Fun Physics Project Advice?

Question

I need to come up with an idea by friday for a physics project for my A Level course. It can be about almost anything, as long as its relatively quantitive (I can take data from any practicals I do) and its interesting!

Examples are:

Physics behind space travel
Physics behind the bicycle (I know, it was a previous example)
The physics of car engines

Please advice! Thanks! XD

Answer 1

Potato Cannon.

Answer 2

Opportunities for recapturing waste energy. There are very many things that people do that waste energy when it could be recaptured. One example of a recent technology that does recapture energy is called regenerative braking. In older cars, when you apply the brake, all that kinetic energy of the car is lost as heat and noise. Newer, hybrid cars turn a generator when the brake is applied so the kinetic energy is transformed into electrical energy. There are hundreds of similar "machines" that people use that could recapture energy. An elevator, for example, uses energy to raise people (or cargo) to a higher floor. By raising people to a higher level, these people now have higher potential energy. This higher potential energy could be recaptured when they ride the elevator back to the ground floor. This would be just like the brake in a hybrid car: instead of using a brake to slow the descent of the elevator car, a descending elevator could turn a generator and recapture some of the energy that was used to lift the occupants. Water is pumped up to each floor of a large office building. That pumping uses energy, but when someone washes their hands or flushes the toilet, that water just falls (inside pipes) back to ground level (or even lower). Just like the water behind a damn, water falling from the fiftieth floor of an office building is full of potential energy, but right now, all that energy is lost.

Answer 3

Build a bridge out of balsa wood that can hold a grapefruit at mid-span.