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Rock guitar physics at the Green Man Festival

Physics in Society

22 August 2006

At this year's Green Man folk festival, held over the weekend of 18 August in Brecon, mid-Wales, punters not only had the chance to listen to guitars but also to find out how they work from Dr Mark Lewney's talk Rock guitar in 11 dimensions: Strats, strads and superstrings. The talk was presented by the Institute of Physics as part of the science programme at the festival.

Dr Lewney, a science communicator who has a PhD in guitar acoustics, said: “My talk is about the physics of vibrations and harmonics which I demonstrate by playing riffs from Vivaldi to U2 on my electric guitar. It's a great way to make people realise that physics isn't just hard maths and equations and is relevant to everyday life. This leads on to the weird world of string theory which might help us to understand the fundamental nature of the universe."

Also speaking in the science tent was Dr Pete Edwards from the University of Durham who talked about some of the latest discoveries in astronomy in his lecture Gravity, gas and stardust, using live demonstrations and 3D movie clips. He then discussed what these discoveries reveal about the birth, life and death of our universe with the audience.

Science Made Simple, a science communication company based at Cardiff university, presented short parts of their physical theatre show Visualise. Debbie Syrop, leading the group, said: “Our show is inspired by science experiments and has no words, just sounds and music. It includes smoke rings made from metal bins and skipping ropes that glow in the dark." The show was filmed and projected onto a large screen as it happened.

In between talks, staff from the Institute presented various messy science tricks. Visitors launched Alka Seltzer rockets, made balloon kebabs, turned pints upside down over a friend’s head without drenching them and played with cornflour slime.

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