Click here for a list of all past Questions of the Week by physics topic.
Click here to view the Chinese translations of many of the Questions of the Week by Professor Fu-Kwun Hwang, Ph. D. graduate of the University of Maryland Physics Department and currently Professor of Physics at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. (NOTE: Requires Chinese Big5 font.)
Comments on questions from the University of Maryland Question of the Week, by David J. C. MacKay, Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Gatsby Senior Research Fellow, Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Physics is filled with an almost infinite variety of problems and questions. Of course, in physics it is not sufficient to simply "guess" the answer, correct or not. In fact, one may even learn more about physics during the process of working through a problem even if the wrong conclusion is reached. A good argument about an interesting physics problem is one of the ways to learn the most about physics, and also helps to prepare you for marriage.
We will try to select questions that require perhaps more than the minimal amount of thought, in that there may be good reasons why any of the possible answers might be correct. The way to form a conclusion about such problems is to try to figure out what ideas or laws of physics are relevant, then try to figure out how they might be applied.
Each week a new question will be posted and the answer for the previous Question of the Week will be shown. The questions involve real experimental physics, so part of the answers will be photographs and short videos of the experiments carried out in determining the results.
Ask your friends about these questions, discuss them, try to come to a conclusion, and see what you can learn about physics. To see the questions and solutions click your mouse on the links below.
The final column is a link back to the demonstration description in our demonstration file; references for each demonstration (if any) are linked to this demonstration description.
As always, we solicit your comments and corrections, and especially your suggestions for new and different questions that we might be able to adapt to this format.
| Week of May 11, 2009 | Q #347 | A #347 | (available 5/18/2009) | ||||||
| Week of April 27, 2009 | Q #346 | A #346 | (available 5/11/2009) | ||||||
| Week of April 20, 2009 | Q #345 | A #345 | (available 4/27/2009) | ||||||
| Week of April 13, 2009 | Q #344 | A #344 | (available 4/20/2009) | ||||||
| Week of April 6, 2009 | Q #343 | A #343 | (available 4/13/2009) | ||||||
| Week of March 30, 2009 | Q #342 | A #342 | (available 4/6/2009) | ||||||
| Week of March 23, 2009 | Q #341 | A #341 | (available 3/30/2009) | ||||||
| Week of March 16, 2009 | Q #340 | A #340 | (available 3/23/2009) | ||||||
| Week of March 9, 2009 | Q #339 | A #339 | (available 3/23/2009) | Demonstration G1-01: EXAMPLES OF SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION | |||||
| Week of February 23, 2009 | Q #338 | A #338 | (available 3/16/2009) | Demonstration G1-01: EXAMPLES OF SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION | |||||
| Week of February 16, 2009 | Q #337 | A #337 | (available 2/23/2009) | ||||||
| Week of February 9, 2009 | Q #336 | A #336 | (available 2/16/2009) | Demonstration H6-03: VOCAL FORMANTS - MODEL | |||||
| Week of February 2, 2009 | Q #335 | A #335 | (available 2/9/2009) | ||||||
| Week of January 26, 2009 | Q #334 | A #334 | (available 2/2/2009) | Demonstration H2-27: PHASE REVERSAL BETWEEN STEREO SPEAKERS - OSCILLATOR | |||||
| Week of January 19, 2009 | Q #333 | A #333 | (available 1/26/2009) | Demonstration H2-27: PHASE REVERSAL BETWEEN STEREO SPEAKERS - OSCILLATOR | Week of December 15, 2008 | Q #332 | A #332 | (available 1/17/2009) | Demonstration L5-34: FRUSTRATED TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION - MICROWAVES |
| Week of December 8, 2008 | Q #331 | A #331 | (available 11/15/2008) | Demonstration L5-05 IMAGE INVERSION BY PRISM | |||||
| Week of November 24, 2008 | Q #330 | A #330 | (available 11/8/2008) | Demonstration H5-16: OHM'S LAW OF HEARING - FOURIER SYNTHESIZER | |||||
| Week of November 17, 2008 | Q #329 | A #329 | (available 11/24/2008) | Demonstration J5-20: OERSTED EXPERIMENT - LARGE COIL AND COMPASS | |||||
| Week of November 10, 2008 | Q #328 | A #328 | (available 11/17/2008) | Demonstration H6-02: VOCAL FORMANTS | |||||
| Week of November 3, 2008 | Q #327 | A #327 | (available 11/10/2008) | Demonstration H6-02: VOCAL FORMANTS | |||||
| Week of October 27, 2008 | Q #326 | A #326 | (available 11/3/2008) | Demonstration H4-04: FOURIER ANALYSIS - DIGITAL OSCILLOSCOPE | |||||
| Week of October 20, 2008 | Q #325 | A #325 | (available 10/27/2008) | Demonstration H4-01: FOURIER SYNTHESIS | |||||
| Week of October 13, 2008 | Q #324 | A #324 | (available 10/20/2008) | ||||||
| Week of October 6, 2008 | Q #323 | A #323 | (available 10/13/2008) | ||||||
| Week of September 29, 2008 | Q #322 | A #322 | (available 10/6/2008) | ||||||
| Week of September 22, 2008 | Q #321 | A #321 | (available 9/29/2008) |
