UCD Physics Transition Year Programme
December 3rd-7th 2007
Monday,
So basically we started at 9.30am and we met in a room called Room 128 in the North Science Building.
Our first “lecture” more like a relaxing class, was about answering the question “What is Physics?” and we got on hell of a lecture in 45mins. In simple terms everything we learned for three years in our Junior Certificate.
Another lecture, that day, was the “New laser see new things”. This lecture was enlightening although 30mins longer than I thought. But interesting, never the less.
The highlight of the day had to be the experiment “Superconductivity, Resistance and Temperature” in which we got to use liquid nitrogen to super the coil wire. Overall the experiment was fun, mainly because we got to “play” with liquid nitrogen.
After lunch we got a tour of some of the physics labs and research. We visited about four labs, including a plutonium lab and a nanotechnology research lab.
After the visit to the plutonium lab and seeing some actual plutonium we got divided into groups and started on our blogs which we have to complete on Friday.
And that was Monday, an interesting, exciting, and eventful day. Now the only thing left is for my 1.15hrs trip back home and relax.
by Christian Korpos
UCD Physics Transition Year Programme
4th of December
We started our day as usually at 9.30 on Tuesday morning. Our day started with a lecture from Dr. Ronan McNulty who talked to us about particle physics. It was a very engaging talk and all of us found it really interesting! Dr. McNulty talked about different forces and what our world is made of. We even learned how a small apple's gravitational pull towards the centre of the earth is linked to why the moon revolves around the earth.
After the talk on particle physics were given a talk about the Young Scientist competition and a talk on a career in science given by a woman from The Institute of Physics. They were both really fascinating and informative lectures. We learned about the history of the Young Scientist and the different ideas people have had in the past. In the talk about a career in physics we learned about all the different careers you can have in the future if you study physics.
After break we learned about the different parts of the computer. It was really fascinating to learn about how the computer works. We then went down to the computer lab to learn about computer projectile graphs. Once we had learnt how to plot a projectile graph we went outside and used a radar gun. We threw tennis balls at the radar gun and it recorded how fast in km it was going. It was great fun and some people even discovered a new skill.
After our lunch break we had a talk on computational physics given by Ted Cox. We learnt about encryptions, Fibonacci numbers and the Golden ratio. It was a great lecture and fascinating to learn about the role maths plays in our world. We even learned how to plan the perfect leaf plan on a stalk!
by Rebecca Keating
Ballon Break/party from Thursday:
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