Dr Donovan Young Project Abstracts

BSc Abstracts

What does Einstein's relativity look like?
When we learn about relativity and length contraction we expect that if we saw a spaceship zooming by near the speed of light we would see its length contracted. Although its length really is contracted it wouldn't look that way to your eyes. In this project you will calculate what relativistic effects actually do to the scene captured by the eye. Depending on time the student will also study the lensing of light produced by black holes. 

MSci Review Project Abstracts

What does Einstein's relativity look like?
When we learn about relativity and length contraction we expect that if we saw a spaceship zooming by near the speed of light we would see its length contracted. Although its length really is contracted it wouldn't look that way to your eyes. In this project you will calculate what relativistic effects actually do to the scene captured by the eye. Depending on time the student will also study the lensing of light produced by black holes. 

MSci Research/Investigative Projects

You have 15 minutes to save the Neutrons 
The universe was once hot enough that neutrons and protons were constantly turning into each other through weak nuclear interactions, but at some point things expanded and cooled down sufficiently so that neutrons and protons were isolated. Protons are stable but neutrons decay with a half-life of about a quarter hour -- they had to find their way into Helium nuclei (where they are protected against decay) quickly, or else the universe would be neutron-free! In this project you will find out how this miracle occurred, and even calculate how much helium we should expect to find.