UC Riverside Department of Physics and Astronomy invites the community to an afternoon of exciting activities and talks on April 13

By Iqbal Pittalwala on April 8, 2013

Standing on a rotatable platform, a visitor to a past Physics and Astronomy Open House at UC Riverside gets a hands-on education on a physical law called the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Photo credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. How does a hybrid car use electricity to move? And how does it convert the cars movement back into stored electric energy when it slows down? How do electricity and magnetism work? Are they always coupled? And how exactly does physics explain sound and music?

The public has the opportunity to find out the answers to these questions and more on April 13, 2013, at the University of California, Riverside campus.

From 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. that day, the Department of Physics and Astronomy will host its annual open house, allowing visitors to campus to have one-on-one interactions with faculty and students and get to know all about the cutting-edge research the department conducts. Parking in Lot 30 is free.

The open house a popular, fun-filled event for the family will be held in the Physics Building as well as outside in the adjacent courtyard.

Presentations that showcase the research being done in the department will be held in the lobby and classrooms of the Physics Building. The presentations will each be about 20 minutes long. Presentations on astrophysics, cosmology and condensed matter physics will start at 2 p.m., take place in Room 3041 (the Reading Room), and be given twice; the talk on high energy physics will be ongoing in the lobby.

Fun, hands-on demonstrations will take place in the courtyard and inside the Physics Building. The demonstrations, which in the past have been very popular with children, will cover a variety of topics, including electricity, magnetism and sound/music.

We will give away small electric motor kits while supplies last, said Owen Long, an associate professor of physics and astronomy and the lead organizer of the open house. We will also provide tours of our research labs and provide information for prospective, beginning and transfer students.

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Fun With Physics and Astronomy