Year 13 and 14 Physics Trip to Manchester

This year the A-Level Physics students went on an exciting trip to Manchester and Alton Towers – but it wasn’t all shopping and Krispy Kreme doughnuts! Some students experienced the physics of free-fall first-hand when they went on the ride ‘Oblivion’, which consists of a high vertical drop into a deep black hole (see what we did there? Black HoleJ that’s Physics too!). ‘On Air’ the ride covered 852m in 85s and had a G-force of 3.5g.Even while waiting in the queue for another ride, one eager student used the equation PE=mgh to calculate the potential energy at the top of one of the crests of the rollercoaster ‘Rita’.

At a trip to the bowling alley, the bowling  balls obeyed the laws of momentum, P=MV ,and we saw that when you turn rapidly whilst holding a ball and suddenly let go, the centrifugal force causes the ball to fly off at a tangent… and into another alley. At the museum of Science and Industry we also saw how physics could be applied to practical things , such as lifting a car, and learnt about Joules  and Rutherford’s contribution to Physics.

We all really enjoyed the trip – not only did we visit fantastic places, but we also got to know each other better which can be invaluable when working together as a class. It really was as good as – if not better! – than a doughnut.

 

By Katrina and Natasha