Relativity for A-level Students
Along with colleague Dr. Anthony Carr, I designed and delivered a lecture on the basics of special relativity, from the twin paradox to muon lifetimes. Having laid the foundation of special relativity, a brief summary of general relativity, leading to an introduction to black holes and Penrose diagrams. The talk was designed to introduce many advanced topics in a short amount of time to 17- or 18-year-olds who may or may not have covered any relativity subject matter in their classes. The idea is to give a general feel of the subject, so that teachers could use the talk as a springboard to flesh-out the details at a later date. |
In
order to reinforce the materials from the lecture, we also added a
space-time diagram workshop session to the day, where students could see
for themselves some of the peculiarities of special relativity, such as
the "ladder paradox".
The relativity sessions have always been very highly rated in feedback - students appreciate the complexity of the subject, and feel the talk makes an excellent primer.
The relativity sessions have always been very highly rated in feedback - students appreciate the complexity of the subject, and feel the talk makes an excellent primer.
Holker Hall Garden Festival
As part of the Institute of Physics (IoP) outreach program Physics in the Field, I manned the IoP outreach stand at the Holker Hall garden festival along with colleagues from Lancaster university physics department.
In order to engage the public (from eager children to just-as-eager adults), the IoP stand held physics gadgets, toys and experiments - including a rocket contest in aerodynamics! The event has been very popular for several years (aside from those ducking to avoid renegade rockets) and is likely to continue in the future - a very fun day out. |