Anyone doing a Physics EE?

[Guest]

Awww man... you guys make it sound like doing a physics ee is like suicide or something im doing mine in physics... and i feel im like shooting myself in the foot.. now you tell me

Just wondering, is it really REALLY necessary to do an experiment for a physics ee to get a good grade?? coz i was under the impression that doing a completely theoretical one was ok, as long as you found some data (from a reputable secondary source) to back it up.

Chill my friend. Doing physics is only suicide if you hate it. I did not do an experiment for my EE, and my advisor said it was fine. As long as your topic isn't ridiculously abstract like "Physics disproves God's existence" or something like that, you will be fine. Just make sure that the EE is about physics, not just science in general with a little physics involved. I think that it helps to have a lot of equations, and to use equations that go outside the curriculum.

[benthis1no]

Can i do simple EE such as to find the speed of sound ?

[Guest]

Can i do simple EE such as to find the speed of sound ?

You could, but that might be a little too basic unless you find a creative way of doing it. If you devise an experiment to test the speed of sound in various materials, and then test its accuracy, that might work. But since the speed of sound is already known, there is a slim chance that a simple experiment would be sufficient.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Can i do simple EE such as to find the speed of sound ?

Erm you already know the speed of sound. What's the point of finding it again? What on earth are you going to analyse?

[ibman]

Hey,

I am doing my EE on physics as well and my topic is: the effect of temperature on speed of sound..............is this okay?

I mean....you guys are saying that speed of sound is already known but I think that everything in Physics is already known except maybe quantum physics....

I planned to test the speed of sound in a new way or something......any suggestions? please help...now i am confused!!!

[Guest Lily Bean]

ibman: I think that's ok since you're testing the effect of something on something else. You will have something to compare etc. But a title like finding the speed of sound will be very research based and descriptive, I think. It's also very vague, the examiner won't know what do you want to do once you've found the speed of sound? yours has more focus.

[vp1173]

One of my proposals for my EE was a physics topic. We recently learned about capacitors in physics, and I thought it was interesting that they are found in things like disposable cameras.

My lab is sort of like the American television series MythBusters, where they try to determine if urban myths are true or false by practical application.

What I'm wondering is if common items found in a travelers carry-on bag (IE camera, phone, pen, beeper, etc) could be used to build a make-shift taser. Has anyone heard of anything like this being done as an EE or otherwise?

I rly want to do my EE on physics or even maths (second choice though) but i have heard that they tend to get scored lower than other subjects like history and economics. So do u think i should think of another subject where i have a better chance of getting a higher score....In addition, my econ teacher is rly bad and he is not even sure about EE himself. My friend who is in HL with me wants to do her EE on econ and she has chosen the SL teacher as her supervisor instead of her own teacher!!!

The thing about science/math topics is that they require less abstract conceptualization and more concrete facts. Plus, keep in mind that the EE is essentially required extra credit. The points aren't a required grade addition. You could really do anything, but if you're concerned about your exam scores, then it might be worthwhile to go with a safer topic. However it's more impressive to write a strong physics/math paper, and I've heard its easy to score well but hard to score extraordinarily well on humanity papers. Science/math topics, if written well, tend to score very high.

PS As a disclaimer, all this information is second-hand off my physics teacher when I discussed my EE topic with him, so I apologize if I've made any technical errors because of regional differences.

[RllbBryn]

Im doing an extended essay in physics, simply because in my college we have great physics tutors to help us, and I love physics asa subject. I spent the whole of last week doing a practical for the extended essay, and am curently trying to write about it. The actual practical was incredibly fun to do since we basically got to do anything we wanted in the physics lab for a week, and it was verry relaxed. Hoever now that the write up has began im beginning to regret starting. Everyone doing a extended essay in anything other than chemistry and physics has finished, whereas Im not half way through mine.

I would recommend a physics extended essay to anyone because it was so fun, but be prepared to put work into the actual write up and finish long after everyone else.

[run2INDIA]

I'm starting my EE. I wanna do it on physics. But, i cant think of a topic. I wanna do something with light and photography. Does anybody have any ideas?

I was thinking about investigating why we use different types of films indoor and outdoor, but im not sure if its good for physics and i cant figure out a way to make it specific. can anyone help, ..please?

[cereja]

I thought about doing that... but my teacher recommended not to do it.

I'm doing the effects of tension in a guitar string. But I have no idea on how to conduct an experiment. Any ideas how I could do it?

Under the background information, do I just write the history behind physics in music and concentrate on strings, waves, harmonics, and tension?

On the actual experiment, do I write it like an IA with purpose, materials, and everything?

Is the conclusion of the experiment my conclusion for the EE?

Last but not least, how long does the EE take? I have to turn in the rough draft in the mid August and I'm barely starting.

[KLSmash]

I thought about doing that... but my teacher recommended not to do it.

I'm doing the effects of tension in a guitar string. But I have no idea on how to conduct an experiment. Any ideas how I could do it?

Under the background information, do I just write the history behind physics in music and concentrate on strings, waves, harmonics, and tension?

On the actual experiment, do I write it like an IA with purpose, materials, and everything?

Is the conclusion of the experiment my conclusion for the EE?

Last but not least, how long does the EE take? I have to turn in the rough draft in the mid August and I'm barely starting.

You could always try talking to one of the music/physics teachers at your school, since they do know best. For your actual essay, the format of it is basically the same of an expierment. Have a hypothesis, purpose and the good stuff. You can include appendices, graphs, and tables in the body. My instructor told me that you should prepare months to write your extended essay, write it in a weekend (so it appears continuous, not broken up), and then edit for a month or two.

Just my two cents.

[Henshi]

I'm trying to do mine in physics, but I'm having some serious troubles finding a topic, and with the summer hollidays over soon I'm freaking out something major.

However, I'm considering archery. Does anyone think a topic like "determining the difference in the energy storing - capacities of a recurve bow versus a straight bow" could work?

Edited July 21, 2008 by Henshi

[mania90]

in my class (may 2009) there are 5 ppl who do ee in physics including myself ... it's not that kind of suicide some of you think it might be ... despite some failures its pretty great fun while sitting in the middle of night on a beach trying to measure curvacy of the earth ^^

to the guy who thought about writing about sth about light and different film used... its difficult to find anything in it which would receive B+ or higher

[deissi]

I'm trying to do mine in physics, but I'm having some serious troubles finding a topic, and with the summer hollidays over soon I'm freaking out something major.

However, I'm considering archery. Does anyone think a topic like "determining the difference in the energy storing - capacities of a recurve bow versus a straight bow" could work?

Your topic seems appropriate and concise enough otherwise, but it's not very analytical - after you've determined the difference, your topic doesn't exactly leave room for any analysis. Try adding something that compares and contrasts the two, so you could talk about benefits etc.

[cereja]

You could always try talking to one of the music/physics teachers at your school, since they do know best. For your actual essay, the format of it is basically the same of an expierment. Have a hypothesis, purpose and the good stuff. You can include appendices, graphs, and tables in the body. My instructor told me that you should prepare months to write your extended essay, write it in a weekend (so it appears continuous, not broken up), and then edit for a month or two.

Just my two cents.

Thank you so much. I've actually started writing it a few days ago (after a lot of research) and it does seem easier than I thought it'd be.

[Henshi]

Your topic seems appropriate and concise enough otherwise, but it's not very analytical - after you've determined the difference, your topic doesn't exactly leave room for any analysis. Try adding something that compares and contrasts the two, so you could talk about benefits etc.

Thanks a lot, I'll do that. It was really only a working title anyways, what I really needed was someone to confirm that my general idea wasn't completely hopeless, as my supervisor has been extraordinarily indifferent to the whole thing.