Research Ideas

[Tempest]

So this is a total shot in the dark, but maybe one of you has a great idea for me.

I'm part of a new research course at my school. We're meant to come up with our own question and spend the entire year researching it, and in the end, hopefully publish. The school built a huge lab, so I have access to some very advanced equipment like, high pressure liquid chromatography, blast furnaces, liquid nitrogen. scanning electron microscopes and the like. On top of that, they've partnered with a few local universities and companies to get us lab time and mentors, so I can use some of their equipment, including a high resolution transmission electron microscopes and high powered lasers. My point is, I have a lot of resources at my finger tips.

Ideally I want to research something with physics... even better would be quantum mechanics or theoretical physics. I'm struggling to find a specific question though because of three big things:

1. Time - I'm going to have to wrap up my research in May, or at least have some tangible results I can report. Project scope is a real concern.

2. Difficulty - To be frank, I just don't have the math skills to do some of the incredibly advanced standard model calculations. I'm in calc III and IB Further Maths this year, but some of that stuff is another level or two beyond. I can teach myself of course, but spending three months really limits my already time crunched schedule. At some point, I will have a Ph.D researcher helping me and mentoring me, so this is less of a concern then the other two.

3. Equipment - While I have a wide array of equipment at my disposal, a lot of physics research requires equipment that is prohibitively expensive and can measure at picometers or picosecond scales or can smash particles together at near light speed velocities. I just don't have access to that kind of stuff.

So with that said, does anyone have any general advice or ideas for me? I've been looking at Bose-Einstein condensate research, since I know I can make them in the school's lab, but measuring them would probably be incredibly difficult.

[Tartar]

The school built a huge lab, so I have access to some very advanced equipment like, high pressure liquid chromatography, blast furnaces, liquid nitrogen. scanning electron microscopes and the like.

Your school has way too much money to spend. What do students even use such things for?

My only advice would be to not think too big, since you are limited in both time, abilities and equipment.

[Hect]

And meanwhile our school couldn't even afford desks, let alone proper chairs, smh..

Edited September 10, 2016 by Lagspike

[Pietvergiet]

Are you allowed to research something that has already been done or does it have to be something that no one has ever published a paper about? Because if you want to publish it wouldn't that require it to be something new or at least better than /expanded on previous research?

Either way you could take a problem and research a part of that problem extensively (preferably a part that is possible for you to research/measure of course).

And maybe that Ph.D student will have a sub problem from his own research that you could do. Unless you absolutely have to come up with the question yourself, but seeing as you're asking here I don't think that's the case.

I'm not really into physics so I don't have any concrete ideas for you but maybe this will help.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Pietvergiet

[NickCrash]

Of course it's going to be something already solved. He's a high school student.

My initial impression is that your school has too much money to spend, yet we don't know what your abilities are (because the titles Math III or IB cannot be understood by non-Americans without help). Do you know the basics of integrals and derivatives? What about 3D vectors? If you know this stuff you may be able to teach yourself about higher math and their applications to physics like the Gross-Pitaevskii equation that corresponds to the BE particles. In general we'd need to know your approximate knowledge of math and physics, because if you are trying to make research about something out of your league, you'll face nothing but confusion and time loss.

The PhD students will be a great asset, and since you have good equipment, you might learn to use it fast and efficiently. Be careful though, electron microscopes cost a lot, while chromatography is quite cheap given it's so basic. Try using photometry for your measurements of liquids for faster results imo.

[Pietvergiet]

Of course it's going to be something already solved. He's a high school student.

Ah my bad. Sorry about that. I guess calc III threw me off since I didn't came into contact with that until university. And researching what IB math and calc III (according to wikipedia) are compared to what I got made it look like university level math.

[Tempest]

Are you allowed to research something that has already been done or does it have to be something that no one has ever published a paper about? Because if you want to publish it wouldn't that require it to be something new or at least better than /expanded on previous research?

Either way you could take a problem and research a part of that problem extensively (preferably a part that is possible for you to research/measure of course).

And maybe that Ph.D student will have a sub problem from his own research that you could do. Unless you absolutely have to come up with the question yourself, but seeing as you're asking here I don't think that's the case.

I'm not really into physics so I don't have any concrete ideas for you but maybe this will help.

Yes it doesn't need to be something new, but preferably it would be. Of course, validating other research is an integral part of science, bt I'd like to try and do something novel.

And no, they don't want us just pick up someone else's research.

Of course it's going to be something already solved. He's a high school student.

My initial impression is that your school has too much money to spend, yet we don't know what your abilities are (because the titles Math III or IB cannot be understood by non-Americans without help). Do you know the basics of integrals and derivatives? What about 3D vectors? If you know this stuff you may be able to teach yourself about higher math and their applications to physics like the Gross-Pitaevskii equation that corresponds to the BE particles. In general we'd need to know your approximate knowledge of math and physics, because if you are trying to make research about something out of your league, you'll face nothing but confusion and time loss.

The PhD students will be a great asset, and since you have good equipment, you might learn to use it fast and efficiently. Be careful though, electron microscopes cost a lot, while chromatography is quite cheap given it's so basic. Try using photometry for your measurements of liquids for faster results imo.

Nope, it's not meant for us to be doing derivative work. We can choose to, of course, but they encourage us to try and do new research.

As for math skills, IB Further Maths, which, BTW, is a world wide course, covers graph theory, number theory, linear algebra, geometry, stats, sets, groups and relations and some calc. Calc III is multivariable calculus, and is partnered through a local university, so, yes, I know derivatives, integrals, and 3D vectors, and I've taken AP Stats. Having to learn new math is only a slight concern for me, but if I have to learn an egregious amount of new math, it would become prohibative.

And I know electron microscopes cost a lot; we already have them though.

Ah my bad. Sorry about that. I guess calc III threw me off since I didn't came into contact with that until university. And researching what IB math and calc III (according to wikipedia) are compared to what I got made it look like university level math.

Yep. It is university level math. We're doing concurrent enrollment through a university.

The point of this course is for us to be doing university level research. A good number of people in this course have considered just going to the university for their classes (me included)

[NickCrash]

I didn't realize you were talking about the international baccalaureate course, and thought that was how you organized your math classes (eg IA, IIA, IB etc). Anyway, those usually do not go very much in depth, but I suppose you'll be solving problems to keep your mind fresh about that.

It seems you will not be needing much extra academic knowledge if you can understand multivariable functions and 3D vectors, because for basic research you'll just need to check such figures to prove hypotheses and/or verify another person's research by doing so. A relatively easy idea would be to compare the properties of normal gas with plasma and BE clouds by doing randomized trials on the microscopic level, perhaps on bacteria if the uni has a microbiology department. You could project your findings on a computer and derive from the 'clouds' you've designed the particle movement, and thus the properties in various temperatures. For BE you'll need to go as close as to absolute zero, and for plasma to over 500K for it to be effective.

You have the equipment there, so I suggest talking to the professor in charge of this whole operation and ask what their faculty is onto now, so you can get ideas.