Research Essay
Mustafa
I am about to do a research essay at my school in physics..The essay needs
to be 4000 words and can either be a purely theoretical one or include an
experiment with the additional research information. I just need a good,
interesting topic to do it on..Anyone out there that has some good ideas
about what to do it on? If you have studied and were good at physcis, you
would be of great help...
Thanks
Ralph E. Frost
You sound like you may be just starting out. Consider doing a broad
and sweeping overview of paradigm changes that define natural
philosophy, classical physics, non-classical physics and mathematical
physics. It only sounds like history.
Ralph
Chris Hillman
> I am about to do a research essay at my school in physics..The essay
> needs to be 4000 words and can either be a purely theoretical one or
> include an experiment with the additional research information. I just
> need a good, interesting topic to do it on..Anyone out there that has
> some good ideas about what to do it on? If you have studied and were
> good at physcis, you would be of great help...
It isn't quite clear from your description what degree of originality is
required (or even what country or which grade you are in). I will assume
that you are talking about a college physics course and that originality
of thought is not required, but that you expected only to produce a well
written synopsis of some current topic of physical research at a level
comprehensible to your peers. I'll also assume we are talking about an
important term paper, not a "short essay" assignment handed out this
Tuesday and due next Tuesday. I'll also assume you really want to earn a
very good grade and are willing to work hard to ensure that.
Hmmm.... 4000 words? That sounds like a rather low limit to me. I have
web pages at my web site which are twice as long as that! I'll ignore
that limit and assume you can write quite a bit more if the spirit moves
you. But if your instructor has set 4000 words as a strict upper limit,
I'd say you'll need to start -earlier- in order to have time to cut down
your first draft.
Here's my advice for getting started: look over some recent issues of
Physics Today or Science News or Nature, or thumb through some high
quality physics journals, and pick a -specific- topic which strikes -you-
as interesting. Look up the references in the paper which intrigues you
most, read -those- papers, and start writing down interesting factoids on
file cards. Look up more references (books are likely be particularly
valuable resources), and repeat until you feel ready to start writing your
essay.
How do you know when you've read enough and are ready to start writing?
When I was in school, at some point a "topic sentence" would just pop into
my mind; that is, I'd suddenly have some conviction I felt strongly enough
about to want to try to convince the readers of my essay (well, one
reader, but I always imagined more!) that I had, at the very least, an
interesting, original, and well argued point of view on something.
The earlier you start reading and the faster you focus on a particular
topic, the better your chances of writing a good essay. If you are not a
talented writer, you will probably want to give yourself enough time to
write a complete first draft and then revise it. I happen to write
quickly and reasonably well under pressure, so starting the night before
(to write, -not- to do research!!!) always worked for me, but I certainly
would -not- advise that practice for anyone else! I always started doing
research a -month- or more in advance, read several dozen papers and
books. Typically I'd assemble perhaps fifty file cards--- you'd be
surprised how much you write on the basis of a dozen interesting facts
combined in some unexpected way. I think visually, so I'd actually lay
the cards out on the floor and rearrange them until they fell into a
pattern I liked. (Of course, I'd decide not to use a good number of cards
which turned out to be irrelevant to what I wanted to say. Having some
facts on hand, which seem to -contradict- your thesis is very valuable,
however, because you can anticipate objections and mount a counterargument
in your essay.)
As a former writing tutor, I'd say that most people should probably start
writing two weeks before the paper is due. If your instructor intends
4000 words as a strict upper limit, better start writing three weeks
before the paper is due, if this is the first time you've attempted such
an essay. If you are new to this, and if your native language is not
English (many of my "clients" as a writing tutor were not native speakers,
and they -always- had to work twice as hard as the other students, which
is why I mention this possibility), you may need to go through several
drafts to come up with something which reads reasonably smoothly.
Last but not least, I'd join Ted in urging you to discount the advice
offered by Ralph Frost. I agree with Ted that a "broad and sweeping
overview of paradigm changes that define natural philosophy, classical
physics, non-classical physics and mathematical physics" is far too vague
to constitute a possible topic for a school essay. As Ted says, the more
specific a topic you can choose, the better.
Oh yeah, my qualifications: I never got less than an A when I wrote
college term papers (on everything from science to art history)--- that's
why I was hired as a writing tutor (everyone else was a graduate student
in English!)--- so my advice is probably about as trustworthy as any
you'll get.
(Would you believe it? This essay was just under 1000 words. My recent
post to this newsgroup outlining a course of gtr was about 3000 words
long. It's very difficult to say anything serious about a complex topic in
only 4000 words.)
Chris Hillman
Home Page: http://www.math.washington.edu/~hillman/personal.html
Ralph E. Frost
> Last but not least, I'd join Ted in urging you to discount the advice
> offered by Ralph Frost. I agree with Ted that a "broad and sweeping
> overview of paradigm changes that define natural philosophy, classical
> physics, non-classical physics and mathematical physics" is far too vague
> to constitute a possible topic for a school essay. As Ted says, the more
> specific a topic you can choose, the better.
Axes are ground. Trumpets blown.
Chris Hillman's advice on writing mechanics is superb, truly. I wish I
had had his advice 25 years ago.
Regarding the resistance Chris and Ted express on beginning students
looking at the big picture, don't worry about that. Read Kuhn's book,
Baggott, maybe something in Popper, plu what comes up from those and
then do a condensed book report following Chris Hillman's excellent
instruction.
Later, that will give you the support you need to question things
instructor present to you. Face it. It's YOUR group or class that is
going to move forward with the emerging unified paradigms. All us old
fogies will probably be left behind to chew our cuds or soften leather,
speaking of the ancient theories.
CERTAINLY if you are an analytical personality type, Chris and Ted's
advice WILL appeal to you. Try to resist and do just one uncomfortable
thing, early on. As you see from these gentlemen's testimony, it does
not get easier to break out of the mold afterwards.
Yet _you_ must.
Best regards,
Ralph E. Frost
Matthew Nobes
> I am about to do a research essay at my school in physics..The essay
> needs to be 4000 words and can either be a purely theoretical one or
> include an experiment with the additional research information. I just
> need a good, interesting topic to do it on..Anyone out there that has
> some good ideas about what to do it on? If you have studied and were
> good at physcis, you would be of great help...
Well first let me join in the chorus of people adivising against any
"broad sweeping overviews" A 4000 word essay is certainly not the place.
Since you have not actually received any suggestions yet I though I'd post
a list of a few topics in one single field of physics, high-energy
physics. Even though they seem specific, several of them would actually
require further specialization (more of an argument against a broad
sweeping overview). This list is by no means complete, and shamelessly
reflects some of my personal interests. I've divided it into three
categories: theory, experiment and other. The other category includes
topics that are of a more social/philosophical bent. To keep space down
I've listed just three topics in each, however there are lots more.
Unfortunately you didn't mention what level this paper was supposed to be
written at, so some of these topics may be a bit advanced, I'll put a *
beside the ones where you could probably find popular (i.e. Sci. American
level) type information.
THEORY
1. Lattice QCD
Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interactions
between quarks (which make up the protons and neutrons as well as a whole
wack of other particles). Unfortunately QCD is _very_ hard to solve at
low energies. One approach to solving QCD problems is to break spacetime
up into a discrete lattice and simulate QCD useing a computer. This is a
very active field of study where you certainly could find a number of more
specific topics.
2. Exact solutions to Yang-Mills theory
QCD is based on something called Yang-Mills theory (or non-abelian guage
theory). Like quantum electrodynamics (the quantum theory of electricity
and magnetism) in order to get QCD you start with a classical field theory
(for electrodynamics the classical field theory is Maxwell's equations)
and apply some sort of "quantization procedure." In the case of QCD the
classical theory is (one sort of) Yang-Mills theory. However,
interesting things can be learned just by looking at the classical theory.
Topics in this subject could include instantons or monopoles. (Note,
unless you have a fair amount of training in phyics this topic would
likely be too hard.)
3. Neutrino oscillations (*)
As you no doubt have heard the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations (one
type of neutrino changing into another) was observed a few years ago at
the super-K detector in Japan. The theory of neutrino oscillations has
been around for a long while, howver some importent questions have been
opened by the super-K data.
EXPERIMENT
1. The Proton at HERA
The HERA collider in Germany has, for the past few years, been conducting
an extensive investigation of the structure of the proton. Many
interesting results have come out of this lab, shedding new light on a
particle we have been investigating for 100+ years. This is a truly
fascinating experiment, with lots of different suptopics one could
specialize to.
2. Experimental top quark physics (*)
This is a bit old now but in the mid-nineties there was big excitement
when the two experiments at the Fermilab TeVatron discovered the top
quark. One could review the discovery, then discuss recent developments.
3. The next generation (*)
Currently scheduled to come online in 2005 the Large Hadron Collider at
CERN (in Switzerland) will be the worlds largest particle accelerator.
However plans are already in the works for even more new machines. One
could discuss the planned new machines and the physics potential at each.
OTHER
1. The Rise and Fall of the SSC
The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) was a really big particle
accelerator that was going to be built in Texas. That is until congress
canceled it in the mid-nineties. One coudl investigate the various
arguments both for and against the machine and analyse why it was
scrapped. For a more physics oriented paper one could combine this topic
with #3 above to report on the ability "next generation" machines to make
up for the loss of the SSC.
2. "Big Physics"
These days particle physics experiments at big accelerators typically have
hunderds of members, with budgets in the tens to hundreds of millions of
dollars. This is in stark contrast to the situation 50-60 years ago, where
experiments where typically done by a few Profs and their grad students.
One could analyse what impact this change has had one what it means to do
experimental particle physics, the problems it creates with training new
students, or the politics of "big physics."
3. Theory without experiments
The standard model of particle physics has passed every test it has so far
been subjected too. In many respects it works too well. This has caused
a problem with theorists, since the standard model has been in place for
over twenty years now. In exploring new ground some theorists have moved
into areas where direct experimental tests are not likely to be possible
for many, many years (like hundreds, or thousands if you simply
extrapolate current technology). The question then becomes, is this
really physics, or simply interesting mathematics?
Well, this is probably too long already. I have references (at various
levels) on some of these topics if you are interested.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Matthew Nobes
|c/o Physics Dept.
|Simon Fraser University
|8888 University Drive
|Burnaby, B.C.
|Canada
www.geocities.com/CollegePark/campus/1098 |
B. Green
American published a fascinating gloss-covered 8 1/2 X 11 paperback
collection of articles called "The Physics of Music."
An update of the facets presented by this topic would be of interest,
considering the current state (of change) in electronics...
For starters, check out URLs:
http://www.digidesign.com/main.html
http://www.digidesign.com/prod/scii/indxdata.html
I suggest the permeation of systems like these folks are marketing is in
it's infancy. For instance, how their Pro Tools systems are going to impact
on recording artists, the music industry, music publishing, production,
marketing & distribution, broadcasting, general public & home audiophile
etc. presents many broad and important topics - scientific, cultural &
economic. Bon chance.
bg
=============================================================
Mustafa <som...@ains.net.au> wrote in message
news:S1FG3.24$I37....@vic.nntp.telstra.net...
> Hi
>
> I am about to do a research essay at my school in physics..The essay needs
> to be 4000 words and can either be a purely theoretical one or include an
> experiment with the additional research information. I just need a good,
> interesting topic to do it on..Anyone out there that has some good ideas
> about what to do it on? If you have studied and were good at physcis, you
> would be of great help...
>
>
Chris Arnold
>Hi
>
>I am about to do a research essay at my school in physics..The essay needs
>to be 4000 words and can either be a purely theoretical one or include an
>experiment with the additional research information. I just need a good,
>interesting topic to do it on..Anyone out there that has some good ideas
>about what to do it on? If you have studied and were good at physcis, you
>would be of great help...
>
>Thanks
>
Take a light source (lamp) and 3 polarizing filters (your school
probably has these, if not, they can be bought very cheaply). Put the
first filter in front of the light. Then put the second in behind the
first and turn it until the light is the dimmest. Finally, put the
third in between the first and the second and turn it. What happens
and why?
This is a fun cheap experiment that goes to the fundamental nature of
light.
Good luck,
Chris Arnold