The History of the Atom by Year 13 Students 2014

Leucippus and Democritus by Sarangan Kathirgamanathan 13V Leucippus Leucippus was a Greek philosopher who was said to be the founder of atomisation but very little is known about him. He is believed to be the originator of the theory that the universe consists of two elements which he called solid and empty. He thought that […]

The Plimsoll Line by Year 12 Physics Students

The Plimsoll Line by Ahlaq Hyder 12V What is the Plimsoll Line? The Plimsoll line, also known as load lines or waterlines is a reference mark that is located on a ship’s hull that indicates the draught of the ship [4] and the maximum depth in which the ship may be safely submerged when loaded […]

Dark Matter

Dark Matter is not enough. The Universe ought to be weirder Dr Andrew Pontzen Department of Physics & Astronomy UCL http://www.cosmocrunch.co.uk @apontzen http://richannel.org/dark-matters-not-enough http://richannel.org/qampa–dark-matters-not-enough http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_II_of_Sweden Oscar II (21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907), was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. He had a great […]

Year 13 visit to the Royal Institution

Abbas, Sujeethan, Nicholas and Sarangan standing behind a statue of the great man, Michael Faraday Introduction I have been teaching electromagnetic induction to GCSE and A level students for well over twenty years now and it still amazes me that moving a piece of metal wire so that it cuts the magnetic field between a […]

Physics and Chocolate By year 12 Physicists

Believe it or not physics is involved in chocolate production. Without the careful use of temperature and pressure we wouldn’t have the wonderful confectionary that adults and children alike have grown to love. On October 17th year 12 physics students went to the Chocolate Show to learn more about the production of chocolate. The above […]

Physics and the British Museum

Those people who know me will tell you that I hate traipsing round museums. I have had two brilliant jobs at museums (the V & A and the Science Museum) but I would much rather read about something in a book, in fact I have been known to buy the museum guide without actually going […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Postscript I really enjoyed the Goldsmiths’ maths course but I did find most of it very difficult. The Queen Mary maths staff were brilliant so if you are kind enough to read my blog and you find mistakes they are entirely my own. I would be very grateful if you could let me know anything […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Friday 25th July Open Problems in Mathematics Dr Thomas Prellberg What is Mathematics? What we’d like our prospective students to know: Mathematics is not: just “doing things with numbers and letters and other symbols” just a collection of facts and rote recipes just computational and arithmetic skills – although learning the times table by heart […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Friday 25th July Group Theory Dr Matt Fayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) In mathematics, a group is a set of elements together with an operation that combines any two of its elements to form a third element satisfying four conditions called the group axioms, namely closure, associativity, identity and invertibility. One of the most familiar examples of a […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Game theory Dr. Reto Mueller r.mueller@qmul.ac.uk Game Theory is the study of strategic decision making Game Theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. An alternative name for this theory is ”interactive decision theory”. Game theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology, […]