We focus on the difficulties that visually impaired students have when dealing with graphics and diagrams in their study of geometrical optics. This case study suggests practices that use low cost materials, easy to find and to handle, and that provide a tactile perception for visually impaired students. The activities employ light and easy to…

We compare the period of oscillation of an ideal simple pendulum with the period of a more "real" pendulum constituted of a rigid sphere and a rigid slender rod. We determine the relative error in the calculation of the local acceleration of gravity if the period of the ideal pendulum is used instead of the period of this real pendulum.

Even though research suggests that the use of drawings could be an important part of learning science, learner-generated drawings have not received much attention in physics classrooms. This paper presents a method for recording students' drawings and group discussions using tablets. Compared to pen and paper, tablets offer unique benefits,…

The familiar system involving a uniform ladder sliding against a vertical wall and a horizontal floor is considered again. The floor is taken to be smooth and the wall to be possibly rough--a situation where no matter how large the static friction coefficient between the ladder and the wall, the ladder cannot lean at rest and must slide down.…

This article describes the Lissajous generalized figure and the original instrument for its investigation. Two specially prepared electrodynamic loudspeakers--a horizontal and a vertical--cause oscillations in two mirrors. It is possible to precisely control the motion of the mirrors, achieve a high frequency of oscillation and investigate…

This paper describes a physics laboratory exercise for determining the coefficient of static friction between two surfaces. The circular motion of a coin placed on the surface of a rotating turntable has been studied. For this purpose, the motion is recorded with a high-speed digital video camera recording at 240 frames s[superscript-1], and the…

The slow flow of a viscous liquid is a thought-provoking experiment that challenges students, academics and the public to think about some fundamental questions in modern science. In the Queensland demonstration--the world's longest-running experiment, which has earned the Ig Nobel prize--one drop of pitch takes about ten years to fall,…

The paper describes a set of physics demonstration experiments where thermal sensitive foils are used for the detection of the two dimensional distribution of temperature. The method is used for the demonstration of thermal conductivity, temperature change in adiabatic processes, distribution of electromagnetic radiation in a microwave oven and…

Smartphones and tablets are used as experimental tools and for quantitative measurements in two traditional laboratory experiments for undergraduate physics courses. The Doppler effect is analyzed and the speed of sound is determined with an accuracy of about 5% using ultrasonic frequency and two smartphones, which serve as rotating sound emitter…

Comparing two objects falling together is a small-scale version of Galileo's classical experiment, demonstrating the equivalence between gravitational and inertial mass. We present here investigations by a group of ten-year-olds, who used iPads to record the drops. The movie recordings were essential in the follow-up discussions, enabling the…

A classical experiment used to introduce the concept of body inertia, breaking of a thread below and above a hanging weight, is described mathematically and presented in a new way, using force sensors and a computer system.

In this paper I propose a method of calculating the time between line captures in a standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) webcam using the rolling shutter effect when filming a guitar. The exercise links the concepts of wavelength and frequency, while outlining the basic operation of a CMOS camera through vertical line capture.

We present a simple and accurate experiment to obtain the speed of sound in air using a conventional speaker and a microphone connected to a computer. A free open source digital audio editor and recording computer software application allows determination of the time-of-flight of the wave for different distances, from which the speed of sound is…

In this paper we present three different methods for testing Bernoulli's law that are different from the standard "tube with varying cross-section." They are all applicable to high-school level physics education, with varying levels of theoretical and experimental complexity, depending on students' skills, and may even be…

Despite their physics instructors' arguments to the contrary, introductory students can observe situations in which there seems to be compelling evidence for magnetic force doing work. The counterarguments are often highly technical and require physics knowledge beyond the experience of novice students, however. A simple example is presented…