Physics EE Topic (please help)

[holaToreador 0]

I know I want to do my extended essay on a physics related topic, but I'm having a very hard time coming up with an idea (I believe I was supposed to have one 3 months ago). I think it would help if I knew what exactly a good topic is supposed to have. My advisor says I have to include an experiment in it as well, so that's something to consider. Please help!

[by.andrew 84]

I can't really give you a topic, but a suggestion is to do it on mechanics/dynamics as it is relatively easy to control variables and you probably did a lot of them. Be sure you are confident/know enough information in the specific area as well. I was stuck on choosing a topic a while back, and if you do some google searches on extended science fair projects, you can get a fairly good idea or direction that you want to head.

Good Luck and have fun

[Emmi 1,392]

A good topic, especially in an experimental science, is something whose answer isn't immediately obvious, is something that isn't that difficult to do (IB knows you're only a high school student, they're not expecting you to prove the existence of the Higgs boson in your EE), and something that lets you perform an experiment. Think about what kinds of topics you're interested in, and go from there. Don't necessarily stick to mechanics/dynamics like the above poster says if you hate those areas or because it's "easier" to control variables. If your topic is on the mechanics behind a machine and you're doing an experiment with that but in reality you hate mechanics (and I wouldn't blame you ) and would rather do something with optics then don't do the mechanics one! Picking a topic you're interested in is the first step to having a great EE.

Read some sample EEs in physics and read the EE guide. That will give you an idea of what kinds of topics are good and what you can do. Your adviser is right that you need to do an experiment, EEs without one tend to do very poorly. With that in mind, keep your topic simple so your experiment isn't too complicated. The more complicated your experiment is, the more likely it is to fail, and then you're kind of in trouble.

Good luck