Trying to come up with a good HL Physics IA topic, any ideas?

[Cam.m.k.7]

I've been looking around at stuff to try and figure out what a good physics IA topic might be. I've been considering things along the lines of semi-conductors and solid-state physics (basically things related to computer hardware), but I don't know enough about these topics to come up with a solid research question. For that matter, are topics like these commensurate with the level of HL physics?

 

Could you guys give me any ideas for more narrow areas of study that I could look into relating to semi-conductors, solid-state physics, or other such topics that I could try to make a research question and research method for?

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Vioh]

I've been looking around at stuff to try and figure out what a good physics IA topic might be. I've been considering things along the lines of semi-conductors and solid-state physics (basically things related to computer hardware), but I don't know enough about these topics to come up with a solid research question. For that matter, are topics like these commensurate with the level of HL physics?

 

Could you guys give me any ideas for more narrow areas of study that I could look into relating to semi-conductors, solid-state physics, or other such topics that I could try to make a research question and research method for?

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

Personally, I would recommend you against these topics for 2 reasons. Firstly, they are impractical because experiments relating to solid-state physics are usually very difficult and expensive. Just think about it, these topics often deal with things that are at micro or even at the nano scale, which are so small thus it's extremely difficult to manipulate them, and it also requires expensive equipment like a microscope or even an electron tunneling microscope, etc. Perhaps I'm just not very creative, but right now, I think it's impractical. Secondly, these topics are ways beyond physics HL. Working with solid-state physics means that you need to have basic mathematical understanding of quantum mechanics, and that requires advanced mathematics like linear algebra, probability, abstract hilbert's space, etc. Remember that physics IA isn't what it used to be (which was simply lab reports). For the new syllabus, you gotta conduct experiments and then interpret the results formally using some form of theoretical/mathematical framework. And solid-state physics isn't going to be easy to understand mathematically, especially at the high-school level.

 

So my suggestion is that you should give up on the idea solid-state physics. Since you're interested in computer hardware, perhaps you should find topics that are more closely related to the "digital technology" chapter or the "communication" chapter, or the  "electromagnetism" chapter. For example:

• You can try to do an experiment on the computer's cooling fan. What type of design is the best for dispersion of heat in a laptop? How does the fan help improving the performance of the computer system? How much energy does the fan drain from the battery in order to run efficiently?
• If you're interested in communication, you can perhaps do some experiments to compare between different types of cables, like copper-wire, or twisted-pair cable. For example, how does magnetic interference affect the transmission of signals/messages across the wire? Etc.
• Another communication idea is to perform some kinds of experiments on wifi signals. How much do wif signals get absorbed by the wall of a building? How should antenna be made to improve the wifi? What about the bandwidth of the signals as you get further away? Etc.
• Are you interested in peripheral devices such as computer mouse? Perhaps you want to do an experiment on the performance of an optical mouse? For example, on what surface does an optical mouse work best? Does colour of the surface or the smoothness of the surface affect the performance? If you know how to program, you can perhaps even make a Java app to help you determining the speed of the mouse on varying surfaces (although this might not be necessary because you're doing a physics IA)
• If you are interested in disk technology (like hard disk), you can do something that simulates the performance of an actual hard disk using stuff like a CD or a DVD ("simulates" because hard disks are very expensive and are very difficult to work with unless you're a professional). For example, when working with hard disks we often talk about the disk access time, which is mostly dominated by the "seek time". Perhaps you can try to find the seek time formula and then do an experiment to test it on your CD drive? Alternatively, you can try to figure out the rotational speed of the disk, thus figuring out rotational delay in a disk access. All of these are challenging engineering problems that you can tackle in your physics IA.

My suggestions above are mostly for doing experiments at a macroscopic scale, in which the necessary materials are not too expensive, and that you can find them in any old computer hardware store, or even on ebay. Of course, you should try to look for other topics as well, but make sure that they don't require expensive laboratory procedures or too-advanced theoretical understanding. Good luck!

[Cam.m.k.7]

 

• If you are interested in disk technology (like hard disk), you can do something that simulates the performance of an actual hard disk using stuff like a CD or a DVD ("simulates" because hard disks are very expensive and are very difficult to work with unless you're a professional). For example, when working with hard disks we often talk about the disk access time, which is mostly dominated by the "seek time". Perhaps you can try to find the seek time formula and then do an experiment to test it on your CD drive? Alternatively, you can try to figure out the rotational speed of the disk, thus figuring out rotational delay in a disk access. All of these are challenging engineering problems that you can tackle in your physics IA.

 

Hello, and thank you very much for your response! First of all, I apologize for not responding to this thread for so long. Looking back at it, I suppose stuff like solid-state physics would be impossible given my current knowledge and resources.

 

I liked your last idea about hard disk drives and finding their seek time/rotational delay. Could you possibly elaborate on this or give me any resources with which I could get a better idea of what this would entail? I have plenty of hard disks and CD drives that I could use for this experiment, and it seems very interesting, so I'd love to try and adapt this for my physics IA.

 

 Thanks again for your help!