Albert Einstein

Around the turn of the last century it was believed that physics was pretty much a closed book, that Newtonian physics explained it all. Then in 1905 a humble patent inspector named Albert Einstein published four key papers based simply on sitting at his desk and thinking that revolutionized the face of science. To take one, "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" (the basis for his 1921 Nobel prize) looks at a phenomenon that had not been explained before that point, the fact that electrons are ejected from a surface when you irradiate it with an appropriate wavelength of light. Einstein suggested that light could be described as both a wave and as discrete particles. This wave/particle duality forms one of the key elements of quantum mechanics. He realized that when you deal with very small amounts of energy, you find that it is quantized - that is, you cannot break it down into smaller units (just like matter can be broken down into smallest units). His other studies went on to revolutionize our understanding of matter, energy, gravity, magnetism, light, and the nature of space itself. It's no surprise that he has become the face of science and genius, and this huge bust can be found in Legoland Germany (there's a similar bust at Legoland California, and probably the other Legolands as well).

Doppler effect

Since sound travels as a wave, if you move the source of that sound, the waves will be pushed closer together (higher tone) or further apart (lower tone). This is the source of the doppler effect, as you can hear when a firetruck goes past, or in this rotating speaker by ISOGAWAYoshihito. This is also the source of the red shift that indicates that other galaxies are moving away from us.

Building in space

The other day I mentioned the LEGO sets sent to the International Space Station. While some of them are more fun, like a model of the ISS, some of them will be physics experiments. LEGO hasn't posted lesson plans yet, but students here on earth will build models to do simple experiments, like compare mass using a balance, and their results will compare to those performed in orbit, under conditions of microgravity.

Physics by Design

Barbara Bratzel has been using innovative methods to teach kids science, and LEGO is one of her favorite classroom tools. Her eighth grade class is called Physics by Design, and she's gathered the lessons she's designed into a book (now in its third edition) so that other teachers can benefit from the same techniques. She has her students designing robots and simple machines to teach them principles of mechanics and construction. She says that LEGO is a great tool to get kids interested in science, even those who might not normally gravitate to it.

Particle Accelerator

Shane Larson is a physicist at Utah State University, and also a LEGO hobbyist. So it's very appropriate that he built a scene of the target from a particle accelerator. He's even included a photo and diagram of the real thing so you can compare. A particle accelerator takes charged particles (like protons) and propel them at great velocities at a target. When they crash into the target, they break apart into even smaller building blocks, that can then be studied by the physicists to learn about the fundamental structure of matter.



BTW, this is a vignette, or a scene built on a small base. For more vignette LEGO creations, see VignetteBricks.