23. April 2024

Prof. Klaus Desch started the "Kinderuni" in Summer Term 2024 Prof. Klaus Desch started the "Kinderuni" in Summer Term 2024

"Unraveling the puzzle"- this is the motto under which the University of Bonn opened the summer-term Kinderuni on Monday, April 15. In his lecture, Prof. Klaus Desch from the Physikalisches Institut made the invisible visible!

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At the Kinderuni, children between 8 and 13 can get a taste of university life and listen to lectures by renowned lecturers from the University of Bonn.

The Wolfgang Paul Lecture Hall, where experimental physics lectures are usually held, hosts the event, which is attended by hundreds of inquisitive children every semester.

And on Monday, April 15, the Kinderuni in the 2024 summer semester began with a lecture on experimental physics. In his lecture "Making the invisible visible", Prof. Klaus Desch took the children on a journey into the world of the smallest particles with many live experiments.

Impressions of the event can be seen in the photo gallery.

A big thank you goes to Timo Poller for the technical preparation and support during the entire Kinderuni!

All other dates in the summer semester 2024 can be found on the Kinderuni webpage. The events take place in the Wolfgang-Paul-Hörsaal, Kreuzbergweg 28, and last from 5.15 pm to 6 pm.

Children between 8 and 13 are welcome to join! Participation is free of charge. Registration is not required.

The Kinderuni in summer semester 2024 has started! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Dr. Andrea Grugel welcomes the audience. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Full house for Prof. Desch's lecture! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

The audience waits eagerly to "see" the invisible. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Here we go! Prof. Klaus Desch takes the children on a journey to the smallest building blocks of the universe. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Many experiments were set up in the lecture hall for the Kinderuni. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Experiment 1: How to detect an invisible gas! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Is the pool empty? No, an invisible gas that is heavier than air fills it. How could it be made visible? © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

The ghost ship: The buoyancy keeps a very light ship above the gas. The gas is now "visible"! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Loaded with invisible gas, the ship sinks. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Experiment 2: Making electric charge "visible"! Equal charges repel each other while ... © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

... opposite charges attract each other! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Magic trick? No, physics! Electrostatic repulsion can make a very light object fly! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Experiment 3: Making heat "visible". The infrared radiation of the audience is recorded using a thermal imaging camera. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Experiment 4: The gas discharge tube. Atoms are excited. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Prof. Desch explains how the gas discharge tube works. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

A voltage is applied and the gas atoms in the tube light up. The color of the light reveals which gas it is. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

The experiment is recorded by the camera and projected onto the wall. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Experiment 5: Exploring the shape of an invisible object with scattering experiments. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Prof. Desch positions a wooden body in the middle of a scattering board. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Small metal balls hit the wooden body and are scattered in many directions. From the angular distribution of the balls, conclusions can be drawn about the shape of the object. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Prof. Desch at the scattering board, which is an analogy to scattering experiments in particle physics. Fast, small particles, such as electrons, can be used to explore the shape of an invisible target, e.g. a proton. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

How can even smaller objects, e.g. elementary particles, be made visible?

Experiment 6: Particle detectors, such as a cloud chamber, make traces of particles visible. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Here you can see for example the trace of a helium core.

In particle physics, particles are accelerated in order to investigate unknown processes ... © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

... and brought to collision. A detector detects the particles that are produced and makes them "visible"! © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn

Prof. Desch with pupils and a teacher from the Tannenbusch Gymnasium, a school cooperating with the University of Bonn. © Volker Lannert / Universität Bonn