YPS 6-1: The physics of forensics
September’s last Saturday was a great, sunny day – and more than 200 students were heading towards the Physics and Mathematics faculty of the University of Latvia to take part in an investigation with a touch of physics.
The 40 + 40 minutes of popular lectures, lead by forensics specialist Aleksandra, who showed the realities of working in the field, and physics mastermind Ģirts, who solved a crime with pure physics, were a blast. Because of the sunny weather, the practical task was conducted in a park near the faculty – students were split into groups and went to solve their own crime. They measured the height at which a lethal bullet had impacted, weighed it and calculated the distanced it must have traveled – revealing the killer in the process. The final lecture was presented by a delegate from State Forensic Science Bureau – Gatis Bebris, who lead us through different physical and chemical methods, which are used in order to solve real crimes.
YPS 6-2: An energetic morning
On October 17 the second course of the season took place. In the first popular lecture Andris and Aigars reminded the students what exactly is the number we call energy and what are its forms. Thereafter, in the second popular lecture Jānis and Kirils expanded the topic towards a very famous equation in physics E=mc2. When it came to the practical part, students tried to create a sand turbine that would convert one type of energy into another and measured its efficiency (some turned out to be too good to be true ☺). In the end, Austris and Konstantīns from Siemens energy technology department explained about their own work and how learning about energy is useful in the real life.
