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December 15, 2015. IFA News
On monday December 14, IFA ended its 2015 period of Astronomy Public Talks for 2015, with the talk "Fun Physics", given by Dr. José Villanueva, Director for the Instituto de Física y Astronomía. These talks, given between April and December every year, are offered to the general public thanks to a permanent outreach project initiated in 2006 by Dr. Nikolaus Vogt, Investigator and professor of the Instituto.
The talk described some basic principles pf classical physics, focusing on some of the basic characteristics of matter, atoms, neutrons, electrons, photons and their interactions,
most specially those related to electrical, magnetic phenomena as well as optical geometry. The fun began with a practical demonstration of static electricity, with the help of two assistants, Sandra Lizana and Daniela Cerda, and the use of a device called Van de Graaff (electrostatic machine which uses a moving band to accumulate a great amount of electric charge on the surface of an empty metal sphere) and which allowed to demonstrate said electric charge, transferring it by contact, to the volunteers, producing static in their hair (hair standing on end). Then, by use of a laser the professor showed the basic principles of reflection and refraction of light, very much in evidence when making a light beam pass from one medium to another with different refraction coefficient (air/glass or air/water for example). 
Another fun demonstration was the use of the laser light beam to make a homemade microscope, making the light fall on a drop of water, refracting it and observing the magnification of the microscopic particulate contained in the water, on a screen. The next UV Public Talk will be held on April 4, 2016, given by Dr. Verónica Motta, Director of the Centro de Astrofísica de Valparaíso, with the title "Einstein: el Señor de los Anillos". Images: Dr. Villanueva giving his talk, a demonstration on electrostatics, with D.Cerda and S.Lizana and an image produced by the laser microscope.
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