Posts
 | |
| Students from St Gregory's RC learned about Star Wars. |
Well students from St Gregory's High School in Warrington found out during an event today.
Chapelford resident Professor Carsten Welsch, head of physics at the University of Liverpool and head of communication for the Cockcroft Institute, explored the 'Physics of Star Wars' in an event on Monday designed to introduce cutting-edge science to hundreds of secondary school children, undergraduate and PhD students, as well as university staff.
Professor Welsch said: “I selected iconic scenes from the movies that everybody will immediately recognise, and used real world physics to explain what is possible and what is fiction.
"For example, a lightsabre, as shown in the film, wouldn’t be possible according to the laws of physics, but there are many exciting applications that are possible, such as laser knives for high precision surgery controlled by robot arms and adaptive manufacturing using lasers for creating complex structures in metals.
“A short scene from Star Wars was just the introduction, the appetizer, to make the participants curious, but then I linked what I had just shown in the film to ongoing research here in the department and in particular our accelerator science projects at the Cockcroft Institute.
“In the first movie from 1977, the rebels have used proton torpedoes that make the Death Star explode as their lasers wouldn’t penetrate the shields. I linked that to our use of ‘proton torpedoes’ in cancer therapy. Within the pan-European OMA project we are using proton beams to target something that is hidden very deep inside the body and very difficult to target and destroy...
Professor Welsch and members of his QUASAR Group had the permission of Lucasfilm to use film excerpts; these were complemented by Lego Star Wars models, a real cantina as found in the movie, storm troopers and even Darth Vader himself.
Read more...
Source: Warrington Guardian
