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A Pakistani high school students’ physics paper has managed to stun an
older scientist at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament by
replicating a physics visualization.
When certain kinds of electrically charged particles travel between a
pointy electrode and a flat one, but bump into a puddle of oil along the
way, they form an electric honeycomb.
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In fact, physicists have known about this phenomenon decades before
Muhammad Shaheer Niazi, a 17-year-old high school student from Pakistan
met the electric honeycomb. However, in 2016, Niazi, one of the first
Pakistani participants in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament
replicated the phenomenon and developed photographic evidence of charged
ions creating the honeycomb. He published his work in the journal Royal
Society Open Science on Wednesday, The NewYork Times reported.
According to the report, an electric honeycomb behaves like a capacitor.
In this case, the top electrode is a needle that delivers high voltage
to the air just a few centimeters above a thin layer of oil on the other
flat, grounded surface electrode.
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The thermal images puzzled Alberto T. Pérez Izquierdo, a physicist at
the University of Seville in Spain. Neither Izquierdo nor others had
previously explored temperature changes on the oil’s surface.
Determining the heat’s origin is an interesting question that requires
more study, he said, while praising Niazi’s experimental skill.
“I think it’s outstanding for such a young scientist to reproduce these
results,” Dr Izquierdo said.
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Niazi’s area of interest is researching the mathematics of the electric
honeycomb, and in the future, dreams of earning a Nobel Prize in nature
— and in the electric honeycomb — as he points out, “nothing wants to do
excess work,” but he’s getting started early anyway.
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