2 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
suggest a Investigatory Reasearch topic that we can use (9th grade science)
Comment by griston284 at 14/09/2022 at 15:45 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
https://www.sciencefriday.com/educational-resources/build-a-cloud-chamber/
This looks fun!
Comment by physics_defector at 17/09/2022 at 18:57 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
/u/griston284 has an excellent answer. In the event you don't pick that, I have one recommendation and one anti-recommendation.
Recommendation: The double-pendulum[1] is a deceptively interesting physical system. If you have any interest in what's colloquially called "the butterfly effect", semi-colloquially "chaos theory", and in mathematics and physics chaotic dynamical systems, it's a great project. Attach to the end of the outer pendulum an LED whose color you can customize, then release the double-pendulum from various positions. If you record video of this in a dark room and change the LED color each time, you could overlay the videos to get a visually spectacular example of mathematical chaos!
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_pendulum
Anti-recommendation: Avoid tesla coils and in general other visually exciting electromagnetic phenomena as well. It's very, very easy to hurt yourself or your teammates without a strong understanding of electrical safety measures, to the point that it's better to avoid anything like that at your stage. I'm partly speaking from experience here, in that I did exactly that kind of tinkering when I was a child and teenager and now understand that on several occasions I almost created accidents which would have killed me. Don't be like child me. Be wise.