On 26th May 2011, Dr Karl Sandeman from the Physics Department at Imperial College London presented to students at Charterhouse School.
Dr Sandeman’s lecture was part of a series organised by the Feynman Society at Charterhouse School. The Feynman society aims to promote an interest Physics by arranging lectures from experts in their respective field. The society invites lecturers to present a variety of interesting topics which are not covered in A Level Physics. The lecture was attended by year 12 and 13 students and some staff members.
Dr Sandeman presented a talk on Magnetic cooling and aimed to show that the temperature of a magnetic material changes when it undergoes a phase transition and that such temperature changes will be used in the near future for energy-efficient cooling, free of greenhouse gases. Dr Sandeman used several visual aids, including gadolinium; a magnetic material that has a phase transition near room temperature. By heating the gadolinium, Dr Sandeman was able to demonstrate its loss of magnetic order and thereby the link between heat, temperature and magnetic order.
One of the students who attended the event said “It was one of the most interesting and exciting talks to date.”