• Question: whats your favourite piece of science equipment?

    Asked by starsounas to Andrew, Marianne on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      Hi starsounas,

      Mmm, there are so many great pieces of equipment that physicists use! It would have to be a toss-up between an optical microscope, an electron microscope and a thing called a Phase Locked Loop Amplifier. The microscopes are wonderful, because they allow you to see and understand things that can’t be seen with the naked eye – a tremendous amount of science has happened because of them. But I’m going to go for the Phase Locked Loop Amplifier – sometimes called a lock-in amplifier.

      I haven’t used one of these in years. But what it does is allow you to track and measure a really, really small signal (often an electrical signal), even when there’s a whole lot else going on. Which means that you can make measurements under really difficult conditions.

      It’s an elegant idea, but a really important one.

Comments