I am taking a course called Advanced Physics in which I give a presentation about any Physics topic of my choosing at the end of the semester. I already have some ideas, but thought there might be a topic that had not crossed my mind. I want to do my presentation over something in Astrophysics, but am open to other areas as well. We have to declare our topic by September 12.

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a particle accelorator.. a farnsworth fusion reactor...

a zero point energy module..

a trans-stater..

mass spectrometer..

beam weapons..

gyroscopes and there effect on inertia and wieght.. if any.

a large vacume chamber with a plasma source and a little earth with a strong magnet inside.. demonstrating our planets field... and the solar wind.

i have more if you like.
-MT

I have no ideas about subject matter, but I recommend using PowerPoint in the presentation. Not only is this generally liked by audiences (as long as you don't clutter the slides with loads of tiny words and diagrams), it also serves as a useful prompt for the presenter, so you have less to worry about.

Ditto re PowerPoint. Plus it has a good spell checker. Butt it isn't that grate at detecting rung words if there in the techs.

BTW, one of the posts here got me to thinking about whether a presentation on Bad Physics would be allowed. Proofs that various outlandish hypotheses don't hold water might make for an entertaining session. Plenty of potential material in the ATM forum.

Cautionary note: If you're using either a projector or a computer with sound, make sure its power cord is well grounded, otherwise you might get an annoying hum.

No matter what, best of luck and hope the presentation goes smoothly and is successful.

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Actually Mak I was thinking something similar. "Misconceptions of physics" was my thought. SOmething that folks who are not physics geeks can appreciate. of course if the audience IS physics geeks, then it might not sail.

If this is in front of other physicists, I still like the idea of putting physics in an everyday context in some fashion. Perhaps practical implications of various physical phenomena.

For example how solar flares and mass ejections can affect communication, and cause auroral displays, and even affect the power grid.

Depending on the level of the class, a discussion of the recent resolution of the solar neutrino "problem" might be interesting. (yes, I know I keep talking about this subject when debating ATM types, but it's a great topic).

Short version. Fusion processes in the sun produce neutrinos. When physicists first attempt to dectect them in the 1960's they only observe about 1/3 the expected number. Thus the problem. Are the solar models wrong, or is there something else we don't understand about neutrinos. The answer is two. It turns out there are three types (or flavors) of neutrino. The 60's experiments could only detect one of the three. In the early 2000s experiments in Japan and Canada detect the missing neutrinos in the other two flavors and the entire observed flux is consistent with solar model predictions. It turns out that the neutrinos change flavor while in transit from the sun and therefore are not massless as originally thought. This will lead to some new physics beyond the current standard model of particle physics.

Check out the website of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory for more info if interested.

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"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

I would have suggested the thermodynamics of Hell, but I hear that has been done :wink:

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Dante tells me it has actually frozen over at its bottom.

I was fascinated when I first read about this story. It has drama because an astronomer & chemist defend their data against physicists. Physicists certainly had concern with the data as the data point rate was one every two days, IIRC. :roll: As EtaC stated, they were correct, though doubted.

Another topic could be the story behind the surprise discovery that the universe expansion is accelerating. Kirchner's book Extravagant Universe (is that the name?) is very interesting. Several groups were hunting down the expansion rate and this became a little competitive. Kirchner took the approach to spend more time in getting quality data vs. quantity data. This had the distinct advantage in yielding a sound sigma value with their small number of scatter points.

Unfortunately, I am, primarily, Joe Public and not Joe physicist. With that said, ask them "What is the Color of the Sun?" :wink:

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

First off, thanks for all of the suggestions, all have been good ideas, but I have to lean more towards some over others because of my interest in cosmology and also some experience in radiation/particle physics.

Thanks Mosheh Thezion for your suggestions, more are welcome. I will consider some of them, specifically the Farnsworth Fusion Reactor.

I like the suggestion, but I think it would be better in a different setting, as Enzp said. This will be in front of Physics geeks so I don't think they would like it as much as other topics.

The class is senior level(designed to be the last class before graduation) and the audience of the presentation will consist of six professors and the only other student taking the class. I like this suggestion, it deals with astronomy and particle physics, both of which are my specialties.

This is another suggestion that intrigues me, I was thinking about doing something with cosmology and I could probably use this suggestion.

Also, thanks for the suggestions to use Power Point. I plan to do so.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions, and I welcome more suggestions since I still have a while before I must choose a topic. Then I have all semester to research.

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BAUT Team Stats

So there ya are! Start with the fussion plant which ties directly with solar core fussion which produces neutrinos which was recently found to be a problem, but now solved. This involves solar observation but supernova observation is more dramatic which has resulted in the discovery of the accelerated expansion. The winning team used color filters to improve their results which suggests the color of a star is important which leads to the ultilmate and unresolved issue - What color is the Sun? Hows that? :wink: How many hours do you have to speak?

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.