Extended project help please!

I'm currently doing an extended project and I want to do something related to physics (as I'm hoping to do physics/natural sciences at uni).


The topic I'm currently mulling over is 'Can the universe be summarized with one equation'. (Basicaly the Grand Unified Theory of Everything)


I'm thinking I could then talk about the past and how physics/science as a whole is slowly building up this picture of the universe (and possibly include other areas such as religion into it)


But I feel like there would be a risk of it being either a) too broad, b) too specific, i.e. not enough to talk about, or c) It being a 'Yes/No' question and not having a definitive result.


What do people think?


But also, if I wasn't to do that topic at all, what would be some ideas of a physics related extended project topic? e.g Superconductivity?


Thanks a lot in advance!

That sounds really exciting!!!
It could end up being quite broad - I'm sure you are aware that there are several competing options for GUTs and going into depth on all of them could be quite challenging in only 5000 words. However, if your research shows that this is the case, you can always change your title slightly later on to be more specific - e.g. 'Is string theory our best hope for a Grand Unified Theory?' or something similar. I don't think you'll have the space/ time to talk about the history of the investigations into GUTs, although a brief mention of it in your intro/ some sections of your essay may be possible.
I don't think you'll be able to get a yes/no answer - at the moment scientists haven't yet found a GUT, but they are still looking for one and seem to have the opinion that there is one somewhere out there... You will probably conclude something along the lines of 'probably, but it could be many more years before we discover it'.

Ahhh brilliant! Thanks so much for all that, it's just because when I suggested this to my teacher he was unsure as he wanted people to have a 'yes/no' question.

The only thing I'm wondering is what other types of questions could I ask that are physics related that I could do an EPQ on. (It's only the second week so we're still thinking of ideas for our EPQ)


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What other areas of physics are you interested in?
Superconductivity is pretty cool - perhaps something like 'Could superconductivity be used to reduce power loss in the national grid?' - you could talk about the need to room-temperature superconductors (we're a fair way from achieving that at the moment, although some progress has been made - however we still don't really understand what makes some things superconductors and others not), costs, possible need to use rare elements/ create new/ expensive/ toxic/ unstable/ weak/ otherwise unsuitable materials, etc. You could easily bring in some of the economic and political issues as well as the huge scientific and engineering challenges involved - thus showing a wide appreciation of the issue/ the chance to balance and judge the importance of different issues/ could find some kind of data or something - all of which could help you get good marks

Wow you have some really good ideas haha. As for what areas of physics I like, I mainly prefer special relativity, particle physics and the actual testing and proving hypothesis.

For special relativity I've just thought about a title such as "Is time travel (theoretically) possible". I thought that I could possibly analyse each side of the argument, like how some people think you might be able to do it but then talk about the paradoxes it may cause etc. before coming to a conclusion about whether you can rule it out or not.

As for physics research I could possibly do something along the lines of "Is there enough funding supporting current and upcoming physicists" and possibly talk about the large hadron collider and the discoveries it has found etc. Also I could go into depth about how no one knows where physics may take you, but without funding we will never know (without funding, physicists wouldn't have been able to create the World Wide Web and mobile phones etc).

These were literally all done with 5 mins of research so there not refined at all yet haha Just merely ideas at the moment ( I want to try and have as many options as I can). What are your opinions on these topics and do you have any suggestions?

Thanks so much again!


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