- #1
bignik
- 5
- 0
Hello!
I'm currently in my junior year at an IB school. It is time to choose the subject and the topics for our extended essays, and I am thoroughly convinced of writing an experimental paper in Physics. The point is that I need help on the topics. One fundamental problem is that they ask us to take such important decision before the end of the first semester in our first IB year, which, from a certain point of view is good because we work in advance, but on the other hand we do not have a sufficient knowledge of the subject to judge which areas interest us the most.
As a matter of fact, I have little background information on which to base my decision as all we have covered in the course up until now is physical measurements + error propagation and machanics.
Nonetheless, I have one idea which I think is feasible (but then again I cannot be certain as I do not have sufficient background knowledge) and it would be to build a multi-stage (probably dual) electromagnetic projectile accelerator or coilgun.
It would consist in placing a ferromagnetic sphere in a barrel which is surrounded by two solenoids (powered by capacitors). As the projectile is accelerated by the magnetic field, as it approaches a given (calculated I presume) point between the coils, the first solenoid would have to be shut off. I was thinking of doing this through a microcontroller such as the Arduino (which can be easily set up through some C coding) which would be triggered by the closing of a simple circuit given by the bullet crossing the given point in the barrel.
My experiment could consist in comparing some "output" values such as velocity/acceleration/Kinetic Energy of the projectile to changing "input" values such as voltage, current, capacitance. Or I could calculate efficiency and similar calculations.
...i honestly donno because, as I said, my knowledge on the subject is very limited. Nonetheless, I am certain that the necessary information is part of the syllabus, its just that we haven't covered it yet.
What do you think of this idea?
Any other ideas would be very much appreciated.
I'm currently in my junior year at an IB school. It is time to choose the subject and the topics for our extended essays, and I am thoroughly convinced of writing an experimental paper in Physics. The point is that I need help on the topics. One fundamental problem is that they ask us to take such important decision before the end of the first semester in our first IB year, which, from a certain point of view is good because we work in advance, but on the other hand we do not have a sufficient knowledge of the subject to judge which areas interest us the most.
As a matter of fact, I have little background information on which to base my decision as all we have covered in the course up until now is physical measurements + error propagation and machanics.
Nonetheless, I have one idea which I think is feasible (but then again I cannot be certain as I do not have sufficient background knowledge) and it would be to build a multi-stage (probably dual) electromagnetic projectile accelerator or coilgun.
It would consist in placing a ferromagnetic sphere in a barrel which is surrounded by two solenoids (powered by capacitors). As the projectile is accelerated by the magnetic field, as it approaches a given (calculated I presume) point between the coils, the first solenoid would have to be shut off. I was thinking of doing this through a microcontroller such as the Arduino (which can be easily set up through some C coding) which would be triggered by the closing of a simple circuit given by the bullet crossing the given point in the barrel.
My experiment could consist in comparing some "output" values such as velocity/acceleration/Kinetic Energy of the projectile to changing "input" values such as voltage, current, capacitance. Or I could calculate efficiency and similar calculations.
...i honestly donno because, as I said, my knowledge on the subject is very limited. Nonetheless, I am certain that the necessary information is part of the syllabus, its just that we haven't covered it yet.
What do you think of this idea?
Any other ideas would be very much appreciated.