Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I am a grade 11 student who needs help with finding a project idea that is related to physics and would satisfy all the criterias required. So, this is a cross curricular project, which means that i need to tie this project with another course. As of right now, i am thinking of linking the project with computer science or computer engineering. Also I can only do projects regarding these specific topics: Kinematics, Forces, Electricity and Magnetism, Energy, and Waves and Sound. I need a idea soon as i need to submit a proposal. It would be nice if you guys can tell me what format i could use to present this effectively who my target audience should be, and any links or resources i can use to dig deeper in the idea. I would like to thank everyone who contributed in advance.

saj5211,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the forum. It can be tricky when trying to combine two or more subjects together and keep them both relevant. If you'd like to link a Physics (Phy) project to Computer Science (CS), I would suggest a Phy experiment relating to one of the categories you list and combining that with CS by writing a program that models the real world physics. SCRATCH or PYTHON should work for your purposes.

For example: a study of Force = mass x acceleration (F=ma). You could easily set up a marble run experiment where you role a marble down a ramp of increasing lengths recording the time it takes to reach the bottom. If you have coding experience, you could fairly easily model the forces acting on the marble in a computer. These should equate to a function of the force of gravity minus drag forces (air resistance and friction). Now comes the link. In real life, on Earth, it is difficult to remove drag forces, but in a computer, you can write the program to include or not include drag. You would be able to use computer programming to model and estimate over what length of the marble run drag forces begin to significantly affect your physical experiment by "running" the same experiments in your computer model with drag "off". The difference in run times would allow you to draw some conclusions about the significance drag forces play in F=ma in the real world and how neglecting them in computer modelling can be a benefit and/or a hindrance.