Physics AS coursework

Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on my Advancing Physics AS coursework about testing materials. I need to produce approx 6 pages which I will mount on an A1 presentation board.

I have decided to research the type of wood used in traditional longbows (yew wood). However, I am having major problems finding enough data to proceed with the project.

I can't find anything at my local university library (Surrey University) or searching the net.

Has anyone around here already done this coursework another year? If so, where did you manage to find your data?

I'd like to point out that I'm not just asking on here as a way out of doing research, I actually have spent 2+ hours looking for this stuff on the net and another 2 hrs up at Surrey Uni all to no avail.

I'm looking for:
Young's Modulus of Yew wood
Stress/Strain curve at different moisture content in the wood
Stress and Strain values parallel and perpendicular to grain in longbow (esp. parallel as this is most important in a longbow)

Thanks,

James

Reply 1

little.rebel.L

how about you go into a lab and develop an experiment to find this stuff out.

I highly doubt you will find this sort of stuff in a technical book (maybe a history of long bows, but that would be pushing it)

Reply 2

ultraviolent

little.rebel.L

The main problem with this is that our marks scheme allocates up to 5 marks for use of multiple data sources and types (e.g. internet and reference books) to obtain the material data, so by doing extra work like that I’d actually lower my mark.

Thanks anyway

I may still decide to change the material I use for this coursework project. I'm going up to the uni again tomorrow with a friend to do some more research, so if no one has books they can recommend or anything I might decide to pick a different material

Reply 3

dinkymints

I'm doing this course but don't have to do materials coursework til the new year. Was going to do something fairly simple though, like a shape memory alloy or a fibre resin composite or something. I don't suppose you've done sensing coursework yet? I have that coming up soon.

Reply 4

granddad_bob

OCR, i believe? i did SMA, very interesting actually. the data was very easy to obtain, loads of stuff on the net, but then specialised wood isn't really a widly researched material.

Reply 5

ultraviolent

dinkymints

No, but the other physics groups in our school have already finished the sensing coursework. Our groups have been studying different chapters over the last term, so I’m not exactly sure when we start the sensing coursework. I’m guessing it will be after we finish this one, which is due in during our first week back in Jan.

granddad_bob

OCR, i believe? i did SMA, very interesting actually. the data was very easy to obtain, loads of stuff on the net, but then specialised wood isn't really a widly researched material.

Yes, OCR is our exam board. The course seems very different to other AS/A level courses, but when I asked my teacher about it she said it is considered to be the best course.

While in lesson today I went over my research with her and she seems to think I’ve got enough data to proceed. I'm going to need to make a few presumptions about the data, by comparing it with other woods with similar properties and then working backwards from values such as "Working strain" and "Working stress" levels to obtain the Young's Modulus.

Apparently this lack of data could work to my advantage, as long as I can show clear working while calculating new data and proof of my detailed research witch yielded very little data. I'm just going to have to be careful to ensure that I fill the criteria on the marks scheme.

Thanks for your help everyone.

- James :smile:

Physics AS coursework

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