09 Mar 08
Originally posted by RamnedRadio telescope is a great idea, I've always wanted to do that myself, but I doubt it would take 100 hours, a bit of circuitboarding and wire. Though if you worked into it that you would take measurements with it as well that'd be cool.
I would like to make and run an experiment for the project. Any ideas? I was thinking of building a van de graff generator. Or an airplane (partially).
Gimme ideas - I'm going into physics so world's open
[b]It requires 100 hours of work. At least. I'm cool to do more.[/b]
A good one for 100 hours that would tie in would be to build a spark generator (the van de graff should do the job, though there are other ways) and combine that with the radio telescope idea to make a directional antenna (same physics involved at least). As part of the project, you get blindfolded and soemone runs off with the spark generator to plug it in somewhere, and you find it with the antenna. It's basic enough electronics, but the hide and seek element adds some entertainment value which if it's the kind of gig I'm thinking of generally goes down well.
Depending on budget, if you can get a strong enough transformer, you can build a basic synchrotron out of two D shaped pieces of metal, though the voltage would need to be enormous, AC, and there's a risk of radiation... hmm, scratch that one,
OOH! A railgun! Google, don't fail me now...
http://www.intalek.com/AV/Railguns-Tim-Ventura-1994-2.pdf
that depends on budget and materials though...