Institute of Physics Evening Lecture

'Whacky things we could do if we only listened more carefully'

presented by John Nunn, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington

Pippard Lecture Theatre, Cavendish Laboratories, University of Cambridge

Thursday 16th October 2012

A group of Year 8 and Year 9 students went to the prestigious Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge to listen to a talk about sound. They found out how well they can hear, how does age affect the hearing theshold and how strange applications of sound are used by scientists. They learnt about the Doppler effect, think about police sirens changing tone as they whiz past you, they measured the acceleration of an object due to gravity using sound and they listened to a ball to find out the height from which it was dropped!

Student comments:

Emmanuel Sawadogo (9RP): ' It was very good and the part with the copper pole was interesting.'

Chelsea Townsend (10MR): 'I liked it all especially the pipes and the magnet because it made me laugh.'

Students on the trip: Isaac Lucia (9NF), Jay Moore (9MT), Joseph Thomas 99MT), Emmanuel Sawadogo (9RP), Chelsea Townsend (10MR)

Geraldine Wright

Science Curriculum Development Manager