1.  VCE Physics Revision Lecture, Sunday, 15th September, On-line and at Swinburne University of Technology
This year's Revision Lecture will be held on Sunday, 15th September from 10:00am until 2:50pm.
It will be offered as a hybrid event, on-line and in person at the Hawthorn campus.
The presenter will be Colin Hopkins.  The on-line chat room will have experienced teachers available to answer questions.
Lunch will be provided by Swinburne University for the students.
Swinburne University will also provide campus tours and their Astro tour at lunchtime. These can be booked at Registration on the day.
The cost is $27.50 inc GST and participants will get access to revision material.
Students can book at this webpage on the Students of the Vicphysics website, where there is additional information.

2.  Data Analysis task for Special Relativity
The topic of Special Relativity has limited potential for activities linked to experiments.   This activity that has just come to light, is by teachers in the UK.  It does have its content challenges, but it is very good exercise on linearising data.

The task uses data from two experiments conducted at the very beginning of the 20th century before Einstein's SR paper was published.  The experiments measured the kinetic energy and the momentum of high-speed electrons.  The momentum was measured by the radius of curvature in a magnetic field and the kinetic energy was measured by the deflection in an electric field.

The teachers have prepared a set of resources to analyse the data which includes worksheets, teacher notes, guides for graphically analysing data as well as a spreadsheet of the data.  This is the link to the google drive with the files.

The students initially graph energy against momentum, which produces a curved graph, suggestive of a parabola, but graphing energy against momentum squared curves the other way, like a square root graph.  This suggests trying a graph of energy squared against momentum squared, which does produce a straight line with a positive gradient and a non-zero intercept.
The straight line represents Einstein's equation E² = p²c² + m²c⁴ , which while not on the course can be obtained from taking the two expressions: E = Lorentz factor x mc² and p = Lorentz factor x mv and eliminating the speed, v.
The activities were developed for A level physics.

Articles about the two experiments by Kaufmann (1901) and Bucherer (1908):

• Kaufmann measures relativity and does not know it explains his experiment and has a link to a translation of his 1901 paper
• Wikipedia page on the Kaufmann and Bucherer experiments

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3. Energy Bar Charts
The concepts of energy and energy transfer are difficult for students to grasp.  The use of Bar Charts to explain the transfer of energy between various stores has been effective.

Below are some resources of value:

• Towards a research-informed sequence on teaching energy.  A 14 page article by Robin Millar of the University of York. The article discusses the difficulties with a 'forms of energy ' approach, the risk of seeing energy as a cause and the problems of Heat and then moves to a discussion of energy stores and pathways.  The article finishes with a detailed teaching sequence across the secondary school.
• A Youtube video of a Zoom PD on Energy Bar Charts by the New Zealand Institute of Physics (40 mins).  Transcript is available. First half is the presentation, followed by discussion with participants.
• The Physics Classroom: Illustrations on using Energy Bar Charts
• Universe and More: An app for students to use.  The students select an event from a list of 14, e.g. Video of Felix Baumgartner's freefall from the upper stratosphere and then select a system e.g. Felix and the Earth or Felix alone and draw the energy bars for Initial and Final.  The student can add energy bars from a list of four (KE, GPE, EPE and Internal Energy change.) They can also add Work to the system. Also check 'Home' for other apps.

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4. Events for Students 

a) Girls in Physics Breakfasts for 2024
Bookings are open and flyers are available.

• Bendigo, 1st August.  Speaker: Dr Nadia Zatsepin, La Trobe University, Topic: Making molecular movies with X-ray lasers.
• Geelong, 15th August.  Speakers:  Prof Bre-Anne Sainsbury, Prof Wendy Timms, Deakin University, Topics: a) The Gentle Art of Breaking Stuff, b) Locking Carbon in the Ground: How, When, Where?

The cost this year is $25 per student inc GST with the first teacher free.  A discount is available.
Please check the website for more details.  Bookings can now be made for the ones with confirmed dates.  The others will open for bookings as venue and speaker details are confirmed.
 

b Gymnasium Lectures (in person and online): 6pm Wednesdays, fortnightly in Term 3, University of Melbourne
This popular series is back in 2024, the remaining lectures are listed below..

• August 7: Generation of electricity and power: efficiency, reliability and sustainability (Prof. Rachel Webster)
• August 21: Physics for Cancer Treatment: Particle accelerator technologies and radiation therapy (Dr. Jacinta Yap)
• September 4: Light and Matter (Prof. Harry Quiney)
• September 18: Special Relativity (Prof. David Jamieson)

All lectures will be held in the Hercus Theatre at the School of Physics, University of Melbourne and will begin at 6 pm sharp, with snacks beforehand.  Whilst this is an in-person event, a Zoom link will be sent out to all participants in the hour before the lecture.

To register, click here.

c) A Virtual Tour of Einstein’s Universe: Workshop and Public Lecture, 14th August, Swinburne University of Technology
Workshop: Swinburne is holding a one-hour workshop for secondary students starting at 5:30pm.
Activities include:

• Virtual Reality: Come explore the cosmos in virtual reality! Their scientists will take students on a guided tour of the universe, from the solar system to the most exotic objects in space, such as neutron stars and black holes.
• Badge Making: Students create a badge of their design to take home to remember this event
• Activity Sheets: Activity and colouring sheets with mazes, word searches, and crosswords, etc
• Tabletop Interferometer: How do scientists detect ripples in the fabric of space-time as they pass through the Earth? Join their scientists as they demonstrate a working laser interferometer and share how they use large versions of them to find gravitational waves.

Venue: ATC 103, Burwood campus, Swinburne University
Public Lecture by Prof Matthew Bailes at 6:30pm
Abstract: Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein developed his General Theory of Relativity, a description of matter, space, and time that appears to defy our everyday experiences. In General Relativity, as a result of gravity, rulers shrink, time flows more slowly, light bends, waves of gravity permeate the Universe, and black holes can trap light. In this talk, Professor Bailes will use an exciting new virtual reality tool to fly around a virtual universe, visiting many naturally occurring gravitational laboratories that astronomers use to test whether Einstein’s theories provide an accurate description of the Universe.

Speaker: Professor Matthew Bailes is the co-discoverer of Fast Radio Bursts, founder of the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). He has been working on relativistic astrophysics for almost four decades and has a passion for public outreach and building radio astronomy instrumentation.
Venue: ATC 101, Burwood campus, Swinburne University
Registration for workshop or lecture, click here,  There is no cost.
This event is co-organised by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University.

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5. Events for Teachers 
a) Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion (Shepparton), Light and Sound (Hamilton)
The next two PD events will be done in person and in the two full day format.

• Forces and Motion will be in Shepparton on Fridays, 9th and 16th August
• Light and Sound will be in Hamilton on Tuesdays, 13th and 20th August

Check here for details for these events and to book.

Cost: $220 per participant, with discounts available for teachers from Government schools and for teachers from schools with a low ICSEA rank. CRT coverage is available for teachers from Government schools.

b) Global Hands-On Universe Conference 2024, Online 23 - 27 September
This international conference is online from anywhere in the world.  Sessions will be offered in three time zones.  The cost to participate is only 10 €.  The program has not been finalised nor keynote speakers announced, but topics include: Astronomy education research, Best practices in Astronomy education, Citizen Science, Research in the classroom with robotic telescopes, etc.  The program will be announced in early September.

It plans to offer:

• astronomy/data activities that are ready for the classroom
• a chance to join a group of similar innovative educators who want to help you
• an opportunity for your students to use networks of remote telescopes around the world, to measure the characteristics of planets around other stars and undertake well-developed and tested activities, such as measuring the mass of the black hole in the center of our Milky Way, from genuine data.

To register an expression of interest and for more detail, click here.
This link to the 2023 conference will give you some idea of their program

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8.   Physics News from the Web
Items selected from the bulletin of the Institute of Physics (UK).
Each item below includes the introductory paragraphs and a web link to the rest of the article.

a) Hype Cycle Assessment of Emerging Technologies for Battery Production
An academic article that looks at where over 30 emerging technologies are on the Hype Cycle from Innovation Trigger to Peak of Inflated Expectations to Trough of Disillusionment to Slope of Enlightenment to Plateau of Productivity.
Dozens of technologies are considered as well as their Technology Potential and Time to Market. Click the links in the text to download these images.
b) Getting physical with the climate crisis
With world leaders set to gather in Glasgow next month for the United Nations’ COP26 climate summit, this article examines four vital challenges where physicists can help the world to decarbonize and adapt to the reality of global warming. i) Where will the world’s hot danger zones be? ii) How can we track and reduce the hidden carbon in buildings? iii) How will clouds influence future climates? iv) Can we safely store enough carbon underground?
c) Constellation and Dark Matter: the TV series that could change your view of quantum mechanics
An article by Robert Crease.  Two new science-fiction TV series – Constellation and Dark Matter – reveal the problem of using the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics as a fictional device.

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