Lecture Demonstrations:
Lecture demonstrations are an excellent way of communicating science. They captivate people's interest, and often help students to remember the essential scientific principles far more easily. Unfortunately, demonstrations are often time consuming to prepare, possibly requiring a lot of skill and rehearsal to ensure that they work properly in front of the audience. Since lecturers typically don't have time for this, we've formed the Demo Troupe.
We regularly perform lecture demonstrations for various subjects taught at UQ. We aim to present the relevant science in a clear and concise fashion. We also aim to be enthusiastic and entertaining, since an important role of the Demo Troupe is to build interest in science.
We're always keen to extend our repertoire, so contact us if you're interested in having us perform in one of your lectures. We can perform any of those listed in our List of Demonstrations, or we can design something specific to suit your needs. Demonstrations typically take around five minutes each (although this depends upon which one it is, and can be varied to suit the situation), and they can occur at whatever point in the lecture you request (at the beginning, middle or end). Our performers will bring everything with them, set it all up, perform the demonstration, and clear everything away again with minimal interruption to the lecture, and no fuss for the lecturer!
What follows are some tables of curriculum for subjects that we reguarly perform for, with demonstrations indicated at the appropriate points.
PHYS1170: Physical Basis of Biological Systems
Curriculum |
Demonstrations |
Introduction: |
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What is physics? Why study physics? Units. Powers of ten. |
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Mechanics: |
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Motion in a straight line. Distance, velocity, acceleration. |
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Vectors, 2-D motion. |
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Newton 's laws. Mechanical equilibrium. Examples of everyday forces. Gravity as an example of constant acceleration. The fundamental forces, and where they are important. |
Vacuum Tube |
Work, power, kinetic energy, potential energy. Conservative forces. Conservation of energy |
Three Ball Bounce |
Elastic properties of Materials: |
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Mechanical properties of materials. |
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Fluids: |
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Non-viscous fluids - Archimedes' principle, Bernoulli's equation. Viscous fluids, Stoke's law. Cohesive forces - surface tension, the lung, etc. |
Viscosity, Bernoulli |
Heat: |
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Thermal properties of materials. Temperature, heat and energy. |
Can Crush, Hydrogen Balloons, Liquid Nitrogen demonstrations (Basics, Shrinking balloon animals, Hammering a nail with a banana, Apple smash) |
Electricity: |
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Electric fields |
Van der Graaf Generator, Electrostatics |
Simple DC circuits. |
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Radiation: |
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Light as EM wave. Wavepackets and photons. Photosynthesis and vision. Nuclear radiation. Structure of the nucleus. Isotopes. Exponential decay. |
Nuclear Demo |
Biological effects and uses of radiation. |
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Special topics in Biophysics: |
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Teeth, biocompatability of materials. |
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Lasers in biomedical applications |
Laser basics, Liquid Optical Fibre |
X-ray imaging, tomography, nuclear and magnetic medical imaging. Bioelectricity. |
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Waves, sound, ultrasound. Applications of ultrasound. |
Ripple Tank |
Cellular imaging. |
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PHYS1001: Mechanics and Thermal Physics
Curriculum |
Demonstrations |
Introduction: The nature of Physics |
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Kinematics |
Air bed |
Scalars and Vectors, motion in 2 and 3 dimensions. Newton 's laws of motion |
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Work done with a constant and variable force. Energy and conservation of energy. System of interacting particles, conservation of momentum. |
Three ball bounce |
Rotational dynamics, torque, moment of inertia, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum. |
Gyroscopes |
Gravitation, Newton 's theory of Gravity, planetary motion, orbits. Space craft, escape velocity. |
Vacuum Tube |
Oscillations, simple harmonic motion, mass on a spring, pendulum damping. |
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Waves, transverse and longitudinal waves. Waves on a string, sound waves, wave equation, interference, energy density. |
Ripple Tank, Singing Tube, Bell jar with buzzer |
Fourier analysis, dispersive media, decibels, human hearing |
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Elasticity and fluids. Elastic and plastic bodies. Stress, Hooke's Law, moduli of elasticity. Pressure, viscosity, Bernoulli's Law |
Viscosity, Bernoulli, Ping pong balls in funnels |
Non-linear physics, chaos, strange attractors. |
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Thermal physics, laws of thermodynamics, temperature, thermal expansion, heat transfer conductivity. Ideal gas laws, work. Heat capacity, specific heat. Heat engines and refrigerators and the role of entropy. |
Liquid Nitrogen (Basics, Shrinking Balloon Animals, Liquid Nitrogen BONG, Rocket), Hydrogen Balloons, Can Crush |
Entropy and physics of information, arrow of time, order and disorder, symmetry breaking, self organisation. |
Entropy Enhancement Device (EED) |
PHYS1002: Electromagnetism, Optics, Relativity and Quantum Physics 1
Curriculum |
Demonstrations |
Electromagnetism: |
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Coulomb's Law, superposition. Ch. 22. |
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Electric field, electric field due to continuous charge distributions. Ch. 23. |
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Electric flux, Gauss's Law. Ch. 23. |
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Electrostatic potential, breakdown. Ch. 24. |
Van der Graff Generator, Jackob's Ladder |
Dipoles, capacitance, dielectrics. Ch.22, Ch. 25. |
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Electric current, DC sources and circuits. Ch. 26. |
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RC circuits, electrical measurements. |
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Magnetic field, magnetic force on current. (very short lecture) |
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Motion of charged particles in magnetic field. Ch. 28. |
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Dipole moment, magnetic torques. Ch. 28. |
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Sources of magnetic field, Biot-Savart Law. Ch. 29. |
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Ampere's Law, magnetic materials, inductance. Ch. 29. |
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Magnetic induction, motional emf, generators. Ch. 30, 31. |
Jumping Rings, Tesla coil, Eddy currents, capacitors |
Maxwell's equations, wave propagation. Ch. 32. |
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Optics: |
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Properties of light wave particle duality, interaction with matter, propagation, Ch.33. |
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reflection, refraction, Ch. 33. |
Total internal reflection, Liquid Optical fibre, lasers |
dispersion, polarisation, Ch. 33. |
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Geometric optics imaging by ray tracing, Vergence method. |
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image formation, spherical mirrors. |
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combinations of surfaces, thin lenses, aberrations. |
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optical instruments, Ch. 34. |
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Interference and diffraction phase differences, Michelson interferometer. Ch. 35. |
Newton 's Rings |
single and multiple slits, Fraunhofer & Fresnel diffraction, resolution. Ch. 35. |
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Quantum Physics: |
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How scientific theories evolve: the origins of quantum theory Ch. 36, 37. |
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Rutherford and Bohr theories of the atom Ch. 37. |
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Schroedinger's equation Ch. 36. |
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Compton scattering of photons off electrons Ch. 33. |
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Quantum wires: the one-dimensional potential well Ch. 36. |
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Expectation values and quantum tunnelling Ch. 36. |
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Atomic physics - energy levels and orbitals in hydrogen Ch. 37. |
Pickelator |
Atoms, molecules and solids: the electron sea Ch. 38. |
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Nuclear properties and radioactivity Ch. 40. |
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Elementary particles and the forces of nature Ch. 41. |
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Special Relativity: |
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Einstein's postulates and the Michelson-Morley experiment Ch. 39. |
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Time dilation and length contraction Ch. 39. |
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Equivalence of mass and energy; momentum conservation Ch. 39. |
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