P2_2 Attenborough Pyrotechnics.

In this paper we discuss the requirements of a firework, launched from the Attenborough Tower on The University of Leicester Campus, which would be capable of being viewed from any location in England. We calculated that the firework would need to reach a height of 14.3km, requiring 7.79g of gunpowder. The intensity of the explosion seen at the maximum distance from the Tower (Land’s End) would be 8.07×10−13W/m2, which we found could be produced by 1.1mg of Barium

P2_3 Killing Two Birds with One Stone

The famous idiom ‘to kill two birds with one stone’ is often used throughout everyday life to describe achieving two things with only one action. We are considering the physical scenario in which this phrase could be possible. We found that a stone thrown at a velocity of 18.95 ms-1 and 54.7◦ to the horizontal would kill a hummingbird, and from here found that the falling stone would kill a second hummingbird positioned 5.33 m away at an angle of 15.23◦ SE with respect to the first bird

P2_7 Leaning Tower of London

In this paper, we calculate the maximum angle that Elizabeth Tower could lean before toppling over, which was found to be 7.13◦. We also find the length of time it would take for this to happen as approximately 4380 years, and the minimum force that would be needed if one were to push the tower until it fell. The force needed to push the tower until it toppled was found to be 35.0×106 N if applied perpendicular to the tower, or a minimum force of 34.8×106 N when applied most effectively

P2_8 Charybdis Vs. The Argonauts

The Greek Hero Jason, while sailing on the Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece, encounters a sea creature which sucks in the ocean, creating a huge whirlpool. This paper finds the intital buoyancy force of the Argo and compares this to the centripetal force exerted on the Argo by the whirlpool, which were found to be 5690000 N and 101000 N respectively. We also calculated the pressure gradient throughout the radius of the whirlpool to be 12100 Pa, and its rotational velocity to be 0.61 rad s-1

P2_5 Jack and the Decompression Sickness

In this paper, we calculate the volume of supplemental oxygen that Jack would need to climb the entire height of the beanstalk in the classic fairy-tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. We also find the pressure of the air at the beanstalk peak and compare this to the pressure at sea-level. These values were found to be 1880 litres and 0.365 Pa respectively

P2_9 Torque About a Cliffhanger

In this paper we attempt to calculate the amount of overhang of the coach in the final scene of ’The Italian Job’, after it skids to a stop over the edge of a cliff, and found the value to be 3.7 m. We also found a relation between the speed at which the amount of tilt of the coach will change, and the distance moved by a man initially at one end of the coach generating a non-zero torque

P2_1 I Need a Day Between Saturday and Sunday

In this paper, we investigate the changes that would need to be applied to the Earth’s orbit to create a three-day weekend. We have approached this by extending the distance between the Earth and the Sun, creating a longer year with more days whilst keeping the length of days the same. We have then calculated the orbital radius of the moon around the Earth at the time of an 8-day week, millions of years ago, to compare the moons current orbital radius we see today

P2_4 Thinking Bee

In this paper, we calculate the number of bees needed to carry a powerless plane from cruising altitude to the airport after a technical fault as seen in the film Bee Movie, as well as finding the number of bees needed on the airport tarmac showing the pilot where to land. These values were found to be 5.3×10^9 bees and 4.2 million bees respectively

Rapid-acting antidepressant drugs modulate affective bias in rats

How rapid-acting antidepressants (RAADs), such as ketamine, induce immediate and sustained improvements in mood in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is poorly understood. A core feature of MDD is the prevalence of cognitive processing biases associated with negative affective states, and the alleviation of negative affective biases may be an index of response to drug treatment. Here, we used an affective bias behavioral test in rats, based on an associative learning task, to investigate the effects of RAADs. To generate an affective bias, animals learned to associate two different digging substrates with a food reward in the presence or absence of an affective state manipulation. A choice between the two reward-associated digging substrates was used to quantify the affective bias generated. Acute treatment with the RAADs ketamine, scopolamine, or psilocybin selectively attenuated a negative affective bias in the affective bias test. Low, but not high, doses of ketamine and psilocybin reversed the valence of the negative affective bias 24 hours after RAAD treatment. Only treatment with psilocybin, but not ketamine or scopolamine, led to a positive affective bias that was dependent on new learning and memory formation. The relearning effects of ketamine were dependent on protein synthesis localized to the rat medial prefrontal cortex and could be modulated by cue reactivation, consistent with experience-dependent neural plasticity. These findings suggest a neuropsychological mechanism that may explain both the acute and sustained effects of RAADs, potentially linking their effects on neural plasticity with affective bias modulation in a rodent model