Interesting physics is a course that I teach at the Faculty of Science,
Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Its focus is to show that
there are many interesting things and phenomena in our everyday lives
that can be understood with the help of physics. Sadly, many people
perceive physics as a collection of formulae and claims without any
relation to reality. I try to show in my lectures that this is far
from true and that physics enables us to understand the world just in
the closest neighbourhood around us. At the lectures many interesting
experiments are performed and explained.
Selected topics of Interesting physics courses from past years:
Mechanics used by everyone: balancing by rotating arms, running
downhill to prevent slipping, the pole held by an artist, inertial
releasing of water from hands etc. Coriolis force: how to understand it, where the factor of two
in the formula comes from, a shot-trial on a rotating plate, does the
Coriolis force act also on light?
Camera: basic features - harmonic focusing scale, angular
resolution, coating, camera obscura Stress and deformation tensor illustrated in an amusing way
using a carrot root
Reflecting glass: what types of these glasses exist, how they work
How to understand the behaviour of a rotating carton of milk Soap bubbles: how they emerge, why they can last long, their
colours, experiments with them. Oscillations of the soap
films. Solving the Laplace equation using a soap film. Experimental measurement of the Euler number e using several
physical methods
Atmospheric optics: Fata morgana and mirage effects -
showing the light bending using a few students on a string,
experiments with light bending and scattering in sugar solution,
movement of the air above a fire, rainbow and halo effects
Motion of the sun on the sky: the sun path, where and when is
raises and sets, polar night and day, energy incident in 24 hours on
the earth surface at various places, how to make a solar clock Weather: clouds, storms, atmospheric electricity, rainbow
Tidal phenomena: how tides work, simple calculations,
movement of earth's crust, how Moon is influenced by tidal forces,
tearing a person falling into a black hole Vortices: what they are, how they emerge, the influence of
angular momentum on a vortex. Is the direction of a vortex formed in
a sink connected with the hemisphere (southern or northern) where it
is situated or not (we show that the latter is correct). Vortex rings
and amusing experiments with them (blowing out a candle at a distance
of 15 meters etc.)
Surface tension: coins floating on water surface, their
attraction; water carried around in a water sieve; a tea-bag as a
barrier for air but not for water; contact lenses hold in an eye; milk
flowing out of a milk carton and the patterns it forms; jumping of
mercury in a medical thermometer; vibrational modes of a soap film;
observation of inverse bubbles; fight of surface tensions of water and
alcohol when mixing them; mixture of water and starch - is it a solid
or a liquid?
Interesting sounds in our neighbourhood: the noise of a
plastic bag, whistle of a corrugated iron sheet, explanation of them
Similarity theory: How ants perceive this world, how we would
do when contracted a hundred times, how far a flea can jump, why water
bugs do not drown; bacteria suffering from the Parkinson disease Interference and diffraction around us: observing a street lamp
through a piece of fabric, diffraction on a human hair, colourful
spots on a coin when looking very close, how to understand holography
easily, Soret plate, interference fringes on a dirty mirror Physics in the kitchen: how pressure cooker and microwave oven
work, why dumplings should be torn after cooking, behaviour of a water
drop in a hot oil in a frying pan, can water boil in macaroni, the
noise when heating water to boiling, and many others Magnetism: gliding magnets, levitating superconductor and
other fascinating experiments
