About Escopia

[Escopia!]
We thought you may want to read a bit of information about the team who is bringing this tutorial to you. After all, you have to be able to trust us if you want to learn effectively.

We are a team of 3 year 12 students from Sydney, Australia, guided by our omnissient coach, Craig Anthony Williams, who is a Physics teacher at our school, Caringbah Selective and Co-educational High School. If you have already been through some of this tutorial, you will proably know Mr Williams as Chester, the little scientist guy whom you have been attacking with flying missiles, and zapping with 10,000 volts.

Why the name Escopia? Well we just chose it because it sounds good, but later on decided to give it a deeper meaning, and we turned it into an acronym for "Educational Self-Learning Course on Physics through Internet Applications". Pretty good eh. :)

[Download a Team Photo]
As you know, we have designed a web page known as Physics is Phun as an entry in ThinkQuest 97. Our aim is simply to give students from all over the globe an insight into the fascinating world of Physics, while making it as enjoyable an experience as we can.

Personal Information

[Picture of Ryan]
Our team leader, Ryan Junee, is currently 17 years old, living in Engadine, which in a suburb in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney, Australia. He was chiefly responsible for the techincal aspects of the web page, such as Java programming, graphics, HTML layout and so on. He was also in charge of delegating various tasks to the other members of Escopia, as well as editing a lot of the educational content. His main interests lie in the area of computers and networking, especially the internet, as well as learning the guitar in his spare time, and aspiring to be the next Bill Gates :) If you wish to get in contact, you can email ryan@tig.com.au and you can check out his homepage at http://homepages.tig.com.au/~ryan.

[Picture of Haye]
Haye Lau, is 18 years old as of August 97, and resides in the suburb of Caringbah (Sydney, Australia). He was not only involved with both the technical side of the web pages, including javascript, html layout, and graphics, but also worked closely with Tang in his development of the educational content of the site. The dual nature of his role allowed him to shape the already excellent content developed by the team into something that takes advantage of the unique features of the internet. Apart from his obvious main interest in computers, he is also a keen cricketer, both as a spectator and a player. He can be contacted through email at hl@webtel.net.au, and he has a homepage at http://www.webtel.net.au/~hl.

[Picture of Tang]
Tang Wong, responsible for the more academic side of the project, is also the youngest member of the three person Escopia team. He lives in Beverly Hills (Sydney, Australia) which does not lie in the Sutherland Shire, and is considerably distant from the homes of Haye and Ryan. Thanks to the marvels of the internet, this has not hindered his contribution. His talents lie in maths, the sciences and also languages, and is able to communicate in a number of languages. The lessons, research, experiments and questions were areas in which he mainly contributed. Tang can be contacted at calculus@sydney.dialix.oz.au

[Picture of Craig]
Mr Craig Williams introduced us to the ThinkQuest competition, and help us through with his great coaching skills. He lives not in Sydney, but further south near to the city of Wollongong, and his age shall remain here undisclosed. :) Being our Physics teacher, he was largely responsible for assisting our creation of notes, questions and experiments for the Physics is Phun project. Apart from the sciences, he has a keen interest in computing, and is currently learning a variety of programming languages. As a budding musician in his spare time, he has a substantial collection of guitars. Mr Williams can be contacted at craigant@ozemail.com.au, and his home page is at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~craigant.

We all spend the majority of our time at Caringbah Selective and Co-Educational High School, but sadly (or perhaps happily), we will paying out last respects at the end of 1997, to the school which has served us well for the past 6 years. This school is located in the suburb of Caringbah in the Sutherland Shire, which is south of Sydney, and located quite close to the fabulous beaches of the Australian East Coast.  As the name implies, students are required to take an entrance exam, and only the intelluctually elite are given entry (well, that's the theory anyway :). Please visit the web page to learn more, or if you live in the area, don't hesitate to contact the school directly.

During school hours was pretty much the only opportunity we had to collaborate as a team in person, due the the large distances between houses. Here we developed ideas, and delegated responsibilies which were to be undertaken at home. However, since this is out final year of school, we are literally swamped with work, and study for the Higher School Certificate, which in New South Wales is THE MOTHER OF ALL EXAMS!! Thanks to the internet, however, we were able to collaborate outside of school time, and especially during the school holidays (when the majority of work on the web pages was completed). The internet has truly been our saving grace for this project.

Behind the Scenes

We have many great stories of the insane efforts that went on behind the scenes, during the creation of these web pages, but unfortunately we can't share them all with you here. Apart from the fact we wouldn't have the time, we also don't want to detract from the main attraction of these web pages, which is of course the tutorial on physics.

Many late nights were had by all team members, as we made last minute efforts to iron out bugs in the HTML and Java programs, and to get all the pages completed on time (since we had two maths exams in the weeks leading up to the deadline). However, all has turned out well, and we can't ask for more than that.

We managed to sqeeze in a few rare team meetings on the school holidays, which were the source of much productivity and hard work, but also much frustration. We've included a few snapshots, if you care to have a look.

We just threw in those last few for all the Tang-admirers out there :)

Credits

This web site would not be possible without the valuable contribution of many people. Apart from the Escopia team, and coach Mr Williams, we would like to also thank Jason Wong, a fellow Caringbah High student, who kindly assisted us with the use of his scanner, and thanks to the internet was able to send us the pictures we needed 'hot off the press'. Others which deserve our most sincere thanks:

We used various Physics text books as excellent resources, each providing valuable hints and ideas. These include:

• Clearway Physics (Second Edition) - G. Pollock.
• Excel HSC Physics - Dr F. Huq
• Physics Problems for Senior Students (Second Edition) - R. Dyett
• Studymate 2U Physics (Second Edition) - D. Christian & W. Crossley
• MacMillan Study Guides - HSC 2U Physics - J. Hill
• Essential Physics - Book 1 (Second Edition) - D. Christian & W. Crossley

Most of the graphics used in this web site are original Escopia productions, and public domain GIF's downloaded from the internet, with the following exceptions:

• Lightning picture on main page (original picture was modified) - Cori Prazen, USA.
• Flashing Lightning on Electrodynamics page - Kevin Greggain (kgreggain@eagle.wbm.ca)

The midi files used for background music on the web pages are public domain midi files downloaded from the internet.

CGI's used were public domain from the internet. Credits are as follows:

• mail form (mail.html) - Matt's Script Archive
• Guest Book - Ray Chan.