MajinVegeta Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 I am doing a presentation on a how to measure the wave function of a particle. I chose to do this, since I couldn't think of anything else but time travel. Anyway, do you think it would be feasible to describe how to measure the wave function of a particle in 10 slides? I think maybe 2 or 3 slides (i.e., Power Point slides) would be ideal, but I have to have 10. How about time travel? what 10 steps are there, to time travel...say to the future? the past?
blike Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 It depends on who you're writing to. If its highschool students, then the slides need to be on a more basic level, and spend more time explaining background information. If you're writing to PhD physicists, you can jump right into the formulas
fafalone Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 Nonsense, in order to be a cool nerd you have to make your slides completely meaningless to someone without a degree in the area.
MajinVegeta Posted March 17, 2003 Author Posted March 17, 2003 It's for a 7th grade class. I was thinking, maybe I shouldn't do something on QM(quantum mechanics). After all, I should be a cool nerd and do something on motor cycles or something. ideas? anything COOL would do(from a 7th graders' point of view; the QM idea was pretty cool to me)
fafalone Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 Do quantum mechanics. Do the most advanced thing you can understand.
blike Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 WHAT?! You're in 7th grade and you're talking about schwartzchild radiation?! Great stuff! Anyhow, by "cool nerd" faf means picking an advanced subject and describing it way beyond the comprehension of your targeted audience I disagree though, do time travel. It'll at least hold their attention. You could explain the basic principles of relativity and go from there.
MajinVegeta Posted March 17, 2003 Author Posted March 17, 2003 okay, then. it'll be a bit embarassing though; I always get remarks about how I shouldn't be in 7th grade(although they are only "half" right; i take a college course or 2 over the summer...). But I need your help on organizing it; I haven't a clue of how to organize it, so that they'd be able to understand.
blike Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 QM or time travel? I'll give some input tomorrow morning, its bed time for me
Radical Edward Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 go for QM. You can bring up and ace argument between Thompson (the dad) and Thompson (the son) over whether electrons are particles or waves with the mother spawning the birth of wave particle duality years ahead of the times, by calming the argument and saying "well perhaps you're both right'... If only they'd listened.
fafalone Posted March 17, 2003 Posted March 17, 2003 They're not going to listen no matter what you say, might as well impress your teacher.
MajinVegeta Posted March 17, 2003 Author Posted March 17, 2003 My teacher is already impressed. He gave me $16 from Honduras, since I pointed out that I collect money from around the world. And I have an intuitive feeling teachers are passing on this "impressed feeling" without my knowledge, for the other day, my math teacher wrote a Kenetics problem on the board, and called me to help him solve it. I don't want to be teacher's pet! last year...oh I don't want to remember.... Anway, Radical Edward, I'm afraid I don't fully understand your scenario. I like the wave/particle duality idea! here's my idea: I was just thinking of going straight forward and talking about the uncertainty principle, wave functions, and wave/particle duality and how you use that to find a wave function of a particle. The aim is to have steps on how to do something. What do you think of that plan? Is it captivating? note: my emergency project is on motor cycles.
Dudde Posted March 18, 2003 Posted March 18, 2003 bah ditch the motorcycles, too outdone and boring;) well...at least from the "cool nerd" 's point of view, stick with what you're doing, if people percieve you as smart...all the better^_^ however, you may wish to add some cool effect or something..or talk loudly...I can't even hold my fellow students' interest in things like that and they're in chemistry in high school;) (note: I'm doing college chemistry, not high school...blah..boring high school science...)
Deslaar Posted March 18, 2003 Posted March 18, 2003 Originally posted by MajinVegeta My teacher is already impressed. He gave me $16 from Honduras, since I pointed out that I collect money from around the world. And I have an intuitive feeling teachers are passing on this "impressed feeling" without my knowledge, for the other day, my math teacher wrote a Kenetics problem on the board, and called me to help him solve it. I don't want to be teacher's pet! last year...oh I don't want to remember.... Anway, Radical Edward, I'm afraid I don't fully understand your scenario. I like the wave/particle duality idea! here's my idea: I was just thinking of going straight forward and talking about the uncertainty principle, wave functions, and wave/particle duality and how you use that to find a wave function of a particle. The aim is to have steps on how to do something. What do you think of that plan? Is it captivating? note: my emergency project is on motor cycles. Personally I wouldn't do a presentation on detailed wave mechanics given the level your classmates are at. I'd tend to go for a more broad explanation of uncertainty and wave/particle duality, what it means and why QM was such a watershed event for physics (don't worry about showing how to derive wave functions unless someone asks). What you want to do it engage the audience not confuse them. You want them to able to ask questions and if you do at a low level they will be able to do that. Then you can impress them with your depth of understanding. Remember you want you classmates to ask questions.....that's really important.
fafalone Posted March 18, 2003 Posted March 18, 2003 Well I think we all know why you are advocating low-level presentations.
Deslaar Posted March 18, 2003 Posted March 18, 2003 Originally posted by fafalone Well I think we all know why you are advocating low-level presentations. And why is that?
MajinVegeta Posted March 19, 2003 Author Posted March 19, 2003 yeah, why fafalone? Is it because I want to uh...i'll get back to you on that. Deslaar: It has to be STEPS to do something. I've titled it "How to measure the wave function of a particle". I explained (in short) the uncertainty principle, wave/particle duality, and the wave function. Then, the climax: Schrodinger's equation. aye, aye!! I just know I'm goint to be embarassed!! I don't think this is good enough at all. I mean, does this even sound like steps to do something? not to me, it doesn't.:bs: (oh no, I said a bad word!!)<--a bit of humour there...
Radical Edward Posted March 24, 2003 Posted March 24, 2003 I think you would have more luck describing an experiment that shows the discrete nature of an electron (milikans oil drop experiment, or Thompsons experiement) and then show the wave nature (interference experiments based on Youngs Slits) I could explain them in detail. however sadly I'm going to tell you that Google knows all
MajinVegeta Posted March 25, 2003 Author Posted March 25, 2003 i've practically finished the presentation. I want to post it here, but I don't know how. Does anyone know how to post a power point pres. here?
fafalone Posted March 25, 2003 Posted March 25, 2003 Attach it like any other file, or zip it. I fixed it to allow .ppt files.
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