Physics materials coursework ideas?

I have to come up with a material to do a presentation on in physics, it has to be one with some sort of use in the world that I could talk about.

It's important to talk about the physics involved on the material, specifically physics in the AS. Im doing OCR (Physics B) btw.

Anyone got any ideas? And if you've done it or are going to how do you get top marks? :smile:

Reply 1

lukas1051

18

Hey, I'm doing the exact same at the moment. I'm doing mine on carbon nanotubes - they're a really interesting and unique material, and there is absolutely loads to talk about on a physical scale - molecular properties, Young's modulus, tensile strength, density... and lots of cool potential applications too such as paper batteries and space elevators.

I don't really want to say too much, I know they can be funny with students conferring... but that's just what I'm doing.

Alternatively there are some other really good materials - kevlar, carbonfibre, teflon, neoprene, metals such as copper, aluminium and titanium... loads to choose from. As long as you can explain their properties and uses in relation to the course (mainly chapters 4 and 5) you should be fine.

Reply 2

GC93

OP

Original post by lukas1051

Hey, I'm doing the exact same at the moment. I'm doing mine on carbon nanotubes - they're a really interesting and unique material, and there is absolutely loads to talk about on a physical scale - molecular properties, Young's modulus, tensile strength, density... and lots of cool potential applications too such as paper batteries and space elevators.

I don't really want to say too much, I know they can be funny with students conferring... but that's just what I'm doing.

Alternatively there are some other really good materials - kevlar, carbonfibre, teflon, neoprene, metals such as copper, aluminium and titanium... loads to choose from. As long as you can explain their properties and uses in relation to the course (mainly chapters 4 and 5) you should be fine.

thanks these are some really good ideas,

I was trying to think of an idea that i could find a product that uses the material in the house, that way I could bring it in as demonstration. Maybe something to do with skiing material...

Reply 3

Helsy

12

Don't do something obscure. :tongue:

That's where I went wrong. It may be boring, but go for something that is fairly simple and readily available. Plus, choose something related to your interests. So if you play piano you could look at the strings in the case... or tennis you could look at graphite. :smile:

And it doesn't matter if you don't do as well as you hope. I didn't but I got all the marks back on the second coursework.

And good luck with the Physics B. L6 are the boring bits, in U6 we do better stuff. :smile:

Reply 4

lukas1051

18

Original post by GC93

thanks these are some really good ideas,

I was trying to think of an idea that i could find a product that uses the material in the house, that way I could bring it in as demonstration. Maybe something to do with skiing material...

Yeah, there are loads of household materials you can do. Skiing material would be great, you can talk about how it is strong and light at the same time, how it glides over the snow with little friction... well you get the idea. I think as long as it's not too obscure you'll be fine.

Reply 5

Contrad!ction.

15

It's good that you've chosen something that interests you. Make sure you go into detail on its microscopic properties that contribute to each of the macroscopic ones - eg the size of the carbon atom in steel meaning cracks can't propagate for toughness - to begin with, I didn't and this is where you gain big marks. Also, make sure there's a relevant calculation in there - Young modulus is easy if it's relevant.

I did steel in rifle barrels: hardness, toughness and stiffness, with a Young modulus calculation (I got values from an experiment we did in class and compared them to ones I found on the internet) using stress and strain calculations to get there. We had quite a few Teflon and nylon users too.

Just check with your teacher on the rough outline - I didn't and ended up rushing 2 days before the presentation was due because I focused on quantitative instead of qualitative. Shame, I did a really nice toughness calculation too.

Reply 6

Lag.

1

Original post by lukas1051

Hey, I'm doing the exact same at the moment. I'm doing mine on carbon nanotubes - they're a really interesting and unique material, and there is absolutely loads to talk about on a physical scale - molecular properties, Young's modulus, tensile strength, density... and lots of cool potential applications too such as paper batteries and space elevators.
I don't really want to say too much, I know they can be funny with students conferring... but that's just what I'm doing.
Alternatively there are some other really good materials - kevlar, carbonfibre, teflon, neoprene, metals such as copper, aluminium and titanium... loads to choose from. As long as you can explain their properties and uses in relation to the course (mainly chapters 4 and 5) you should be fine.

hiya this sounds super intresting, what did you find?

Reply 7

bluegray

14

Original post by GC93

I have to come up with a material to do a presentation on in physics, it has to be one with some sort of use in the world that I could talk about.
It's important to talk about the physics involved on the material, specifically physics in the AS. Im doing OCR (Physics B) btw.
Anyone got any ideas? And if you've done it or are going to how do you get top marks? :smile:

i did mine on corn starch polymer, a lot of people did them on like ferrofluids and such (i did ocr a and all you needed to do to get it ticked off was just do it basically there were no top marks for us it's just pass or fail the pag might be different for different exams board tho)

Physics materials coursework ideas?

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