Physics

Given that the main casualty of the previous year’s lockdowns was practical work, it was a pleasure to see students applying their knowledge, especially when the link between experiment and theory is made.

We have been very pleased to make full use of the laboratories, including the new one completed over the summer of 2021.

This year, nine students sat Round 1 of the Physics Olympiad. Congratulations go to Sam Arwas and Cara Fraser who achieved a Bronze II Award. Joseph Steel, Nick Long, Finlay Pickrell and Sebastian Rugina attained a Bronze I Award. Jordan Miao and Marcus Merritt achieved Silver Awards, placing them in the top 30% of students nationally. Sitting at the top of the tree is Alex Middleton, who triumphed with a Gold I Award, placing him in the top 16% of young physicists across the land. Well done to you all – you have done yourselves and the Physics Department proud!

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK

Hot on the heels of scientists claiming to finally unravel the paradox at the heart of Stephen Hawking’s explanation of black holes, students at KGS celebrated British Science Week by immersing themselves in a range of activities both within and outside lesson time. Last year, this annual event coincided with the reopening of schools after lockdown 3.0. This year we were delighted to be able to run various activities in school to celebrate the beauty and importance of science. Given all that has occurred on the pandemic front over the past two years, the importance of science would be difficult to overstate.

British Science Week, which is run by the British Science Association, is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, featuring entertaining and engaging events and activities across the UK to help raise awareness and spark enthusiasm in people of all ages.

This year, in Physics our theme was ‘roller coasters’. A rollercoaster is an elevated railway with steep inclines and descents that carries a train of passengers through sharp curves and sudden changes of speed and direction for a brief thrill ride. The oldest rollercoasters descended from the so-called ‘Russian Mountains’. These were specially constructed hills of ice located especially around St Petersburg, Russia. Built in the 17th century, the slides became popular with the Russian upper classes. Catherine II of Russia was such a fan of these attractions that she had some built on her own property.

In March teams from the Sixth Form were given the task of building a rollercoaster using pipe insulation. In their small groups they analysed the transfer of gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy so that their passengers, in this case ‘marble’, would travel a long distance, performing a loop on its travel. They ended up having to think about how to strengthen their design and most importantly to ensure their passengers did not go flying off into the air! The teams successfully completed the challenge and the following photos show some impressive looking set-ups. KGS SCIENCE WEEK

Thank you to all the students who attended and all the teaching staff and technicians who went the extra mile to put on these events. Science, alongside Maths and English, is a core subject and experiments form the bedrock of what we do here at KGS; however, it is nice to have a week set aside where we can promote the beauty of our subject beyond the classroom.

Ben Stancliffe was the winner of the Science Week Roller Coaster Challenge.

The Physics Department chose to run a lunchtime rollercoaster building session during British Science Week to give students the chance to use some their knowledge of theoretical principles to build a model rollercoaster. Using foam rollers cut in half as the track for the rollercoaster, and a marble as a cart, I attached the track to clamps resting on top of a workbench to give the marble initial acceleration at the start of the ride. After the groups had secured the starting track of the rollercoaster, a race followed to build the first successful loop the loop. We encountered the problem of positioning the loop so that the marble would have enough kinetic energy and therefore velocity to complete the loop without falling out of the track at the bottom. After some trial and error, multiple groups managed to incorporate a loop into their rollercoaster; I managed to add a second to my own design just before the bell rang. The activity allowed me to embrace my creativity, while using some problem-solving skills.

Mr I Deepchand, Head of Physics