London and South East
Events - Hertfordshire Centre
Meetings are usually held in the Lindop Building, College Lane, Hatfield at the University of Hertfordshire. Special lectures are held in the Weston Auditorium on the de Havilland Campus. Further information can be obtained from Dr Diane Crann, School of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB (tel: 07770 444 614; e-mail: d.crann@herts.ac.uk), who will add members’ e-mail addresses, if provided, to her e-mail reminder list.
Tuesday 9 September, 8.00pm
Weston Auditorium
Lights in the sky
Prof. Alan Davies
University of Hertfordshire
Rainbows, halos and glories are well-known phenomena, all of which Prof. Davies will describe using elementary mathematics and physics. As the title of his lecture implies, he will also describe a variety of other light phenomena including the glitter path, the green flash and the aurora. Many pictures and photographs will be used to illustrate the lecture, which will be accessible to a wide audience.
Wednesday 8 October, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
The physics of woodwind instruments
Dr David Sharp, Acoustics Research Group, Open University
The woodwind family of musical instruments includes the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone. Through a series of demonstrations and multimedia examples, this talk will discuss the physics of these instruments. In particular, the mechanisms by which the different instruments produce sound will be described and the reasons why each has its own characteristic tone will be explained.
Wednesday 5 November, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
Civil and structural engineering - much success and some failures
Frank Weare
The speaker, who is a chartered civil and structural engineer with more than 30 years’ professional and university lecturing experience, will describe some of the exciting structures that have been created in the past and some of those that are proposed for the future – including buildings, storage structures, bridges and some other major civil engineering structures. He will also present the darker side of failures, and will consider examples of where failure has been built in and others where it has come from various external causes.
Wednesday 3 December, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
Details to be announced.
2009
Wednesday 28 January, 7.00 p.m.
Weston Auditorium
From Babylon to the Big Bang
Heather Couper CBE and Nigel Henbest
This talk will trace the stories of humans interacting with the endless wonders of the night sky, beginning with the earliest superstitions, and continuing through to the birth and development of the science of astronomy. It will embrace a subject populated by personalities and mavericks who have driven our knowledge of the heavens forward – a subject which continues to test the limits of imagination, and exploration.
Wednesday 25 February, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
Antarctica, climate change and you
Dr Jonathan Shanklin, Head of Meteorology and Ozone Monitoring Unit, British Antarctic Survey
The pristine environment of Antarctica allows the clear and unambiguous detection of changes. The Antarctic ozone hole, which first appeared in the early 1980s, demonstrates that it is possible dramatically to change the atmosphere in as little as a decade. The mean temperature of the Antarctic Peninsular has risen by 3 degrees Celsius over the last 50 years – one of the largest changes on the planet. This talk will illustrate the Antarctic environment, focusing on these symptoms of the health of the planet and making a diagnosis of their cause.
Joint meeting with the Institute of Measurement and Control
Wednesday 1 April, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
Chaos, catastrophe and the electric guitar
Dr David Acheson, JesusCollege, Oxford
Why do some things fluctuate predictably, while others seem to be chaotic? Why do some physical systems change gradually, while others change suddenly – even dangerously – and quite without warning? And what has all this got to do with the electric guitar? To find out, the speaker will take an offbeat look at applied mathematics, with live demonstrations.
Wednesday 6 May, 7.00 p.m.
LindopBuilding
Details to be announced.
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