
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
Join Physics Forums Today!

Ideas for an experimental physics project

  1. Feb 8, 2015 #1
    Next semester I will be taking Experimental Physics II. The gist of the class isn't to do an experiment per se, but to build a device which could be used in an experiment in Experimental Physics I. In the past, students have built things like an inverted pendulum, a magnetic pendulum, and a magnetometer.

    I'll need to come up with an idea soon so I can apply for the $1k grant. I have two ideas so far; one is a bubble chamber, and one is a Stirling engine. The former sounds much more interesting to me and maybe better for someone who isn't an engineering type (I'm majoring in computer physics, and would like to go to grad school for particle physics).

    Anywho, does anyone have any other ideas?
  2. jcsd
  3. Feb 8, 2015 #2

    Stephen Tashi

    User Avatar
    Science Advisor

    I suggest that you reveal the topics covered in Experimental Physics I.
  4. Feb 8, 2015 #3
    In EPI, there is no lecture or anything. We just do various experiments and write lab reports about them. We do the Millikan Oil Drop experiment, one with the Kater Pendulum, one with magnetic torque, and one concerning Faraday rotation, and one with the stochastic nature of radiation. There really is quite a wide spread, I'm "only limited by my imagination".
  5. Feb 8, 2015 #4


    User Avatar
    Staff Emeritus
    Science Advisor
    Education Advisor

    That is not really true. You are limited by the resources that are available to you, which you have not clearly described.

  6. Feb 8, 2015 #5
    Very true. I'm sorry, I'm not an experimentalist. We have a workshop available to us which has quite an array of tools in it, and other than that we are just given $1000 for needed supplies and materials. Is that more what you wanted to know?