A widespread textbook error is discussed and explained, and the implications for teaching (and examining) of photoemission are described.

This paper has a didactic aim. Indeed, starting from the well-known principle of free fall discovered by Galileo Galilei, we want to make some reflections that we consider useful for secondary school students. Being the acceleration invariant with respect to Galilei’s transformations, it is useful to underline that the free fall in a gravitational field is independent of the mass of the body that falls

Nowadays, mechanical experiments such as spring oscillations for high schools and colleges have been developed using smartphones. This study aims to compare the use of acceleration sensors and video tracker available on smartphones for free and damped spring oscillation experiments. This experiment used varying load masses. In experiments using acceleration sensors, acceleration versus time data were

Diffraction is an important phenomenon in physics. This paper describes using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to produce cross-sectional images of iridescent seashells. When seashell cross-sections are viewed in a SEM, regular structure is seen. Seashells are a good example of a biocomposite material and good natural objects for introducing students to composite materials.

Some useful quantities like mass consumed, mass involved in fusion, mass fissioned, energy density, temperature and pressure have been calculated for the most powerful nuclear weapon, Tsar Bomba. Besides, its calculated efficiency is compared with seven other nuclear devices.

This study aims to measure the angular velocity of a clock’s second hand and the average angular velocity of a metronome using a smartphone. To determine the angular velocities, the ticking of clock’s second hand and the metronome beats were recorded. The angle between the extreme left and right positions of the metronome’s hand was also measured. Some free smartphone applications for these measurements

COVID-19 has upset the traditional ways of teaching and looks set to continue to have an impact in the coming years. The situation in Taiwan—partial disruption and then an early return to classes—allows for a comparison of student performance in a conventional teaching and testing environment with the non-contact teaching/testing environment caused by COVID-19. For the part of the general physics class

In this study, a kinetic friction coefficient was determined using an Arduino microcontroller. For this purpose, we used an Arduino UNO, an HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor, two wooden blocks, a pulley system and connecting cables. In the experimental process, one wooden block was attached to another wooden block that was able move in the vertical direction with the help of a pulley. The acceleration

In this study, the spring constant was determined within the scope of Hooke’s law. For this purpose, an Arduino MEGA, an HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor, and a 1 kg Load Cell Mass Sensor was used. Sensors and microprocessor are mounted on a plane. One end of the spring is mounted on the force sensor, and a wooden rod, perceived by the distance sensor, is mounted on the other end of the spring. In

Real situations are overlaid with virtual information using augmented reality technology. In a learning environment, this technology could give everyday relevance to abstract concepts. In this paper, we will show how physical structures in typical experiments can be simply augmented by virtual objects in physics classes. This is achieved by modelling objects with the GeoGebra software and overlaying

Books: The return of race science: Ruth Wiltsher reviews ‘Superior’ by Angela Saini. The history of the world is written in rings: Rick Marshall reviews ‘Tree Story’ by Valerie Trouet. An ode to physics–why physics is so wonderful: Rick Marshall reviews ‘The world according to physics’ by Jim Al-Khalili. Astrophysics from the ground up: Rick Marshall reviews ‘Exploding stars and invisible planets’

Watching over a coffee maker in operation, and designing a simple experiment using it, invokes familiar and unfamiliar physical phenomena and techniques involving calorimetry and heat transfer.

Is a suction cup at the bottom of a bathtub subject to an upward force from the surrounding water, even if there is no water under it? A student question, posted in a teacher facebook group on a Monday morning, led to a discussion involving 21 comments with 225 replies offered by 16 teachers during the next few days, including several simple experiments, as well as modeling, to evaluate different arguments

Hydrogen transition wavelengths computed with the familiar Balmer–Bohr formula are different than those reported in standard reference sources. The origin of this discrepancy, which is likely not well-known to instructors and students, is explained.

Collisions are a key topic in physics and engineering education. An experiment with multiple body one-dimensional collisions is presented, aiming to measure relevant physical quantities by tracking the motion of the system of particles during the collision. Relations between different physical quantities can be explored in the experiment, such as linear momentum, impulse, and energy. Equations are

Inspired by the inverse problems related to geomagnetism I propose an exploration game using simple devices to survey magnetic anomalies. The game, in its simplest form, has the objective to find the position and orientation of a single dipole inside a black box, based on measurements of field directions collected with a compass outside the box. The richness of the game resides partially in its set

This paper describes the design process for a digital instructional sequence on introductory quantum physics for upper secondary education. Based on a collaboration between teachers and physics education researchers, this sequence incorporates relevant theoretical foundations from the field of science teaching to promote meaningful and conceptual learning of quantum physics. The sequence is composed

Teaching a hands- and minds-on course, in which feedback is essential in order to learn, is difficult, especially in times of COVID-19 where student progression cannot be monitored directly. During the lockdown period, the workshops of an undergraduate Design Engineering course had to be transferred to the home situation, which required a redesign of this course by the staff. It also provided new opportunities

A global shortage of qualified physics teachers requires some teachers to teach physics out-of-field (OOF). A concern for OOF physics teaching is that without appropriate physics content knowledge (CK), these teachers tend to focus on rote learning and may find it difficult to support students who require additional assistance or extension; they tend to teach in ways that do not foster conceptual understanding

The International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) is a worldwide, annual competition for high school students. This paper is adapted from the author’s investigation into problem 4, Ball Sound , of the 27th IYPT. A novel set-up is proposed to investigate the unusual ‘chirping’ sound produced when two hard steel balls, or similar, are brought gently into contact with each other. It is shown that

A lot of new science has been inspired by common phenomena and even by old traditions practiced in our daily lives. Eventually, after deep exploration, this may engender unexpected new technologies. In this paper, inspired by the wearing of a traditional cloth called a sarong , by the community in South East Asian countries and others, we investigate the behavior of sheets folded in the same way as

This work describes the construction of a small-scale radio telescope using open source hardware technologies which can be used as a tool in the training of engineers and physicists, as well as in the dissemination of important technologies for space weather monitoring studies, security of radio communication networks and maintenance of essential services for contemporary society.

Teaching physics with simulations is an interactive way of teaching physics to students. In recent years, many scientists have used spreadsheets for simulating topics in physics and other fields. Excel is a piece of user-friendly spreadsheet software. In this lockdown situation, spreadsheets are good tools to teach physics experiments online through simulation. In this paper, we present two examples

The Colorado learning attitudes about science survey (CLASS) was given to 308 high school physics students in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where physics is taught every year through middle and high school. Student responses were tested using several different latent factor models: two based on those published in the recent literature and two new models developed through exploratory factor analysis. Four subscales

The sudden shift to distance forms of teaching experienced during the COVID-19 lockdown has brought to light a large variety of digital educational tools. In this paper we present a real teaching experience on how it is possible to remotely teach the basics of the Arduino microcontroller by means of an online simulator.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR) provides the best available description of gravity. The recent detection of gravitational waves and the first picture of a black hole have provided spectacular confirmations of GR, as well as arousing substantial interest in topics related to gravitation. However, to understand present and future discoveries, it is convenient to look to the past, to the

A simple apparatus consisting of a plastic syringe coupled with a U-tube has been constructed. This setup is filled with water to trap air in one arm of the U-tube. A change in the volume of the enclosed air causes a change in its pressure that is indicated by the difference in the water levels. Boyle’s law is shown by a linear relation between the pressure and the invers of the volume observed in

This Letter to the Editor presents considerations in the design of synchronous meetings and classes to avoid ‘Zoombies’, as more students and teachers are engaged in online distance learning this coming school year due to the health crisis.

This work presents an educational freeware software that operates as a data logger and a large display to allow a satisfactory viewing of the numerical information, even by students far from the experiment, and therefore it is a tool designed to help experimentations and demonstrations based on Arduino boards in educational physics laboratories.

Throughout the long history of astronomy, scientists have repeatedly written fictional stories, which often lend themselves to use in the classroom thanks to the authors’ in-depth knowledge and an appealing storyline. This article uses the novel ‘The Black Cloud’, written by the well-known astronomer Fred Hoyle, to show which physical-astronomical tasks can be derived from it. For this purpose, the

A phone emitting sound of a fixed frequency is sliding on an inclined plane and approaching a second phone kept at the bottom of the plane. The detected frequency versus time data by the second phone are used to calculate the acceleration of the sliding phone. The primary objective of this paper is to calculate the sliding friction between the phone and the plane from the acceleration values. It demonstrates

The objective of this second part of the work is to present heuristic derivations of the three classical tests of general relativity. These derivations are based on the Einstein equivalence principle and use Newtonian physics as a theoretical framework. The results obtained are close to Einstein’s original predictions. Historical and anecdotal aspects of the subject are also discussed.

In this article we put forward a simple idea to demonstrate cloud iridescence. The activity is aimed at upper level primary school children and above, to see that some oft-observed optical phenomena in real life are the result of diffraction through droplets on a surface or in a cloud. We use the example of polar stratospheric clouds which displays the phenomenon of iridescence. A simple hands-on activity

Changing acceleration and forces are part of the excitement of a roller coaster ride. According to Newton’s second law, ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/images/0031-9120/55/6/065012/pedaba732ieqn1.gif] {$\mathbf{F} = m\mathbf{a}$} , every part of our body must be exposed to a force to accelerate. Since our bodies are not symmetric, the direction of the force matters, and must be accounted for by ride designers

We have added two improvements to a self-luminous LED stroboscope (a flashing point-like projectile developed for introductory mechanics): downsizing by replacing heavy and risky batteries with a compact and safe capacitor of several Farads (a so-called Super-C) and wireless control via ordinary IR (infrared) communications. Consequently, the device allows the real-time visualization of velocity vectors

This article analyses the impact of the role and significance of the virtual laboratory on ninth-grade lyceum students’ attainment of more-in depth scientific knowledge and improved practical skills in the physics topic area of electromagnetism. Pedagogical experiments were conducted at the Baku European Lyceum. The results show that the virtual laboratory enabled the lyceum students to improve their

Two pendula of length l , suspended from points separated by a horizontal distance a , can be joined in a trapezium configuration by linking the bobs with a light inextensible string of length b < a . Here we introduce this ‘trapezoidal pendulum’ as a charming and novel oscillatory system suitable for introductory physics laboratories. In particular, we show that the time period τ is given by a scale-invariant

This study compares synchronous versus asynchronous online teaching in an introductory calculus-based physics class. Like many schools, our institution transitioned to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. We held optional synchronous online sessions during the original class time, and approximately half of our students were regular attendees. In the study, we look at how students’ grades changed

When you pull and unwind a toilet roll, it rolls away from you, whatever angle the force is applied. But what happens when you pull on a spool with a smaller internal diameter than the outside?

A world of bubbles: David Sang reviews ‘Bubbles’ by Helen Czerski. Space: Gary Williams reviews ‘The Travellers Guide to Space’ by Neil F Comins, ‘How to make a Spaceship’ by Julian Guthrie, and ‘Life on Mars’ by David A Weintraub. Equipment: John Kinchin reviews the Pasco Smart Gate.

In this article, physical quantities related to the motion of a parachute system in the framework of Newton’s law of mechanics guide an informal approach to the mathematical concept of function. Furthermore, a graphical simulator that enables visualization of the fall of object-parachutes system is presented. The article is aimed at students and teachers of basic physics courses at the high school

Teaching cosmology at the undergraduate or high school level requires simplifications and analogies, and inevitably brings the teacher into contact with at least one of the pedagogical interpretations of the expanding Universe. The by far most popular interpretation holds that galaxies in an expanding Universe are stationary, while space itself expands and thus causes the growing distances that characterize

The efficiency, mass consumed, mass fissioned, etc, of a set of five pure fission nuclear devices have been calculated.

In this paper it is demonstrated how the free, and easily downloadable, software package called SMath Studio can be used to set up a model of alpha-particle scattering. The basic physics of the motion of an alpha-particle in the nuclear coulomb field is used to produce a simple stepwise computer algorithm which, in conjunction with a novel set of units, is incorporated into a SMath worksheet with graphical

In this paper we present a system aimed at demonstrating the photoacoustic (PA) effect for educational purposes. PA imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that requires no contrast agent and has a great potential for spine and brain lesion characterisation, breast cancer and blood flow monitoring notably in the context of fetal surgery. It relies on combining light excitation with ultrasound reception