On Thursday, 23 November 2023, the Physics Department organised a visit for 2nd Year students taking Physics at Advanced Level to the Standards and Metrology Laboratories in Kordin.
The students were accompanied by Mr Kevin Mizzi and Mr Samad Mujeeb. They were greeted by Dr Nicola Testa, director of the Laboratories, and Mr Duncan Camilleri. These labs are equipped to measure with high accuracy quantities like mass, length, volume, temperature, electric current, voltage, time and pressure. Dr Testa and Mr Camilleri (an old boy of the JC Physics Department) explained in detail the apparatus and procedures carried out to ensure reliable measurements as well as calibration of instruments.
The Laboratories personel work in close collaboration with similar laboratories in the EU. They carry out standardisation and related activities at various levels: corporate, national and international levels, which also entails making and publishing standards in relation to category, type of products and/or services. The function of the legal metrology provides consumers with the assurances that correct measurements are conducted reliably and consistently, say when fuelling a car at a petrol station or weighing food at a supermarket.
This visit helped Physics students to do an informed choice about their prospective profession and also to understand better some sections of the MATSEC syllabus like physical quantities and units as well as thermometry.
