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Year 12 physicists got a sense of life studying at university as they visited Cambridge University Engineering Department.
The group spent the morning in two laboratories taking part in undergraduate experiments. In the Materials Laboratory, the students used tensometers to obtain force-extension characteristics for copper, mild steel and polyethylene at room temperature and tested these in liquid nitrogen at -196oC. They were also able to examine their own hair under the scanning electron microscope.
In the Hydraulics Laboratory, the girls used the flumes and took precise measurements of flow rate and depth as water flowed over a v-notched weir. They were able to use their results to derive a relationship between these two variables.
The trip was both informative and entertaining and gave the students a real taste of life as an undergraduate physicist.