Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Should I study and experiment with Mott insulators and superconductivity or electron/X ray collisions (end goal in that being the Compton effect)? Which is more feasible for a seven month long project??

You'll want to make sure you put down newspaper so you don't get anything on the kitchen table.

Seriously, this is quite a bit beyond what is usually done by high school students for science fairs and undoubtedly requires equipment, technique and experience. I love the ambition though. Have you approached a local university that does this sort of work to see if you can work alongside someone in their lab? Just a guess, and perhaps some of the physicists here will weigh in, but a quick read on the subject suggests that it's not a beginner subject that you can do yourself while building your own equipment.

Howard

Oh yeah I would not do this without supervision and the proper equipment. I would love to get in touch with a lab after I've finished designing the experiments in depth. As I only have 7 months for this, I would prefer to choose one or the other.

I know it would take a lot of work but it would be a dream to observe these things in action. I will put in a heavy amount of research and approach the lab with a set of clearly detailed, legitimate experiments that I designed (I have the basic ideas now but they'll need a lot more refining and advice). I want to make sure I don't seem like some deluded high school student solely enamored with the idea of working with this stuff. I want the lab to see me as a person that has studied this a lot and has viable experiments. Gosh the “approaching the lab” thing really scares me, I've never worked outside school lab/homemade lab settings...thankfully it's still in the kinda-far future

You wouldn't have come up with the idea if you weren't already an experienced science student. There's no doubt that your teachers and school administration know that as well, and perhaps one of the faculty or administration can help arrange a contact at a local university if one does this sort of research. You undoubtedly know that it's far beyond what you can do at home or in a school laboratory.

Some universities will allow access to exceptional highschool students and maybe an adult you know can help set that up. You don't have to make the contacts yourself - I'm sorry if I didn't say that earlier.

Howard

I did not no this-- I'm sure my math and/or physics teachers will be happy to try and make arrangements for me Thanks!