Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of a Generalised Brachistochrone Problem for Mechanical Systems Including Coulomb Friction and Rotational Motion

The work provides a definition of a generalised form of the Brachistochrone problem for arbitrary mechanical systems. The problem then is solved for mechanical systems including Coulomb friction and/or rotational motion. By studying the solution curves, an interesting relation between the solution curve for systems with Coulomb friction and the cycloid has been shown. To estimate influences of simplifications made …

Fabrication and Analysis of a YAG Silica Fiber

One most efficient gain media in solid-state lasers is the crystal YAG doped with Nd. But fabricating an Nd:YAG optical fiber has proven to be particularly challenging because of thermal expansion and diffusion. The aim of this study was to fabricate an Nd:YAG silica fiber with a majority content of YAG in the fiber’s core to subsequently utilize the fiber …

Calculation of the expansion rate of the universe, the density of dark energy in it and the study of the Hubble Tension, which is among the most important unsolved problems in today’s cosmology

A known disagreement in today’s cosmology concerns the universe’s expansion rate – the “Hubble Tension”, which arises due to different measurement methods leading to different results. In this study, the values of Hubble’s constant (the universe’s expansion rate), the dark energy and mass density in the universe are calculated. An LSQ algorithm fitted redshift and distance data of 1a supernovae …

Making a High-Aperture Varifocal Membrane Reflector Telescope

Our project proposes a new and innovative way of manufacturing reflector telescopes, instead of using the traditional method, where a glass cylinder has to be ground to a concave, we use a thin 2mm membrane with a mirrored side, by varying the pressure difference between the opposite sides of the membrane, we can effectively adjust the focal length, therefore making …

Ça tourne ! Action !

Turning a coin on itself is a trivial gesture. But when you see that a can move and vibrate for several minutes, it’s easy to think that there’s something interesting to study behind this movement. And that’s what we did. But taking measurements, when the movement of the coin seems so complex, required us to set up experiments that we …

aquadynamic coating

Do you love saving money and becoming more climate and environmentally friendly in the process? Then this is the project for you! This project revolves around the amazing invention of “ship paint,” specifically top coats, and how they can be made more efficient and cost-effective. This type of paint repels living organisms from the ship’s hull, reducing unnecessary friction. The …

Developing and testing a Lagrangian model of the floating-arm trebuchet

The floating-arm trebuchet is a more energy-efficient modern variant of the medieval trebuchet that had received little treatment in literature. In this project, I improve an already-existing Lagrangian mathematical model of the floating-arm trebuchet and combine it with a numerical analysis of projectile motion with air resistance to predict the relationship between the hook angle and the range of the …

Developing Algorithms to Determine an Asteroid’s Physical Properties and the Success of Deflection Missions

The rate of discovery of near-earth asteroids outpaces current abilities to analyze them. Knowledge of an asteroid’s physical properties is essential to deflect them. I developed open-source algorithms that combine images from robotic telescopes, open data, and school math to determine asteroids’ size, rotation period, strength, and mutual orbital period in the case of binary asteroids. I took observations of …

Empirical prediction of chalcopyrite lattice parameters from chemical properties of their constituent elements

Chalcopyrites are a material class widely used in thin film solar cell manufacturing, with the most prominent industrially applied example being CIGS (CuInGaSe2). In order to maximize the effectiveness of these solar cells and minimize the cost, the search for appropriate alternative materials is still ongoing. In this work, we show that the lattice parameters of chalcopyrite are linearly dependent …