Physics

Despite the challenges of the last two years, the momentum of the Physics department was undiminished as we stormed to glory in multiple competitions through the hard work and enthusiasm of students from all ages. A big congratulations to the Weizmann Safecracking team, Astro Pi, Space Design, and Physics Olympiad teams, who each found enormous success. In lessons, too, students continue to amaze us in their enthusiasm for the laws of space, time, matter, and existence itself!

Dr S Parsons (Head of Physics)

Cern 2020

In February 2020, A Level Physicists travelled to Geneva and enjoyed a fantastic trip to CERN. Travelling 10km into France across the diameter of the LHC gave us a sense of the scale of the engineering. Upon reaching the northern-most point of the accelerator, we went 90m underground and saw the Compact Muon Solenoid — a 14,000 tonne detector.This is where scientists could discover extra dimensions, or particles that make up dark matter. We were fortunate to visit the ‘Antimatter Factory’ and learn about how scientists hope to determine the interaction between antimatter and gravity. It was an unforgettable trip to the forefront of modern physics.

Mr R Chuter (Teacher of Physics)

Inspirational Lectures

Mr Martin has organised a series of exciting lectures by inspiring women in physics. In September 2021, the department was delighted to welcome Alexandra Mitchell, a current PhD student studying gravitational waves, as a visiting speaker. Students from Years 10 to 13 listened attentively as she described gravitational waves, where they come from and her role detecting them. This includes building the most sensitive seismometer in the world.Alex also spoke about how many potential careers are available to those with a Physics degree, including everything from particle researcher to careers in finance and even medical physics. As a department we were delighted to be able to hear from such an excellent role model for our budding Physicists.

Weizmann Safecracking Competition

We have overseen three entries to the Weizmann Safecracking Competition in the last two years — one ‘real’ and one virtual competition for the annual challenge run by the Weizmann Institute. Over the preceding five months student entrants had been designing a safe and building it with the help of the DT department. The catch was that the safe had to be unlocked using physics principles. In 2021 we had two teams, with some amazing puzzles including a fluidised sand bed, a gyroscope, a Barton’s pendulum and a dizzying diode bridge to confuse and bamboozle our opponents.