2025 Reverberation of Physics Teachers' Inventions Fair

Physics Teachers’ Innovations (Ideas) Fair 2025 https://vnuf.cz/2025/​

Pavel Konečný – Electrostatic Experiments That Ring, or When Classic School Experiments Get a Twist

In this presentation, we’ll demonstrate several traditional electrostatic experiments using common school equipment, such as the electrostatic bell or the school electroscope — but with some unusual modifications. We’ll show that even simple tweaks can lead to surprising phenomena that sometimes even artificial intelligence can’t explain. And unlike in electrostatic tradition, we’ll actually measure something, too.

Zdeněk Bochníček – The Sunstone of Viking Seafarers

According to legend, Vikings used Iceland spar, a clear, chemically pure calcite, for navigation during their sea voyages, allowing them to determine the position of the sun even under cloudy skies. Some literary sources claim this navigation was extraordinarily precise. In this talk, we’ll analyze the physical principle that could have enabled this navigation and assess its real-world possibilities. We’ll also introduce a modern version of the sunstone — simpler, much cheaper, functionally better, but not quite as poetic.

Important information:
Just like last year, it is possible to obtain an official certificate from the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, for completing the Physics Café as part of lifelong learning for teaching staff.

To receive the certificate, you need to “purchase” the educational course here: https://is.muni.cz/obchod/baleni/395950. The price is 0 CZK. The process is similar to buying goods in an online shop. You only need to make the “purchase” once per year (September–June).

The registration is not binding in any way. We will simply evaluate, for the given period, how many times you attended the Café, and you will receive a certificate indicating the extent of your participation (one Café = 2 hours). Only in-person attendance will be counted!

Take advantage of this opportunity to have an official record of your voluntary activity in furthering your professional qualifications!