Physics at Imperial Festival 2014

Physics staff and students get involved in Imperial Festival 2014

This year’s Imperial Festival was a great success and it seemed that the visiting public could not get to it early or fast enough en masse!

The Physics department was well represented. It created the Light Zone which was situated in its own marquee. The Imperial College Optical Society headed by Rob Woodward and members of the academic staff, in particular Prof Martin McCall who ‘designed’ the experiments as well as Dr Kenny Weir, did their best to dazzle with ‘an electric experience’ exploring polarisation and optical illusions.

The world of plastic electronics was laid out (thanks to Dr Xuhua Wang), and explained to an audience of all ages including our very own alumni. Feedback images from a thermal camera fascinated small children who were persuaded to cool their foreheads with ice cubes by Prof. Chris Phillips.

Dr Simon Foster and his troupe of PhD students took the audience in the Great Hall on a journey through quantum physics where the unexpected might just happen... He also organised the Physics Buskers, famous for the banana piano and other hands on experiments which delighted large groups of children and their parents equally.

Physics was also involved with the Tricycle which was parked near the entrance of the car park on Exhibition Road. Our doctoral students offered mini marshmallows frozen in liquid nitrogen and demonstrated levitating high temperature superconductors.

Physics was definitely fizzing!