Two things Lower Sixth students should consider

You should consider becoming a 16-19 member of the Institute of Physics.  It's free.

Follow this link:
http://www.iop.org/education/student/youth_membership/page_41684.html


I've explained about the Headstart programme of university taster courses that one of last year's students went on.  They are mainly Engineering and the Physical Sciences, but might help you to decide about a more vocationally based course for a subject that you haven't studied in school.

These courses cost, as far as I can see.

http://www.etrust.org.uk/headstart.cfm

Those Horizon programmes

BBC2 has shown two brilliant Horizon documentaries on the Physics of the entire Universe and the Physics of the really small.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mgllj/Horizon_20122013_How_Big_is_the_Universe/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mmrc0/Horizon_20122013_How_Small_is_the_Universe/

Hopefully these will still be valid for the next week or two.  Watch them!

A colourful oil stain

Here's an oil stain in the road at Castleton in Derbyshire.  What happens is that oil forms a thin film, like the skin on a bubble.  Remember that not only can light pass through glass, it can also reflect as well - "a man who looks on glass, on it may stay his eye, or if he pleaseth through it pass and then the heavens espy"!  When light hits the top surface of the oil, both things happen.  Some light reflects towards your eye and some goes in to the oil.  The light that goes into the oil hits the far side of the oil and reflects back towards your eye.  So there are now two rays of the same light heading for your eye.  Where the waves line up correctly peak-with-peak you see a colour.  This is called constructive interference.  The colours all have different wavelengths so they line up in different places giving you the rainbow effect in the oil.

The cattle grid in Glen Nevis

Last week we sat on the slopes of Ben Nevis looking down on this cattle grid.  Our seat was near the top corner of the isolated patch of woodland in the picture.  We noticed that there was a big time delay between seeing the car hit the cattle grid and hearing the sound.  I timed it.  Now is that sad?  Anyway, the values were 2.74 and 2.61 seconds respectively.  If we assume the speed of sound in air to be about 335 metres per second, then that means we were sat about 90o metres away. To read about the way in which air temperature affects the speed of sound, try this Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound

If you go to The Sky At Night TV programme website http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h and scroll down, you'll find the April Moore Marathon Observing guide. It lists 55 things to look for to celebrate 55 years of the programme. My telescope is not for stars but I took this photo of the Moon. 3/4 of the way up on the left hand side, there a small dark crater in a lighter band. This is the crater Plato, one of the 55 objects. The section around it is called the Alpine Valley, another of the objects.

The Sky At Night

The Sky At Night is the longest running BBC TV programme, I think. I've never managed to stay up late to watch it, but the website is good, and of course it's on the i-player now. There are even repeats on BBC 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h

I am interested to note that Mercury will be visible around sunrise from the middle of next week, looking south east. That means maybe 8 in the morning, so I shall be looking from my lab window when I get to school.

Jupiter was very bright in the sky over Wigton tonight, looking south west at about 6pm.

Renewable electricity??

I know what we mean by a renewable energy resource but I'm struggling with the idea that electricity is renewable. Assuming it keeps raining (a fair bet in the Scottish Highlands) then Lochan na Lairige will continue to be refilled with water. That's renewable. The water flows down the pipe below the dam from an altitude of 500 metres down to a power station on Loch Tay over 300 metres below. The gravitational potential energy turns into kinetic to drive a turbine and generate electricity. I teach that renewable means "won't run out". The gravitational potential in the water at the top of the hill will continue in perpetuity. So can we say that the electricity itself, as the end product, is renewable or should the sign say "electricity generated from a renewable energy source"??