Papers by Silvia Simionato
Henry Cavendish on Gravitational Deflection of Light
Annalen der Physik
Gravitationslinsen: Workshop im Rahmen des MINT-Festivals Jena 2021
Für Schülerinnen und Schüler der Sekundarstufe II und die interessierte Öffentlichkeit Vor mehr a... more Für Schülerinnen und Schüler der Sekundarstufe II und die interessierte Öffentlichkeit Vor mehr als 100 Jahren sagte Albert Einstein in seiner allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie den Effekt der Ablenkung von Licht unter dem Einfluss der Schwerkraft einer Massenverteilung voraus. Dieser Effekt ist als Gravitationslinseneffekt bekannt und erzeugt erstaunliche Bilder im Universum. Die Grundidee besteht darin, Licht auf gekrümmten Wegen zu visualisieren. Die Art und Weise des Phänomens wird nicht nur mit Hilfe erstaunlicher Bilder von den besten Teleskopen vorgestellt, sondern auch dank der Simulationen mit der Geogebra-Software und speziellen Glaslinsen. Wir analysieren insbesondere zwei konkrete Beispiele für Gravitationslinsen. Wie viele und welche Bilder sind durch den Gravitationslinseneffekt möglich? Welche Form haben diese Bilder? Welche Form muss eine Glaslinse haben, damit sie diese Bilder reproduziert? Dies und vieles mehr erfährt man in diesem Online-Workshop über den Gravitation...
In this thesis we will study astronomy as a means to spread science education. Moreover, we will ... more In this thesis we will study astronomy as a means to spread science education. Moreover, we will illustrate how the popularisation of science, especially if introduced during childhood, plays an important role in improving the quality of life of the individual and the growth of the society in the long run, in particular for developing countries. Specifically, we will discuss an international astronomy education and outreach programme: Universe Awareness-UNAWE. This programme, which has been approved by the International Astronomical Union, involves over countries and has more than 800 collaborators, including astronomer educators and teachers. UNAWE deals with popularising astronomy and scientific thinking, through activities aimed at teachers and children aged 4 to 10, focusing especially on those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this thesis we present the scientific basis that supports the UNAWE project, and examine the means and goals of the programme. We will in particular focus on the collection, production, review and distribution of high quality astronomy educational material. We will explain how UNAWE has chosen to use Open Educational Resources with the aim of reaching a broader audience, while increasing the quality of developed activities. Indeed, the scientific and pedagogical quality of UNAWE activities is guaranteed thanks to a peer-review process, in which both astronomer and educator are involved. In addition, we will discuss the new and unprecedented online UNAWE platform, which has been created to respond to problems related to the research of material on the web, and also to ensure the quality of this material while keeping it constantly updated. Finally, we contextualise the evaluation programme performed by UNAWE, which is of fundamental importance to assess the effectiveness of the proposed educational activities. We will conclude with some ideas for assessing the impact and the long-term importance of the UNAWE project.
Gravitational lensing as a focal point for teaching general relativity
Teaching Einsteinian Physics in Schools, 2021
Light deflection, in particular the gravitational-lens effect in its strong form, is an interesti... more Light deflection, in particular the gravitational-lens effect in its strong form, is an interesting and fascinating subject of modern physics and cosmology. Although it is conceptually articulated and complex, it is fortunately possible to approach this topic through a simplified method and analysis, involving different concepts of physics and mathematics typical of the last years of secondary school and first years of the undergraduate studies. The basic idea is the visualisation of light on curved paths under the influence of gravity. In fact, by combining optics and general relativity, it is possible to design plexiglass lenses specifically formulated to reproduce the images of any source, whose light is deflected by different types of celestial objects. The work with these lenses is moreover supported by simulations performed with the software Geogebra and the help of astonishing images from the best telescopes. All this makes gravitational lensing an excellent educational tool ...
Three Redshifts: Doppler, Cosmological, and Gravitational
The concept of redshift is very often used in teaching physics and astronomy, as well as in scien... more The concept of redshift is very often used in teaching physics and astronomy, as well as in science public outreach. Redshift is an interesting topic, used to describe many physical processes such as the Doppler effect or the expansion of the universe. Nevertheless, there are unfortunately also misconceptions about redshift. When facing the redshift topic with students and teachers, we have to focus sometimes on dissolving these misconceptions. Therefore, the idea of this paper, in which the most common misconceptions are treated, arose from direct experience and discussions with colleagues in the field. This article explains what redshift is and how it works. Moreover, since redshift has a great potential for teaching and is usable in many physics and astronomy problems, examples and specifically developed exercises are also used in this article.
The European Physical Journal H
This paper is devoted to two hitherto unpublished original documents by Henry Cavendish (1731–181... more This paper is devoted to two hitherto unpublished original documents by Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) which provide insight into his calculations of the deflection of light by isolated celestial bodies. Together with a transcription of these documents, we comment on their contents in the present-day language of physics. Moreover, we compare them with a paper by Johann Georg von Soldner (1776–1833) on the same subject.
Uploads
Papers by Silvia Simionato