Physics in the House 18) Demonstrating diffraction using a laser pointer, ruler and spring.
Channel: Bob Newport
Date: 2020-05-24

The eighteenth in a series of short talks in which I'll try, with the minimum of mathematics, to show how everyday items and processes in the home point the way to important aspects of physics. 

This project is primarily aimed at the lovely members of Canterbury's U3A branch: we might not be able to gather together to learn during the current pandemic, but that shouldn't stop us trying. I will attempt to augment these (extremely amateur) videos with posts on my blog (https://bobreflected.blogspot.com/), but there is likely to be a delay as such things take a little time. I'll certainly keep updated a 'Physics in the House' blog post to act as a Contents Page for the videos: https://bobreflected.blogspot.com/2020/04/physics-in-house.html

Video 9 in this series provides a background to the arrangement of atoms in everyday crystalline materials like table salt:  https://youtu.be/wRsZ8Ht28J4

See also my introductory video at https://youtu.be/_ejjfrZBIVY
To keep up with this series you might like to subscribe to my YouTube channel, or simply search for "physics in the house" or "bob newport".

You can also follow me on Twitter:  twitter.com/bob_matphys