Final Report

Light speed

Marc Garcia
Joan Font-Quer
Cristina Martnez
History 2016-17

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 Table of contents
1 Question, variables, and hypotheses.3

2 materials3

3 experiment procedure4

4 background research.4

5 data analysis5

6 conclusion6

7 ideas for future research6

8 bibliography6

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 Project Link
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/
Phys_p056.shtml#summary

Questions

Which is the speed of light?

How can we calculate the speed with a wavelength and a frequency?

Variables

Wavelength

Hypotesis

The response will be varied in the experiment as the cooking time will vary and the
measurements between hot spots will be different.

Materials

3 Materials:
Microwave
Plate
3-6 eggs
Ruler

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 Calculator

Experimental procedure.

We get a egg and separate the yolk from the rest of the egg, we throw the yolk
and put the rest of the egg on the plate. We then proceed to put the egg in the
microwave for a amount of time from 20 to 30 seconds, the final egg should
have cooked parts and uncooked parts, if its too cooked or too undercooked
redo the experiment.

Then you need to look at the microwave label and search for the MHz, then
write that down, in our case the MHz where 2450 MHz. You then get your mid-
cooked egg and measure the cm from the centre of one hot spot to the centre
of the adjacent hot spot.

Now make a median of the measurement. To get the wavelength you need to
multiply that number by 2. You can now multiply the wavelength with the
frequency. Then you get the m/s of the light speed, so pass it to km/s and you
should get it.

Background research

Microwaves, like light, are an example of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic

waves can travel through the vacuum of interstellar space. They do not depend on
an external medium-unlike a mechanical wave such as a sound wave which must
travel through air, water, or some solid medium. Electromagnetic waves cover a
huge range of frequencies, from high-frequency gamma rays and x-rays, to
ultraviolet light, visible light, and infrared light, and on into microwaves and radio
waves. As the frequency decreases, so does the energy. The wavelength of an
electromagnetic wave is inversely proportional to its frequency.

So waves with high frequency have short wavelengths, and waves with low
frequency have long wavelengths.

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Electromagnetic waves interact with materials in different ways, depending on the
nature of the material and the frequency of the electromagnetic wave. Microwaves
work well for cooking because their energy can be efficiently absorbed by molecules
commonly found in food, including water, sugars, and fats. The absorbed microwave
energy heats these molecules and cooks the food. As you can see in Figure 1 below,
the range of microwave wavelengths is from 0.01 cm to 10 cm.

In this project you we have taken advantage of some physical properties of waves in
order to estimate the speed of light. These properties are interference and the
relationship between a wave's speed, its frequency, and its wavelength. Interference
is what happens when multiple waves interact. For example, at the beach, the
incoming waves from the ocean and the outgoing waves from the surf drawing back
from the beach interfere with one another. When two wave crests coincide, they
combine to make an even higher crest. When two wave troughs coincide, they
combine to make an even lower trough. When a wave crest and a wave trough
coincide, they tend to cancel each other out. Interference is the name physicists use
for this kind of combination of waves.
In a microwave oven, interference occurs between waves that are reflected from the
inside surfaces of the oven.

The interference patterns can create "hot" and "cold" spots in the oven-areas where
the microwave energy is higher or lower than average. This is why many microwave
ovens have rotating platters to promote more even cooking of the food. In the
experiment described below, you'll remove the rotating platter (if your oven has one)
in order to see the effects of the interference pattern on your cooking. You'll cook an
egg white just long enough for some parts of the egg to solidify, while the rest
remains partially cooked. The egg white will cook fastest at the hot spots in the oven.
The distance between the hot spots will be equal to half of the wavelength of the
microwaves. You will be able to measure the distance between the hot spots by
measuring the distance between the cooked portions of the egg.
So measurements from your cooking will give you the wavelength of the
microwaves. With one more piece of information, the frequency of the waves, you
will be able to calculate the speed of light. You should be able to find the frequency
of the microwaves on a label on the back of the oven. The frequency (f), wavelength
(, and wave speed (v) are related by the equation: v = f.
The Experimental Procedure section has all the details for doing the experiment.

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 Data analysis
So we did this experiment 3 times and this where the results:

We can see that the results were more or less the same across the board.

Conclusion
We think that this experiment worked out well and that it took some brain
work, a little bit more than our other attempt that failed for too expensive and
detailed pieces. We think that its interesting and that if you research well you
could really learn about this experiment.

Ideas for a future research

If we repeated the experiment we would do some more accurate

measurements and we would try and change the time of the egg in the
microwave a little bit more. But overall i think that we did a good job.

Bibliography
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/PhysicsInitiative/Physics2000.10.99/
microwaves/index.htm.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves.

http://www.wikipedia.org

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