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