Webinar highlights the hate-love relationship of Physics

The e-KLESF 2021 webinars titled “Oh No! I hate Physics” and “The Beauty of Light” were held on 29 October 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live. The invited speakers were Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities senior lecturer Dr Nina Diana Nawi and Faculty of Science senior lecturer Dr Nor Ain Husein. The speakers were from the Young Scientists Network, Academy Science Malaysia (YSN-ASM).

The webinar aimed to engage the audience, boosts students’ interest in STEM through exposure to real-world problems and provide the purpose of STEM empowerment among students for their future careers.

Dr Nina sharing her experience of how she fell in love with Physics

“Not every student is as excited about physics as Einstein. There are many reasons why Physics is the uttermost hated subject by students, the same as do I. When I first came across Physics, I was asked to just “remember” and told that Physics is just about the formula. I was asked to memorise all the definitions of the long list of Physics law.  But one day, I came across Cikgu Jamal. He taught me that, I first need to get to know and understand Physics first before making any conclusion about Physics. His advice made me fall in love with Physics,” said Dr Nina during her session “Oh No! I hate Physics”.

Dr Nina enthused, “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the only one who asked why. Physics, STEM is about why and how.” In her sharing, she shared tips and tricks to fall in love with Physics; the usage and involvement of Physics in our daily lives; learning Physics from movies and so on.

Dr Nina showing the fun sides of Physics from a movie

Dr Ain sharing her passion for light and optics

On the other hand, Dr Ain enlightened participants on the topic “The Beauty of Light”. During the talk, she shared her strong interest in light and optics; what is light; the future in optics and many more.

Dr Ain said, “Light and matter is all around us whether you realise it or not. Light not only lets us see in the dark, but the properties of light are important to many aspects of our lives. For example, the reflections in the rear-view mirrors of the car help to keep us safe; the refraction through lenses of eyeglasses or contact lens helps some people see better.”

“Rainbows are formed when light from the sun is scattered by water droplets through a process called refraction. Once the refracted light enters the raindrop, it is reflected off the back and then refracted again as it exits and travels to our eyes. The colours of the visible light are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These different colours of light have different wavelengths and frequencies,” she shared the interesting fact behind the rainbow.

Speakers and participants after the webinar

The talk concluded with an extensive yet insightful Q&A session, followed by a photo-taking session.