One consequence of being a physicist is that you can’t go anywhere without seeing physics calculations that need doing. I’ve just been to our library hunting down books on the medical technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which was an interesting exercise in itself, since one textbook I found also has a chapter on homeopathy. […]
Continue readingMonth: April 2012
Experiments with known answers
Earlier this week I read through a student’s work placement report. Our engineering students all go out on two work placements over the course of their study with us, and need to provide reports on these. I was slightly amused to read about the student’s views on the novel experience of doing experiments where you […]
Continue readingConvection and continuity
With the coming of the colder evenings, we’ve had our new heat pump going. It’s quite a powerful beast, as it has a large volume to heat, and it comes with a plethora of different settings – temperature, fan speed, air flow angle and so forth. It’s taken some experimentation to get some decent settings […]
Continue readingThe most interesting “photo” I’ve ever taken
This week I’ve started my Study Leave with a short visit to the University of Otago in Dunedin. Today, amongst other things, I had a quick tour of one of the atomic physics labs there. Recently, Mikkel Andersen’s group has managed to trap a single atom of rubidium. It’s quite a complicated process – you […]
Continue readingWhy do I need to know about quantum mechanics?
In my last lecture before the Easter break, I spent a bit of time putting the subject matter into a broader context for the students. It was a second year lecture in our short paper on ‘Quantum and Solid State Physics’. The paper is mostly taken by electronic engineering (the majority) and physics students. It’s […]
Continue readingThe test with talking in
It’s about time I got another entry onto this blog. To be fair, we spent the long weekend (and the university stretches it out by making Tuesday a university holiday) in sunny (not) Hawke’s Bay, enjoying the wine (well, I did – Karen obviously didn’t, being pregnant), the art deco architecture, the coffee (some nice […]
Continue readingWhat are school qualifications for?
I was perusing the news from Blighty last night and found this article on government proposals for reform of the A-Level (see also the ‘related articles it links to). That’s the exam that students in the UK (excluding Scotland) do at the end of school (age 18) before heading off to university, to other training […]
Continue readingBenefits of student assignments
I spent a large fraction of last week marking assignments. I’m currently teaching three different papers, and, due to a major lack of concentration on my part, I managed to set each class an assignment that was due on the same day. To be useful for students, assignments need to be marked rapidly, which meant […]
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