Bounded by the statements of Feynman and Galileo, I describe certain tricks that can be useful for the teaching of physics. In particular, I describe the calculation of the center of mass (centroid) of an arc of circumference and a circular sector. For this purpose, I also use Pappus's theorems. An Appendix is available with Archimedes' method to…

Ion transport, involving the diffusion and migration of ions within the electrolyte, stands as a fundamental concept in electrochemistry and serves as the driving force for electrochemical reactions. Electric double layers are critical in the fields of electrochemical energy storage and chemical conversion, constituting a central focus of…

This paper has a pedagogical aim. Indeed, by using the relativistic velocity-addition and Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP), we want to analyse in a simple way the physics of time on a rotating non-inertial frame. We use a didactic approach considering four friends. The first is in the laboratory, the second at rest on the disk at radius r,…

Enrico Fermi is remembered for his many contributions to theoretical and experimental physics, but from an educational point of view he also popularized the use of the kind of questions we now call "Fermi problems" (or "Fermi questions"). Fermi problems (FPs) are back-of-envelope problems that arose from the need to make order…

In this article we find the thermodynamics of some large N particles systems and some small N particles classical systems using micro canonical ensemble. Small N particle systems are seldom done in textbooks, since statistical mechanics(SM) systems work for large N systems. We show that small N systems will help the students to get an insight…

The relativistic addition of velocities is usually introduced early in the study of Einstein's special theory of relativity. The equations are simple enough, but randomly chosen velocities lead to unwieldy calculations that can dishearten the student. This paper presents tables of velocity components in two dimensions, composed of five or fewer…

The transition from school-level mathematics to the more abstract and formal structures in universities poses challenges for many first-year physics students. To address this gap, most physics faculties offer a mathematics pre-course. Here, we report about a pre-posttest study investigating the impact of a pre-course on N = 56 first-year physics…

The trajectory of a ball in air is affected by aerodynamic drag and lift. In general, the trajectory needs to be calculated numerically since the acceleration varies with time in both the horizontal and vertical directions. If the trajectory remains approximately parabolic, then simple analytical solutions can be found, giving useful insights into…

It is difficult for an instructor to just make up valid numbers for B[subscript x], B[subscript y], B[subscript z], E[subscript x], E[subscript y], and E[subscript z] in the creation of homework problems and test questions calculating the Poynting vector. In this paper, 25 examples are given of the electric and magnetic fields of electromagnetic…

This paper shares findings from a teacher designed physics and computing unit that engaged students in learning physics and computing concurrently thru inquiry. Using scientific inquiry skills and practices, students were tasked with assessing the validity of local rollercoaster g-force ratings as posted to the public. Students used computational…

Calculations are presented showing that the usual 'faster than g' demonstration has a surprising property. That is, a rod hinged at its bottom end rotates at an exponentially increasing rate until it falls with maximum vertical acceleration, unlike an object that falls freely by gravity alone. If the rod is hinged at its top end and released from…

This study examines the feasibility and potential advantages of using large language models, in particular GPT-4o, to perform partial credit grading of large numbers of student written responses to introductory level physics problems. Students were instructed to write down verbal explanations of their reasoning process when solving one conceptual…

Investigating students' thinking in classroom tasks, particularly in science and engineering, is essential for improving educational practices and advancing student learning. In this context, the notion of "Ways of Thinking" (WoT) has gained traction in STEM education, offering a framework to explore how students approach and solve…

Most physics courses begin with one-dimensional kinematics, which is usually restricted to the case of constant acceleration. Here we report a unique exercise for an introductory algebra-based physics course involving the running and non-constant acceleration of the theropod dinosaur "Dilophosaurus wetherilli" and the world-famous…

The pretrained large language models have been widely tested for their performance on some challenging tasks including arithmetic, commonsense, and symbolic reasoning. Recently how to combine LLMs with prompting techniques has attracted lots of researchers to propose their models to automatically solve math word problems. However, most research…