This paper presents the results of the first survey conducted in Belgium about the interest in and knowledge of astronomy. Two samples were studied, the public at large (667 questionnaires) and students (2589 questionnaires), but the results are generally similar in both samples. We evaluated people's interest, main information source and…

In this paper we show an example of how to use a computational simulation to obtain visual feedback for students' mental models, and compare their predictions with the simulated system's behaviour. Additionally, we use the computational simulation to incrementally modify the students' mental models in order to accommodate new data,…

After a brief history of the Levitron, the first horizontal axis Levitron is reported. Because it is easy to operate, it lends itself to educational physics experiments and analogies. Precession and nutation are visualized by reflecting the beam from a laser pointer off the "spignet". Precession is fundamental to nuclear magnetic…

In this paper, primary school students' and pre-service teachers' ideas of seasonal change are investigated. The research was carried out in nine primary schools in Athens and in the Primary Education Department of the University of Athens. Written reports were used for gathering data while students also had the opportunity to support…

There is a popular myth that Galileo dropped two objects of the same shape but different mass, noted their equal fall time, and concluded that gravitational motion is independent of the mass of the object. This paper demonstrates that this experiment--if actually performed--most likely would have yielded a different result and thus with modern…

An experiment was carried out to investigate the changes in ionizing cosmic radiation as a function of altitude. This was carried out using a Geiger-Müller tube on-board a high altitude balloon, which rose to an altitude of 31 685 m. The gathered data show that the Geiger-Müller tube count readings increased to a maximum at an altitude of about 24…

The hydraulic impulse pump utilizes a fraction of the momentum of a flowing stream to lift a small portion of that water to a higher level. There it may be accumulated in an elevated cistern to provide sufficient water for several families, for the pump works 24 h a day with no additional source of energy. The operation of the pump is described,…

Shadows can be found easily everywhere around us, so that we rarely find it interesting to reflect on how they work. In order to raise curiosity among students on the optics of shadows, we can display the shadows in 3D, particularly using a stereoscopic set-up. In this paper we describe the optics of stereoscopic shadows using simple schematic…

This paper describes a simple activity for plotting and characterizing the light curve from an exoplanet transit event by way of differential photometry analysis. Using free digital imaging software, participants analyse a series of telescope images with the goal of calculating various exoplanet parameters, including size, orbital radius and…

It is hard to observe relativistic effects in everyday life. However, table experiments using a mechanical transmission line for solitons may be an efficient and simple way to show effects such as Lorentz contraction in a classroom. A kink soliton is a deformation of a lattice of several dozen or more pendulums placed on a wire and connected by a…

This paper describes how a microphone plugged in to a normal computer can be used to record the impacts of a ball bouncing on a table. The intervals between these impacts represent the "time of flight" of the ball. Since some energy is lost in each rebound, the time intervals get progressively smaller. Through calculation it is possible…

The two independent methods of measurement of the mass of ice created at sudden solidification of supercooled water are described. One is based on the calorimetric measurement of heat that is necessary for melting the ice and the second interprets the volume change that accompanies the water freezing. Experimental results are compared with the…

If we drop a magnet through a coil, an emf is induced in the coil according to Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. Here, such an experiment is done using expEYES kit. The plot of emf versus time has a specific shape with two peaks. A theoretical analysis of this graph is discussed here for both short and long cylindrical magnets.…

In this paper we present a study on the difficulties secondary school students experience in interpreting textbook images of elementary astronomical phenomena, namely, the changing of the seasons, Sun and lunar eclipses and Moon phases. Six images from a commonly used textbook in Italian secondary schools were selected. Interviews of 45 min about…

I describe a simple and fascinating experiment wherein helium leaks out of a rubber balloon, thereby causing it to descend. An estimate of the volumetric leakage rate is made by measuring its rate of descent.