two years at Standard grade or have chosen Intermediate 1,2 or are even crashing the Higher.
Congratulations! You have chosen a cracking good subject in physics and I wish you well.
Want to see top class physicists in action? Then follow this brilliant series documenting the lives of physicists working at the Centre of European Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva Switzerland.
I had the great privilege of visiting CERN last week along with 15 other physics teachers from all over Scotland. It was great to see people from all over the world working on the great mysteries of the Universe.
Who knows that by the end of your school physics you could be on your way too to answering the great questions of science.
Here is a sketch of Albert Einstein by Joe McGlone.
Joe is a third year pupil in my physics class.
I think it is a cracking good likeness and has caught something of the great man.
Well done Joe.
My second year class are currently studying Biotechnology. Here is an excellent website by the American museum of natural history.
Have fun finding out about our very,very,very small friends…..and not so friends.
Click here for a link to the website: American Museum of Natural History
The distances in space are far too large to be measured in kilometres. It is a bit like marking the road distances in millimetres.
Instead astronomers use the light year. The light year is the distance a beam of light travels in one year.
You can use the fantastic Wolframalpha website to explore the distances in space and on Earth in terms of how quickly a beam of light will take to cover he distance.
All you have to do is type into the box light year. You will find the distance a light year in metres.
Try typing in:
Glasgow to Paris. You can equate the distance in terms of how long it would take light to travel this distance = 2.99milliseconds. So we could say that Paris is about 3 milli-light-seconds from Glasgow.
Try typing in Earth to Mars you`ll find that the distance between Earth and Mars is 9.6 light-minutes.
You can download a special worksheet which you can use with Wolfram Alpha.
Download worksheet here. (pdf)
WolframAlpha
Have fun converting distances into lightyears, lightminutes or even lightmilliseconds.
