KES Physics Newsletter Summer Term 2021

Some parts of the newsletter have moved online.

To access links referenced in the newsletter, download it as a PDF from CosmicConundra.com

CosmicConundra.com

Figure: The Spiral Planetary Nebula (NGC 5189)

Note from the Editor Hello all! Thank you for reading each of this year’s newsletters. It’s been a challenging year for everyone, and I’m sure you’ve all been working very hard. As this is the last newsletter of the year, I’d like to thank Albert, Alex, Bradley, Callum, Fin, Paul, Tim, and Zak for the various contrbitutions they have made this year. I know their efforts are appreciated, and personally give me a lot of joy to read! Wishing you all a very happy (and restful!) summer break!

- Rob -

2 - 3 4 5 - 9 10 - 12

Alumni-Student Tribute to Miss Heggie Termly Updates Questions & Answers Astrophotography Alumni-Student Astrophotography Alumni-Student Astrophotography This section shows off some of the wonderful astrophotographs taken by former KES students - If you are a current student, and would like to submit a picture of the night sky for the next issue you can speak to Miss Heggie. In this section, we see two kinds of object. Galaxies, and Nebulae. Galaxies are large clumps of stars, some containing more than Bradley Holloway 100 billion stars. Nebulae are the whisps of gas and dust, left behind when stars die. These nebulae also act as birthing grounds At KES 2012 - 2019 for new stars, formed from the ashes of those that came before. I have always been fascinated by the Universe. Last year I started taking photos of the night sky, and since upgrading my equipment I have been able to look deep into space. My proudest achievement so far is imaging a galaxy 150 million light-years away.

The Andromeda Galaxy - The nearest galaxy to our own, at a distance of 2.5 million light-years – Best seen in winter months. Photo by Callum Shingleton-Smith

Callum Shingleton-Smith

At KES 2012 - 2019 I’ve been doing astro- photography for around a year now and it’s been a fun journey - you can get some great images whatever the equipment you have (I started out with my phone camera). I recommend giving it a try - winter nights are good The Whirlpool Galaxy - A spiral galaxy located 31 million for clear skies providing the light-years from Earth. NGC 5195 is a galaxy passing be- weather holds! hind M51 tugging on its arm. Photo by Bradley Holloway

2 KES Physics Newsletter Alumni-Student Astrophotography

The Veil Nebula - A supernova remnant 2,100 light-years from Earth, left by a star about 20x the size of the sun which exploded over 10,000 years ago. Photo by Bradley Holloway

The Milky Way Galaxy – The outer edge of our own galaxy, home to our solar system and 100 bilion others. Best seen in summer months. Photo by Callum Shingleton-Smith

KES Physics Newsletter 3 Tribute to Miss Heggie Goodbye Miss Heggie!

Without any shadow of a doubt, teachers play the most crucial role in science. Without them, the best scientists in the world would never have the interest to go forwards, and discover new and exciting things about the Universe. Miss Heggie has played such a big part in inspiring, motivating, and supporting all of us in this newsletter (and countless others!) that overlapped with her time at KES.

Miss H, from all of us writing this newsletter, we wish you the very best for the future, and thank you for your patience, kindness, and most of all for sharing your love of science!

Wherever you go next, we know you will bring your Positive Physics Attitude with you!

- The Newsletter Team -

4 KES Physics Newsletter Termly Updates were always interesting special functions, ordinary (with the exception of differential equations (ODEs) labs). Astronomy gave me and complex analysis. insight into stella structure This culminated in two and evolution as well as coursework style exams that a grasp of cosmological were assessed recently. calculation, the progression of the universe as well Looking to final year I have as its beginnings and a begun researching and variety of different atomical finalising my proposal for my tools and techniques that final year project. We are can be used to deduce expected to complete a Fin Cooney things about the universe 300-hour project on a topic and objects in it. We from a given list of projects. completed a portfolio that One really stood out to Studied Physics, demonstrated the skills we me; a project centred Maths, History, Further learned over the course of around a field known as Maths (AS) the year as well as a report astrodynamics. This involves on a topic that we found the study of how objects interesting, mine was on the move through the universe Reading Physics observation of pulsars. and how we, as humans, at Loughborough can move between these University In our main physics module objects on manned or this term involved solid unmanned vehicles. My state physics. This involved project will likely involve At KES 2011 - 2018 the study of ridged matter a simulation of a ship that This term I have been and expands on the idea leaves earth on a given looking at a variety of quantum mechanics, day and journeys to a of physics, maths and scaling up quantum to have planet or moon (probably astronomy, each posing many small systems being mars). I will also look into the their own unique and modelled as one. The main logistics and feasibility of often challenging trials piece of coursework for sustaining life at the chosen and tribulations. Reflecting this module was a look into destination long term. on the past academic analysis of x-ray diffraction year, I realise that the most (XRD) data. This piece was Next year I’m looking obvious and poignant as interesting as it was forward to my modules difference between first challenging and gave me a such as dynamical systems, year and second, was wider appreciation for XRD. medical physics and thin the increase in workload. My maths module gave us film physics. I did expect this to some a look into things such as extent, since my second year is worth 40% of my overall marks (third year is the other 60%) but was still surprised at how much work the Physics department expected of us especially during the pandemic. Having said this, the baptism of fire that was this year was still certainly enjoyable and the topics covered on the course

KES Physics Newsletter 5 Termly Updates A classic example used upward-pointing pendulum to explain the concept is an unstable equilibrium of stability is a pendulum. because, if you displace Imagine a pendulum it, even by a tiny amount, hanging downwards (Figure the displacement keeps 1a). This is an equilibrium growing until the pendulum position because, if no hangs downward. external forces are applied, the pendulum will not So, to wrap up this move. If you displace the example, a stable pendulum by moving the configuration means, if bob to one side, the bob you make a small change, Paul Jarvis will swing back and, after the system will return to its oscillating a few times, original state. Alternatively, return to its original position. if the system is in an Studied Physics, Therefore, not only is the unstable configuration, Chemistry, Maths, original configuration an a small disturbance will Biology equilibrium position, it is keep growing and the also a stable equilibrium system can undergo a because, if you make a dramatic change until it Read BA and MSci small displacement, the reaches a new equilibrium. Natural Sciences at pendulum returns to where Such instabilities are Cambridge University it started. important in many fields in physics. Figure 2 shows Ph.D. in Geology from Now imagine that the an experiment where pendulum is instead a denser fluid has been Bristol University pointing perfectly upwards placed above a lighter (Figure 1b). It may be fluid. A barrier has initially Currently a post- surprising but this too is separated the two layers doctoral research an equilibrium position. and then been removed. A If there were no external denser fluid overlying a light assistant at the forces and the pendulum fluid is unstable and we can University of Geneva was perfectly made, the see the two fluids change pendulum would stay positions through what is At KES 2001 - 2008 still. However, in reality, called the Rayleigh-Taylor Much of my research in small disturbances in the instability. It turns out that volcanoes focuses on air and defects in the this type of instability can the concept of stability pendulum mean it would happen in many different and instability. When the be impossible to position natural environments magma storage region the pendulum like this including volcanic clouds beneath a volcano in practice. In fact, this and magma chambers, becomes unstable, it can demonstrates that the oceans, and stars. cause an eruption. This eruption, if explosive, might generate a volcanic ash plume which itself can become unstable, causing it to collapse and form a pyroclastic density current. However, it is not always obvious what we mean by the terms “stable” and “unstable”. Figure 1 Figure 2 6 KES Physics Newsletter Termly Updates producing dark matter channel, where, instead of from high-energy photon colliding, the initial protons interactions at the LHC’, exchange a pair of photons had me once again delving which fuse into the mediator into particle collision data which, as before, decays from the Large Hadron into the dark matter pair. Collider and statistical Following analysis (that took models in an attempt to us weeks) this one looked discover the illusive dark about 100 times more likely matter particle. than the monophoton case, but limitations with the LHC Firstly, we looked at the detection methods meant Zak Goble monophoton channel. This that it was also about is where the two colliding 100 times less likely to be protons collide and form a detected. This meant that Studied Physics, photon (particle of light), the expected outcome Maths, Economics, which radiates an unknown was about the same. Further Maths (AS) high energy mediating Our work was of genuine particle which then decays scientific consequence as dark matter particle- it suggested to the team Reading Physics at antiparticle pair. This one working at the LHC that Manchester University had been explored at the if the specific detection LHC before and, amongst methods for the photon- At KES 2010 - 2017 the trillions of collision events photon fusion channel are over the several years the able to be improved, it I’m Zak and I have just collider has been running shows a lot of promise for finished my degree, which for, they found zero of these future research towards the means I am no longer specific events. Even with discovery of dark matter. exceeding the RDA of our huge efforts towards misery. As ever, while the waking up and getting With my degree now infinitely wisdomous Rob ready to work by 9am on finished, this shall be my requests three articles per two days per week, and final article. Cheers to Rob year but Manchester only spending weeks simply for organising everything has two terms, this one will attempting to log in to the and cheers to anyone that feature a no-filter explicit data servers (Linux sucks), has read the rubbish I’ve description of my lab life. we didn’t find anything spewed over the last four either. Our conclusion here, years. As my degree was a four- as is usual with dark matter year integrated master’s studies, was, ‘we found One last message to degree, instead of writing absolutely nothing and everyone at KES: a dissertation at the end we’re 95% sure about it.’ of our third year we had See you at school next year to complete a year-long Secondly, we looked at a innit. master’s project. This sector that hadn’t been featured all the normal previously explored. This was Zak pleasures of lab – data the photon-photon fusion handling, analysis, blindly attempting to make sense of an Excel spreadsheet full of random numbers – as well as a twenty-page thesis that took months to write. My project, titled, ‘Darkness from light:

KES Physics Newsletter 7 Termly Updates submit our answers and mechanical tunnelling. that seemed to work quite In essence quantum well, personally I think the mechanical tunnelling is environment was a whole just how a particle can lot less stressful than a pass through a barrier that regular exam hall silence. would be impossible to pass according to classical I also learned lots about physics, this is directly electromagnetism and applied in a scanning solidified my understanding tunnelling microscope. An of fields. Electromagnetic STM detects electrons that induction was also great to have tunnelled from the Albert Haladay learn since I had previously surface of a conducting heard of the concept, material to the tip of the however using maths STM, which allows the Studied Physics, to derive Faraday’s law surface of the material to Maths, Computing, allowed me to understand imaged, since the further Further Maths the relationship between away you are from the the two a whole lot more. material, the less likely an The general idea is that a electron will tunnel. Reading Theoretical changing magnetic field will Physics at Nottingham create an electric field, and There was also a University a changing electric field will philosophical aspect to create a magnetic field, this quantum mechanics as is also how electromagnetic well which I found very At KES 2013 - 2020 waves propagate. interesting. For instance, This is the third article I have Maxwell’s equations were “Laplace’s Demon” was written for the KES physics interesting and using them an article that previously newsletter, since my last to derive the speed of an posed the idea “If someone entry I have experienced electromagnetic wave was knew the location and the first-year exams. incredibly eye-opening, momentum of every Admittedly it was a stressful since the method to do so particle in the universe time but being under exam was just a direct application at one point in time, conditions helped me of the equations on an they could calculate the adapt to university style electric and magnetic past and future position examination questions, field that are both moving of every particle with which were dramatically sinusoidally. the laws of classical different to A-Level and mechanics.”, which GCSE exam questions. In We also covered promotes a deterministic most of my exams this year introductory quantum view of the universe there were six questions mechanics, which was not where every moment in and I only had to answer as bad as it sounds. The time is set in stone. On four, which sounds easy but general idea was that small the other hand, particles the questions themselves particles can be treated like in quantum mechanics were very long winded and probabilities. Although there have an inherently random could be very challenging. is a lot of word soup like nature and are seen from Surprisingly enough covid “the time-independent one- a probabilistic perspective. restrictions did not affect dimensional Schrödinger This suggests the universe the examinations much at equation” and “quantum has a random nature and is all, the exams were open mechanical particles”, the incompatible with Laplace’s book and done at home. topic made some sense. Demon. We were given an extra Continuing from that I also 30 minutes to scan in and learned about quantum

8 KES Physics Newsletter Termly Updates ‘particle’ in a number of are not very energetic), contexts. Generally, we but for much more violent think of a particle as a small reactions (like collisions unit of ‘stuff’. A fundamental of protons in the Large particle in particular, is the Hadron Collider at CERN), smallest possible unit of we cannot make such a stuff. Electrons (we think) statement. are fundamental particles, meaning you couldn’t Quantum Field Theory (or take a tiny knife and split QFT) is the natural offspring an electron in half - it’s the of combining Quantum smallest amount of electron Mechanics (the rules for Robert Clemenson flavoured matter we can how tiny particles behave) have. with special relativity (Einstein’s E = mc2). With Studied Physics, One of the great revolutions the knowledge that matter Chemistry, Maths, of 20th century physics, can spring, seemingly out of Further Maths was the revelation that the nowhere, our whole notion behaviour of tiny pieces of ‘what is a particle?’ of matter (like electrons, totally goes out the window. Read BA Physics protons, neutrons, photons and MMathPhys of light etc) behave very The way QFT describes Mathematical and differently to bigger pieces matter is a little different to Theoretical Physics at of matter (like tennis balls, the particle picture we’re trousers, ants, coffee cups comfortable with. At the Oxford University etc). The rules that describe most fundamental level, this behaviour of tiny we describe all matter Physics Ph.D. student particles, we call Quantum and fundamental forces at Sussex University Mechanics. in the Universe via a field. An Electron Field, a Photon The other pillar of 20th Field, six kinds of Quark At KES 2008 - 2015 century physics comes Fields, and so on. Particles Hello again everybody! from Einstein. Einstein tells are no longer the most This term has been busy as us (among other things!) fundamental description of ever, as I’m sure it has for all that E = mc2, with E for stuff in the Universe, fields of you reading at KES. energy, m for mass, and c are. What we know as for the speed of light. One particles are just excitations I don’t have much new to way of interpreting this of the underlying fields, report at this stage really, equation, is that in certain which fill the entire Universe. I’m working on a few circumstances, we are interesting problems, and allowed to create mass You can picture a pot of hoping to put a paper out by using up energy. This water gently boiling on a sometime later this year. seems like an interesting stove. In this analogy the As there are no major conclusion. If you’ve been field is the smooth surface of updates, I thought I might paying attention to your the water, and the particles tell you a little bit about chemistry lessons, you will are the bubbles which a very important part of have heard that ‘mass cause the surface to excite physics that I use in my is conserved’ (or more and ripple. everyday work, Quantum precisely, the number Field Theory. of protons, neutron and There’s a whole lot more electrons are all fixed). that could be said here! You have probably This is essentially true for In the meantime, you encountered the term chemical reactions (which can check out this video.

KES Physics Newsletter 9 Questions and Answers How are meteors made? Questions and (Year 7) A meteor is defined as any piece of rock that enters the Earth’s atmosphere. Before Answers entering the atmosphere, these rocks are Submit your questions to Miss Heggie, or through the called meteoroids. They normally enter the Cosmic Conundra contact page atmosphere at very high speed so, once they Your questions this term were all fantastic! I’ve start colliding with molecules in the air, can only shown a small number here, but you can find become heated to very high temperatures answers to the others on CosmicConundra.com due to friction. This causes them to glow which under ‘Problems’, and ‘Questions & Answers’. is why meteors sometimes appear as fire balls in the sky. Most meteors entirely burn up during (I’m often quite delayed in writing these up, so this but some make it to the ground. In this case, they are called meteorites. apologies in advance!) Meteoroids can have a few different origins but How did the Universe start? most have been around since the formation of (Year 7) the solar system. Currently, it is thought that the solar system formed from the collapse of part With a BANG! (we think). Not the kind of bang cloud of matter. The cloud contained so much you could hear though. The ‘Big Bang’ was the mass that gravity pulled parts of it together. beginning of all space, matter, and energy in As these regions became denser, most of the the Universe. matter came together to form the Sun whilst other fragments formed a surrounding, rotating If we trace back the growth of our Universe disk. Over millions of years, these fragments today, we can see that around 13.8 billion collided and accreted to form larger bodies years ago, all the stuff in the cosmos should such as planets. However, many smaller have been crammed into the same point in fragments remain and these form the asteroids space. In the 1960’s Stephen Hawking proved and meteoroids that exist throughout our solar mathematically that this was possible, through system today. his work on spacetime singularities. Paul Jarvis A spacetime singularity is a point in space and a moment in time, where the laws of physics as far as we know them break down entirely. The beginning of the Universe, and the centre of a black hole have this feature in common, both Did Isaac Newton actually have an apple are spacetime singularities. fall on his head? So what are the limits of what we can say (Year 7) about the start of the Universe? Well, beyond In all honesty, no. However, there a number of this spacetime singularity (the Big Bang itself) individuals at the time have written accounts we cannot go much further. that Issac Newton told them he first thoughts on gravity occurred to him when he saw an apple We have a pretty good idea of what went on fall from a tree. Whether this is really the case, about 10-36 seconds after the big bang. Slightly or he just used the falling of an apple as an less of an idea at 10-37 seconds after, and far example to think about and explain his ideas less of an idea at 10-43 seconds after. is still debatable. Nonetheless, there is a tree at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, where Studying the early Universe and the Big Bang Newton lived, which apparently is “the tree” is difficult for a number of reasons, but we are from which the apple fell. learning new things all the time! Paul Jarvis Robert Clemenson

KES Physics Newsletter 10 Questions and Answers What are black holes? What do they do? Do you die if you fall into a black hole? (Year 7) (Year 7)

A black hole is what happens when gravity In one sense yes, in the other sense no. Is that wins. We all know roughly how gravity works, clear? Ok good. Just kidding... it pulls us down towards the Earth, it pulls the Earth into orbit around the Sun, and the Sun into The weird thing is, it’s all really a matter of orbit around the centre of the galaxy. Gravity perspective. Let’s consider a very very big wants to cram matter together as much as is black hole (say, over 1 million times the mass possible. of our sun - this would in fact be called a supermassive black hole). The reason I want to However, usually gravity is not the only force think about big black holes, is that these are present. Fortunately for us, our feet are made actually a lot more gentle to fall into. It’s the of atoms, and these atoms have negatively small scrappy black holes that will rip you apart charged electrons whizzing around inside. by spaghettification(the technical term for The negative electrons in our feet repel the having your body pulled into a long length of negative electrons in the ground, which allows human spaghetti by a hungry black hole). gravity to be overcome, stopping us from all being crumpled together at the centre of the So for a supermassive black hole, we don’t Earth. This is possible because the repulsive have to worry about being spaghettified at force between out feet and the ground is the even horizon. Now let’s suppose you and I stronger than the force of gravity trying to are sat inside a spaceship some distance from squash us down. the black hole, and you decide to dive head first into the beast (that seems a bit silly, why But what happens when gravity is the strongest would you do that??). What happens next is force? This is only ever the case in some of the now totally dependant on who’s making the largest stars in the Universe (over ~60 times the observation. So let’s discuss the two cases mass of our sun). When all other options have separately. been exhausted, and all nuclear fuel burned off, a star will have no choice but to collapse From my perspective: I see you plummet inwards due to gravity. When this collapse is towards the horizon of the black hole, but as unhalted, the collapse continues indefinitely. you get closer and closer to passing through With all the mass of the star compressed to a the horizon, you begin to slow down (as if in single point in space with infinite density, the slow motion). You keep getting slower and Singularity of the black hole. slower, never quite passing through the horizon of the black hole. All the while, you become Surrounding the singularity is the Event Horizon, flatter and flatter, becoming smeared across the dark boundary between the Universe the horizon. But still, I never see you fall through. outside the black hole, and the interior from To me, time appears to have frozen for you - so which there is no escape. from my perspective you never even fell into the black hole! Black holes are truly bizarre objects. They bend space, slow down time, and play a large role From your perspective: You feel yourself in the formation of galaxies. I look forward to falling towards the horizon of the black hole, telling you more about them soon! and accelerating (not slowing down as I saw happen). You pass through the horizon as if it Robert Clemenson wasn’t even though, and you look up back towards my spaceship as you do, and see the Universe jolt up in speed - supernovae, galaxies colliding, the entire Universe may pass you by in an instant. The rest of the tale is not as pleasant.. As you fall towards to singularity of the black hole, tidal forces on your body increase, and you are ripped apart. Death by black hole.

Robert Clemenson

11 KES Physics Newsletter Questions and Answers What makes a planet habitable? (Year 7)

Ultimately, many things need to be “just right” for the planet to be habitable. This has led to an idea called the Goldilocks Principle. In the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks tries three bowls of porridge and prefers the one which is neither too hot or too cold but “just right”. This can be extended to determining the conditions for life, particularly in regards to the presence of liquid water. For example, if the Earth was nearer the Sun, it would receive more radiation from the Sun, possibly rising the surface temperature and keeping it too hot for liquid water to exist (it would be vapour instead). Conversely, if the Earth was further away, it would receive less radiation, leading to a colder surface where water would freeze. Without liquid water, life probably, couldn’t exist and this has given rise to the idea of a habitable zone around the Sun where liquid water could exist. Of course, water isn’t the only consideration, but its possibly the most important.

Paul Jarvis

Revision Tips (Year 10 & 12)

Let me first entirely plagiarise ‘Tim Souths 1 step guarantee to education success’ from the Summer 2017 issue of this newsletter: ALWAYS DO PAST PAPERS. You know the thing you’re going to have to do in the end is an exam of a particular format, so the very best preparation you can do is to get lots of practice doing questions from that particular format.

Past papers alone aren’t much use though. They’re great for identifying what it is you don’t know, but if you then don’t go away and learn the things you got wrong, you’re always going to make the same mistakes!

When I was revising, I would write in red on the front of practice exams all the topics I’d made mistakes on. I’d then go away, spend a few hours reading about, making notes on, and practicing similar questions from the topic, and then come back to retry the questions from the paper. After all of this, you should have a model set of solutions for the practice paper, and some good notes on the topics you got wrong!

Robert Clemenson

KES Physics Newsletter 12