It is often necessary to enrich the teaching environment in order for students to learn optics in depth and to interpret the real optical situations with the information they have learned. In this study, a virtual teaching environment was developed using by Algodoo, a 2D simulation software. An eye model was created in order to explain the…

In recent years, with the more powerful functions of smartphones, the use of sensors integrated by mobile phones as an auxiliary tool for physical experiment teaching has become more popular. Combined with the related mobile phone apps, people easily can develop and expand the physical experiment contents of mechanics, optics, acoustic phenomena,…

This exercise encompassed the construction and use of a microcontroller-based laser refractometer. The instrument, which does not require a high skill level to build, primarily consisted of a line laser, optical sensor, several 3-D printed parts and printed circuit boards, and a microcontroller development board. Construction and testing of the…

Computer vision (CV) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that trains computers to understand our visual world based on digital images. There are many successful applications of CV including face and hand gesture detection, weather recording, smart farming, and self-driving cars. Recent advances in computer vision with machine learning…

The main objective of this paper is to provide an explanation on a conceptual level of how the Mirascope and the occurring image formation work. The physics behind a Mirascope--a well-known device consisting of two concave mirrors--is very complex. In literature, only either high level or very simplified and deficient explanations can be found.…

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…

Excel spreadsheets are used as an excellent tool in physics laboratory experiments related to wave optics. This paper presents a simple way to simulate diffraction of waves through a slit using Excel spreadsheets without any tedious programming. These simulations are used to visualize the effect of variation of different parameters such as number…

Instruments or digital meters with data values visible on a seven-segment display can easily be found in the physics lab. Examples include multimeters, sound level meters, Geiger-Müller counters and electromagnetic field meters, where the display is used to show numerical data. Such instruments, without the ability to connect to computers or data…

Since the invention and dissemination of domestic laser pointers, observing optical phenomena is a relatively easy task. Any student can buy a laser and experience at home, in a qualitative way, the reflection, refraction and even diffraction phenomena of light. However, quantitative experiments need instruments of high precision that have a…

Ray diagrams offer a powerful framework for understanding and characterizing many properties of optical systems, such as images and magnifications. However, this construction also introduces many conceptual hurdles for students. The idea of representing the propagation of waves by means of a light ray, which is a line or curve perpendicular to the…

Interference and diffraction of light are elementary topics in optics. The aim of the work presented here is to develop an accurate and cheap optical-system simulation software that provides a virtual laboratory for studying the effects of propagation in both time and space for the near- and far-field regions. In laboratory sessions, this software…

A low-cost and portable colorimeter kit has been designed and developed as an educational tool at Penn State University by Dr. Daniel Sykes for K-12 schools' integrated STEM learning. This scientific instrument allows students to learn how scientists utilize light as a means to study the chemical and physical properties of materials with an…

Fermat's principle is considered as a unifying concept. It is usually presented erroneously as a "least time principle". In this paper we present some software that shows cases of maxima and minima and the application of Fermat's principle to the problem of focusing in lenses. (Contains 12 figures.)

The work presented here demonstrates the feasibility of using the single-mode fibers of an optical Internet network to deliver visible light between separate laboratories as a way to perform remote spectroscopy in the visible for teaching purposes. The coupling of a broadband light source into the single-mode fiber (SMF) and the characterization…

A new procedure for performing quantitative measurements in teaching optics is presented. Application of the procedure to accurately measure the rate of change of the variable refractive index of a water-denatured alcohol mixture is described. The procedure can also be usefully exploited for measuring the constant refractive index of distilled…