Robert Lambourne

A possible atmospheric pressure wave from the total solar eclipse of 22 July 1990

Abstract Total solar eclipses are of importance in studies of pressure waves in the Earths atmosphere, because they provide relatively well defined forcing functions. Over the south east of the U.K. we have observed an atmospheric pressure disturbance that might have been a wave caused by the total solar eclipse of 22 July 1990. At each of three microbarometers, sited at the apices of a triangle of sides 21.5, 27.9 and 35.8 km, we observed the order of a 30 Pa rise and fall in pressure over a period of about 2 h. The direction and speed of travel are weakly constrained but are consistent with an eclipse origin. The nature of the wave is uncertain.

Laboratory-based teaching and the physics innovations centre for excellence in teaching and learning

Developments in the laboratory-based teaching of physics and astronomy are resulting from the collaboration between conventional and distance teaching universities. The collaboration, piCETL, is one of the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning established as a result of a broad initiative by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The initiative, the piCETL collaboration and some of its work on laboratory-based teaching are all described.

The Doppler effect in astronomy

Most of our knowledge of the properties of stars and galaxies has been obtained using the Doppler effect. This article explains how it can tell us about solar oscillations, the rotation of the Milky Way, the expansion of the Universe and much more.

The Flexible Learning Approach to Physics: FLAP

Major changes in the teaching of physics at university are already underway and more are imminent. These are driven by the need to accommodate changes in schools and to effect the planned general expansion of the higher education sector. The Flexible Learning Approach to Physics (FLAP) is one major response to this situation.

Einstein at a distance

This paper examines the challenges and rewards that can arise when the teaching of Einsteinian physics has to be accomplished by means of distance education. The discussion is mainly based on experiences gathered over the past 35 years at the UK Open University, where special and general relativity, relativistic cosmology and other aspects of Einsteinian physics, have been taught at a variety of levels, and using a range of techniques, to students studying at a distance.

Looking at how we teach physics

All university physicists will be well aware of the growing pressure to increase their research output – in other words, to work harder. Britain, however, is fortunate to also have many talented, dedicated and enthusiastic individuals who are keen to improve the quality of teaching and learning in universities and who are willing to devote a significant part of their career to that task. In fact, a recent survey carried out by the European Physical Society shows that the UK is one of Europes most active centres for developmental work in university-physics teaching (www.nikh ef.nl/~ed/EDUCATION/epsedquest.html).

Electricity, Relativity and Magnetism: a unified text

It is well known that magnetism is a relativistic effect. The combination of Coulombs law of electrostatics and Einsteins special theory of relativity demands the existence of magnetic forces and hence magnetic fields. However, although many books have drawn attention to this fact very few have attempted to use it as the basis of a unified treatment of electricity, relativity and magnetism, and none, as far as I am aware, have extended that treatment to include the quantum theory of magnetism. Derek Craiks new book does all of the things, and does them with considerable thoroughness and a good degree of clarity. For these reasons it will be a valuable addition to many college and university libraries and will be of interest to all those involved in the teaching of electricity and magnetism at tertiary level. Electricity, Relativity and Magnetism: a unified text is divided into four substantial chapters. The first, and shortest, is devoted to special relativity. In just 35 pages it covers the essentials of the subject, including length contraction, time dilation and the transformation laws of velocity, acceleration and force. The other three chapters deal respectively with electromagnetism, magnetic behaviour and design (including practical field calculations and the energetics of domain structure) and the quantum theory of magnetism. Each of these latter chapters is about a hundred pages long, and therefore in some danger of becoming indigestible, but all of the chapters are subdivided into manageable sections and subsections that are usually just a few pages in length. The sections are well focused, but unusually wordy for such a mathematical text. Indeed, wordiness is one of the hallmarks of this text. The author is seriously concerned to present a specific approach to his subject, not merely a catalogue of results. This is refreshing and worthwhile, but it does mean that even in the second chapter, which deals with such familiar topics as dipoles, polarization, Maxwells equations and electromagnetic radiation, the reader will have to pay close attention to the text in order to fully appreciate Craiks particular approach. The authors concern to adopt an individual approach to his subject is evident throughout this book, but his deep familiarity with the material really becomes apparent in the third chapter. It is here, amidst notes on numerical techniques for field calculation, comparisons of SQUIDs and conventional magnetometers, and discussions of magnetic behaviour at high frequency, that one really feels in contact with modern magnetism. It is telling that the list of references at the end of this chapter runs to more than 30 books and papers (including one of the authors own papers), whereas the relativity chapter ended with just two references, one of which was to Einsteins 1905 paper. Craiks discussion of the quantum aspects of magnetism is not unusual in itself; such standard topics as spin-orbit coupling, exchange integrals, crystal field effects and spin waves are all included, but it is unusually self-contained for such a relatively brief treatment. It starts with a 15 page survey of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, and follows this with a similarly concise survey of Diracs relativistic electron theory, leading to an approximate wave equation for the electron in an electromagnetic field that includes spin in a natural way. These surveys should have the effect of making the book more than usually accessible, but their density means that those trying to use them for this purpose must be well motivated and perhaps even doggedly determined. It is for this reason that I regard the book as one for the library and for the professional, rather than one for the student.

The assessment of teaching quality: what's in it for physics?

Quality is now firmly on the agenda of higher education throughout Europe, the US and Australia. Whilst institutional managers would be quick to point out that they have always been deeply concerned with the quality of teaching and research, few would deny that their current preoccupation with the subject – particularly in teaching – is a direct response to external pressure.

Predicting the physics of particles

A brief account is presented of the goals and methods of particle theorists, stressing the measurable quantities they would like to predict, the conventional starting points for such predictions, and some of the techniques used to arrive at a prediction.