Physics fun for all

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Publication title: Clutha Leader

‘‘Quantum physics is the physics of things that are really, really small,’’ co-host Luke Trainor said

‘‘When you get down to the smallest scales we have, things start to behave very weirdly.

‘‘Unfortunately it is quite difficult to demonstrate this so we’re going to the closest things we see to quantum physics in our daily lives, which are light and electricity and we do have a lot of tools and demonstrations around those topics.’’

As a post-doctoral fellow at the University’s Dodd-Walls Centre for photonic and quantum technologies, Mr Trainor does physics research as a job.

He and Tūhura’s Jessa Barder led an audience of about 30 local adults and children through two sessions of explanations and demonstrations.

The duo began by giving out special prismatic glasses which split ordinary ‘‘white’’ light into the seven colours of the spectrum.

They then shone small lasers through the lenses to show light’s colour depended on its wavelength.

Other demonstrations included a...