1. Quantum Comedy: Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Rachel Rayner is a science communicator, writer and performer. Her show is called 'Atomically Correct'. 
It is on from 27th March through to the 7th April. The venue is Double Tree by Hilton at 270 Flinders St.  The 60 minute show starts at 6:35pm.
Rachel is offering a discount to $20+bf with code MATESRATES.  For more details and to book click here.

"This is the (nuclear) fusion you've been waiting for! A science comedy that explores how, even though we're mostly nothing, we all still matter. 

In this Victorian debut, unravel the mysteries from inside the atom with Rachel Rayner, Science Explainer. Solidly funny, with a splash of sequins and an air of wonder, this strange yet charming adventure will be full of ups and downs while breaking open the truth and beauty of the atom. 

After the success of A Flying Photon, which won the 2022 Adelaide Fringe Festival’s Science at the Fringe Award, the award-winning formula is being bundled up into an exploration of the quantum world behind our everyday experiences, the states of matter and revealing that temperature is just jiggling atoms. While there may be experiments, poetry and dance moves, there are sure to be plenty of puns – all particularly smashing. 

Delving into language, lies and quantum-level realities, this science comedy for adults gives us space to contemplate and chuckle at the Universe and the happy accident that is the human race. Whatever your state, it'll be a quarking good time."

“Do yourself a favour – you’ll laugh, you’ll learn.” Dr Karl.

2. Einstein's only Experiment: The Einstein-De Haas Effect
Albert Einstein is famous as a theoretical physicist, but he also did one significant experiment. This was the Einstein–de Haas experiment, which he did in 1915 with the Dutch physicist Wander de Haas. This work showed that the magnetisation of ferromagnetic materials such as iron is related to the angular momentum of electrons.
The Einstein–de Haas experiment involves a cylinder of ferromagnetic material that is suspended by a thread so that it can rotate about its axis of symmetry. A mirror is situated at top of the cylinder such that the rotation of the cylinder can be measured by reflecting a beam of light onto a screen.
The experiment seems simple enough for students to investigate.  It was one of the experiments in the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) in 2005.
Some resources are a short article, a Wikipedia entry , a Wolfram demonstration , a Youtube video of the expt and another video using an AC voltage, making the iron cylinder oscillate. 3.  Short practical activities for home: Next Activity
Activity for this newsletter: You need a candle and a funnel.  Light the candle. Place the funnel at the level of the flame with the open end about 5 to 10 cms from the flame and directly facing the flame.  Now blow through the narrow end of the funnel.  What happens to the flame? 

Check this Youtube video for the short introduction. The answer will be in the next newsletter.

Answer to the activity in the last newsletter is: B) The bouncy ball jumps from the tape under the table and then comes back out at the front.  Also check the entry, titled Physics of Advent, at the bottom of this webpage, on our website for information about the source of these activities. 4. Events for Students

Girls in Physics Breakfast for 2024
Bookings are open and flyers are available for confirmed events.

• Traralgon, 17th May, Speaker: Natalie Clements, Medical radiation physicist, Topic: Using physics to treat cancer.
• Central Melbourne, 9th May.  AIP Women in Physics Lecturer for 2024, Prof Susan Coppersmith, UNSW, Topic: What do Theoretical Physicists do?
• Wodonga, 30th May (TBC), Speaker Dr Renee Goreham, University of Newcastle, Topic: Nanobiotechnology: Building the Future of Medicine and Beyond
• Bendigo, (Term 3).  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.
 

Live-Streaming of Breakfast Talk, 8:15am, 9th May
You and your students can view the talk by the Aust Inst of Physics Women in Physics Lecturer for 2024, Prof Susan Coppersmith, on the morning of Thursday, 9th May as she speaks at the Girls in Physics Breakfast in Central Melbourne.
They are many ways for you to use the talk from the simple to the grand. These include:

1. Record the presentation and show it to the students at another time.
2. Invite students to view the presentation live and so be able to contribute questions for the speaker.
3. Offer the students a light breakfast at the school before viewing the presentation.
4. Invite people who have a career in STEM or are studying STEM subjects at university to join the students for an informal light breakfast before viewing the presentation. Your school alumni are a good source.
5. Make the event more structured by including some careers-based activities or a small panel from among your guests.
6. Contact a nearby school and make it a combined event.

Check our website for advice and suggestions for the above options as well as to register for the Zoom link. Prof Coppersmith's topic is 'From Grains of Sand to Quantum Computers'.  The website also has further information on Prof Coppersmith and her talk.

The Girls in Physics Breakfasts Program has a limit on the number of students per school to maximise the number of schools able to attend. Live-streaming enables more students to be involved.  Last year Kew High School organised their own in-house breakfast with their alumni as the principal source of guests.  It is their planning and experience of that event that is the basis of the advice on the website.

5. Events for Teachers 

a) Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service. Thursday, 11th April 
The in-service will be at Kew High School. The program includes a hands-on session of practical activities, presentations by Colin Hopkins and Andrew Hansen, the chief assessor, and a panel of experienced teachers sharing their ideas on developing SAC tasks.  
Registration is open here.
Cost: $60 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers.  Lunch is provided.
The in-service is of value to first-year-out physics teachers, those returning to physics teaching after some absence and teachers of other science disciplines who have been asked by their school to take Physics.

b) Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion, Electricity: Both In-person
The Out-of-Field PD program continues in 2024.
The next one is on Forces and Motion, it is in person and at Wangaratta on 2nd and 9th May.  The cost is $220 and there is CRT coverage for Government schools.

There is also one on Electricity, done in person in the after-school format at John Monash Science School, on Thursdays, 16th May to 20th June from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.

Check here for details for both events.

Material is being developed for PD on Light and Sound, and Energy which are expected to be conducted in the 2nd half of the year.

c) Special Relativity: On line PD Term 2
Theo Hughes will be repeating of last year's online PD on Special Relativity in Term 2.  It will be on Thursdays, 9th May to 13th June, from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. 
The cost is $265 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers
Check here for details.

d) PHYSCON 2024: Videos, Resources, Evaluation and Post Conference Registration
Videos of the keynote addresses and most of the workshops are available at the conference website to those who registered.
If you were not able to attend, you can still get access to the presentations by registering now.
The cost is $135 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers. Please click here to go to the PHYSCON webpage and click on Register.  The presentations include Maria James, VCAA on Assessment Tasks and Andrew Hansen, the Chief Assessor on the 2023 Physics Exam.
The resources provided by the presenters were initially only available during their presentation.  To access them, the participants should open the platform, click on the session and scroll down to resources to access the link.

de Inspiring Students to Think Like Physicists with Hands-On Data Collection and Real-World Modeling
A US webinar on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 7:00 PM US Time. This corresponds to Friday morning Melbourne time.  However, if you register, you will be sent the video link after the event with access to all the resources presented.  You can register here.

Summary: In the first half of this workshop, we will highlight how your students can investigate physics in the world around them. Discover how you can use your students' surroundings to introduce the concept of "goals-less problems," helping your class learn—and think—like physicists. We will identify real-world learning opportunities that encourage your students to think about what they want to know and what piques their curiosity. Using sensors, we will demonstrate how students can investigate real-world phenomena while collecting data.
In the second half of the workshop, we will explore connections to physics outside the classroom. This includes the analysis and modeling of real-world situations and not-so-real events from popular media. Create physics models with simple data collection, video analysis, and numerical calculations. These types of real (and not-so-real) calculations can be used in physics classrooms and as inspiration for physics students.

Speakers: Fran Poodry, Director of Physics with Vernier Science Education and Rhett Allain, Southeastern Louisiana University, his website has links to his articles and Youtube videos.

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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) The Physics of Languages
Much like biological species, languages spread, evolve, compete and even go extinct. To understand these mechanisms, physicists are applying their methods to linguistics, creating the interdisciplinary field of language dynamics.

If the world of research were an ecosystem, with scientists of different disciplines representing different species, then physicists would be classified as invaders. After all, they’ve spread their methods and tools to many other fields over the years, infiltrating not only other natural sciences but the social sciences too.

Born from this invasion, interdisciplinary fields such as sociophysics and econophysics have been developed, in which mathematical models from physics are applied to social contexts, including traffic, crowds and financial markets. These new areas – and the models involved – are part of what’s known as complex systems theory.

b) Wigner’s friend: the quantum thought experiment that continues to confound
“Wigner’s friend” is a curious thought experiment that has stumped physicists and philosophers for more than 60 years.
The quantum world provides fertile material for thought experiments that seem so strange-but-true as to defy logic. One of the most notorious is “Wigner’s friend”, which has challenged physicists and philosophers ever since it was first conceived by the Hungarian-American physicist Eugene Wigner. He published the thought experiment in a 1961 book edited by the mathematician Irving Good entitled The Scientist Speculates: an Anthology of Partly-baked Ideas.
Wigner’s thought experiment is a more humane version of Schrödinger’s less complex but more famous thought experiment a quarter century before

c) Manhattan Project astrophysics
After World War II, scientists applied the knowledge and experience they gained from nuclear weapons to nuclear astrophysics

A much-noted side issue in director Christopher Nolan’s 2023 movie Oppenheimer is the possibility that detonating a bomb by nuclear fission would release so much energy that it could cause a fusion chain reaction in the atmosphere. That fear was raised and spread by Edward Teller (shown in figure 1) among concerned scientists during a 1942 meeting at the University of California, Berkeley.

The scientists thought that a fission bomb’s detonation could so rapidly heat the atmosphere that its temperature might reach a point at which the fusion of nitrogen-14 nuclei would occur. They also considered a second possibility—that of fusion between ¹⁴N and hydrogen-1 from water vapor in the atmosphere. Hans Bethe, head of the theory division at the Los Alamos Laboratory, estimated the probability for a chain reaction as very low.

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