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Measure the Speed of Light Using Your Microwave
Astronomers studying star formation, like myself, use telescopes that can see though the pretty, optical exteriors of nebulae into the dark interiors where very cold dust radiates in the submillimetre...
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Air Pressure and Coke Cans
I recently did a piece on measuring the speed of light using your microwave. Well here is some more physics you can play with in your kitchen. This time let’s create a vacuum and then use it to crush...
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Glowing Samples
I’ve not much to say about this other than that it is a very cool image. I took it on Wednesday during Cardiff University’s Dragonfly Day. As well as making our own spectrometers there was also an...
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Exploring Liquids: An Experiment
Here’s a fun experiment you can try using the contents of your kitchen cupboard. Explore the effects of different densities and learn about refraction, viscosity and the planet Jupiter. You’ll need...
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Answers for Allensbank
The other week I gave a talk at Allensbank Primary School – a nearby school for children aged 4 to 11. I mainly told them about the planets and the Solar System but obviously we got onto other topics...
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Supercooled Water and Towers of Ice
Solid, liquid, gas. The three states of matter are something I first explored in primary school and water was the best example. You can easily see water frozen in your freezer, and it spews as a gas...
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Infrared: The Hidden Classroom
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Tower Hill School (in Witney) to talk about astronomy, space and science. The kids were brilliant and asked awesome questions as usual. For this visit I took the...
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Astronomy Resources for Teachers
I’ve started a page with some links, facts and ideas for teachers, educators and anyone else that wants them. Quite often when I’m visiting schools, I throw lots of URLs around and talk about websites,...
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Electrolysis of Water: with Pencils and a 9V Battery
H₂O might be the most familiar chemical compound on the planet. Many people know that water is H₂O, but most wouldn’t think about what that means in a chemical sense. Water is a remarkable molecule...
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Help Count the Stars
Here’s a fun thing to do this January: help count the stars to see how dark the sky is near you. While you’re looking for Comet Lovejoy, take a moment to count some stars for a school project. Over the...
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