Submitted by Dr James Perry on Mon, 25/09/2023 - 16:26
Each year, the Cavendish Lab hosts around 2,000 14-16 year old students across three days in September, introducing them to a variety of Physics-related careers via a series of talks given by departmental research groups, local companies and others with links to the department.
Our research group has been on the presenting list for longer than any of us can remember, and it's a great way to get everyone - from first year PhD students to emeritus staff - involved in some outreach.
Of course it wouldn't be a PCS outreach lecture without a noisy demonstration of some form: In recent years we've fired ping-pong balls through sheets of paper using a vacuum cannon, explosively evaporated a strip of metal wire, blown out a candle with a shock wave, popped a water balloon in super-slow-motion, and launched far too many corks at the lecture theatre ceiling!
Photographs of this year's event are still being processed, so for now here's a (very) old picture of Dara Ó Briain popping a water balloon at a previous P@W event
For more information about Physics at Work, please see the department's webpage here