Castleisland Community College had three different projects reaching the National Sophia Physics competition.
The school has won the competition for the last three consecutive years. The Transition year students undertook their projects with guidance from their teacher Kellie Sheehy. The first group consisted of Bella Harmon, Emma O’Donoghue and Amy McCarthy. The girls decided to explore the physics behind the in-flight curve of the ball in soccer.
The Magnus Effect
They chose this particular topic due to their interest and involvement with the local soccer club for the last five years.
They researched the physics behind the curve of a ball depending on how it is kicked. They learned that when a soccer player kicks a ball off-centre it causes the ball to spin. The direction and speed of the spin will determine how much the ball curves during flight.
The curve of the ball during flight is known as the Magnus effect. As the ball spins, friction between the ball and air causes the air to react to the direction of spin of the ball.
Combustion V Electric Engines
The second group consisted of Fionn Griffin, Sean McCarthy and Cathal White. The boys based their project on the sustainability of combustion versus electric engines.
‘We learnt that combustion engines use fossil fuels and produce harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide.
“Electric engines use lithium ion as their batteries and have no emissions, but the mining of the lithium is very harmful to the environment however.
“We also illustrated how they worked to show their differences. In conclusion we established that they are both harming the environment in different ways,” said Cathal and Seán.
Nobel Injustice to Lise Meitner
The final group consisted of Bláithín O’Mahony, Leah Whelan and Caitríona Murphy. They based their topic on the physicist Lisa Meitner. They picked Lise Meitner as they admired her for revolutionary discoveries and for her determination to succeed despite the odds being stacked against her.
The girls learned that Lise Meitner discovered the element protactinium and nuclear fission, which is used in nuclear power plants and atomic bombs.
“Being a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany was an extremely dangerous position to be in, so she fled to Sweden to continue her scientific work there,” they reported.
“After World War II, her research partner, Otto Hahn, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission.
“Lise was not awarded this prize, although she was nominated 49 times for the honour for Physics and Chemistry,” Bláithín, Leah and Caitríona learned.
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