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 19, 2008 | Q #319 | A #319 | (available 5/26/2008) | |
| Week of May 12, 2008 | Q #318 | A #318 | (available 5/19/2008) | Demonstration I1-71: SHAPE-MEMORY ALLOY - THERMOBILE |
| Week of May 5, 2008 | Q #317 | A #317 | (available 5/12/2008) | |
| Week of April 28, 2008 | Q #316 | A #316 | (available 5/5/2008) | Demonstration L1-11: INVERSE SQUARE LAW - LIGHT BULB AND RADIOMETER |
| Week of April 21, 2008 | Q #315 | A #315 | (available 4/28/2008) | Demonstration F3-21: SURFACE TENSION - ALCOHOL AND WATER IN SAND |
| Week of April 14, 2008 | Q #314 | A #314 | (available 4/21/2008) | Demonstration I2-24: THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY IN WATER |
| Week of April 7, 2008 | Q #313 | A #313 | (available 4/14/2008) | |
| Week of March 31, 2008 | Q #312 | A #312 | (available 4/7/2008) | Demonstration L6-51: OPTICAL BOARD - FRESNEL LENS |
| Week of March 24, 2008 | Q #311 | A #311 | (available 3/31/2008) | Demonstration D3-03: ROTATING CHAIR AND WEIGHTS |
| Week of March 10, 2008 | Q #310 | A #310 | (available 3/24/2008) | |
| Week of March 3, 2008 | Q #309 | A #309 | (available 3/10/2008) | Demonstration D2-21: CENTER OF PERCUSSION - BAT AND MALLET |
| Week of February 25, 2008 | Q #308 | A #308 | (available 3/3/2008) | |
| Week of February 18, 2008 | Q #307 | A #307 | (available 2/25/2008) | Demonstration L6-54: OPTICALLY PROGRAMMED TRAFFIC SIGNAL - MODEL |
| Week of February 11, 2008 | Q #306 | A #306 | (available 2/18/2008) | |
| Week of February 4, 2008 | Q #305 | A #305 | (available 2/11/2008) | Demonstration F4-33: PYTHAGOREAN CUP |
| Week of January 28, 2008 | Q #304 | A #304 | (available 2/4/2008) | Demonstration L7-41: REAL IMAGE - MIRROR AND LENS |
| Week of January 21, 2008 | Q #303 | A #303 | (available 1/28/2008) | Demonstration H3-12: ROARING TUBE - 4 FT |
| Week of January 14, 2008 | Q #302 | A #302 | (available 1/21/2008) | Demonstration L1-24: PINHOLE TV CAMERA |
| Week of January 7, 2008 | Q #301 | A #301 | (available 1/14/2008) | Demonstration H3-62: TEACUP STANDING WAVES |
