Quantum to Cosmos Physica Phatastica Exhibition

In Waterloo, the town in Canada I am currently in had an about a week long physics week. There were many talks, presentations, movies and an exhibition. And it is totally free. I went for a couple of events myself. One of those events was a physics exhibition dubbed the "Physica Phantastica Exhibition"


I went for this exhibition twice. On the first round, my camera had no battery so couldn't take pictures. On the second round, I was prepared. :P One of the highlights of the exhibition was a life-sized model of a rover that is going to be sent to Mars in 2011. Below are some pictures I took of it:













Another exhibit was on superconductivity. Basically, a piece of porcelien is cooled to a temperature less than 92 Kelvin which is about -182 degress celcius using liquid nitrogen. The 'supercooled' porceilien is then placed on a track made up of magnets. Due to the supercooling effect which I won't go in detail, it causes the normally non-magnetic porceilien to levitate (literally) over the magnetic field. I managed to get some pics of it. Not that clear but should be ok. :p Notice the gap.










The pic just above this is particularly interesting. By holding a magnet over the porcelien while it is being cooled in the liquid nitrogen causes the porcelien to bond magentically to the magnet and you get that effect. Cool, eh? :P

The following exhibit i was not sure what it was because i didn't really ask. >.< but by observation, the spinning thing looks something like a gyroscope but i could be wrong. Maybe it is used to give people an experience of apparent weightlessness? I not sure...will try and clarify. >.<





Other exhibits include: a booth explaining on polarization of light (same thing we learn in secondary school), a presentation on effects of liquid nitrogen and a stunt using Newton's First Law, an explanation about gravity, space and time, an origami booth, a short 3D movie on the Universe, a booth explaining and demonstrating the Doppler Effect, and a booth which featured a set-up used to detect cosmic rays, that is, radiation.

The explanation about gravity, space and time was particularly interesting. I won't bore with details but the basic thing i got out of it was that the space of the universe is curved and time can be bent. Furthermore, the earth we are standing on is actually accelerating outwards but due to the curve of space, it counters the outward expansion. Therefore, we are still intact. Neat, eh?:p at least to me, that is. >.<

Origami also was a real eye-opener. Apparently origami is used in creating models, especially models where there were parts folding and unfolding (example, the solar panels of satellites). They were used to simulate the actual folding-unfolding so that researchers could observe and make necessary modification.

Overall, it was a great exhibition. Really opened my eyes more in understanding the wonderful Universe that the LORD has created. Indeed, we mere human beings can't fully explain many things. Indeed, all throughout the exhibition, there were confessions saying that there was no complete understanding of it all. But the things we do know are so elegant and beautiful. This really inspires me more down the path I am taking. Praise God!

Soli Deo Gloria.

Ian