Nuclear Animation

In standard level IB physics, my seniors are currently studying topic 7, Atomic and Nuclear Physics. I have never been overly excited about drawing the models of the atom and the diagrams for the Rutherford experiment to find the nucleus. To ease the boredom a bit, here are some helpful links.

Here is a picture of plum pudding. I have only found about 6 people in the entire world who have ever eaten it. Thus, this picture will be essential to students’ understanding of Thomson’s Plum Pudding model of the atom.

Here is a great animation (with dialogue) about the Rutherford Experiment, aka the Geiger Marsden Experiment.

Lenz's Law Lab (a celebration of the letter L)

Here is a great lab for investigating Electromagnetic Induction and Lenz’s Law (topic 12). Myself and Mike modified this lab from our friend Gary Piech. Basically it’s the demo where you drop a magnet down a copper or aluminum tube and it goes really slowly, much to astonishment of all watching. (note astonishment in picture). In this case coils of wire are wrapped around the tube (in series) and connected to a current sensor. Our students analyzed the current spikes in the loops versus time. They will then explain how these results (which turn out to show terminal velocity of the falling magnet) support Lenz’s and Faraday’s Laws.

School = On Like Donkey Kong

As of Aug 7, summer is officially over for the students of the International School of Manila. That means things are about to get blogtastic here on the Ringo Physics blog. I’ll be posting a few things here for the students of myself and my colleagues, and as always, I’ll be putting up any other physics info and materials that will benefit all of society.

As a special bonus, I recently received a special package from the capital of Nerd-topia: namely the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Europe. I’m not saying that the CERN rap is awesome, but it is informative. Enjoy.