A solid ball placed on a rotating turntable is known to roll slowly around a circular path, at a speed 3.5 times slower than the turnable itself. If the ball is located in a straight track across a diameter of the turntable, then it accelerates rapidly to the edge. Both effects were filmed in slow motion using a video camera and a cake decoration…

It is generally agreed that making real-world connections in mathematics teaching increases students' motivation and interest and contributes to meaningful and permanent learning. In this paper we propose a simple and fast activity to find a rectangular hyperbola in real life and we show how to operate the data to retrieve a straight line. Since…

In this paper we display an example of how educational software Geogebra can be used as a tool for the STEM education. Geogebra is used in the process of introducing students in high school to mathematical models of materials science. Scientific results from materials science experiments were used for mathematical modelling and learning about the…

In a recent paper in "The Physics Teacher (TPT)", DiLisi and Rarick used the National Football League "Deflategate" controversy to introduce to physics students the physics of a bouncing ball. In this paper, we measure and analyze the environmental effects of time, ambient temperature, and moisture on the internal pressure of…

In a recent paper, Zable described an experiment with a near-spherical balloon filled with impure helium. Measuring the temperature and the pressure inside and outside the balloon, the lift of the balloon, and the mass of the balloon materials, he described how to use the ideal gas laws and Archimedes' principal to compute the average molecular…

A computational experiment that investigates single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) has been developed and employed in an upper-level undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory course. Computations were carried out to determine the electronic structure, radial breathing modes, and the influence of the nanotube's diameter on the…

Many illustrations and problems on the vector nature of forces have weights and forces in a vertical plane. One of the common devices for studying the vector nature of forces is a horizontal "force table," in which forces are produced by weights hanging vertically and transmitted to cords in a horizontal plane. Because some students have…

In introductory-level physics courses, the concept of surface tension is often illustrated using the example of capillary rise in thin tubes. In this paper the author describes experiments conducted using a planar geometry created with two small plates forming a thin wedge. The distribution of the fluid entering the wedge can be studied as a…

A system for construction of simple poster-board models is described. The models dynamically demonstrate the symmetry operations of proper rotation, improper rotation, reflection, and inversion for the chemically important point groups D[subscript 3h], D[subscript 4h], D[subscript 5h], D[subscript 6h], T[subscript d], and O[subscript h]. The…

We present a guided-inquiry experiment using Spartan Student Version, ready to be adapted and implemented into a general chemistry laboratory course. The experiment provides students an experience with Spartan Molecular Modeling software while discovering the relationships between the structure and properties of molecules. Topics discussed within…

The null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the constancy of the one-way speed of light in the "rest system" are used to formulate a simple problem, to be solved by elementary geometry techniques using a pair of compasses and non-graduated rulers. The solution consists of a drawing allowing a direct visualization of all the fundamental…

A computational experiment aimed to create and systematically analyze models of simple cation hydrates is presented. The changes in the structure (bond distances and angles) and the electronic density distribution of the solvent and the thermodynamic parameters of the hydration process are calculated and compared with the experimental data. The…

In the exciting, "out of this world" activity described here, students measure the Earth using meter sticks while measuring their shadows in two distant locations. To obtain the size of the Earth, students discover the connection between the measurements of the shadows and a model of the spherical Earth following the method developed by…

This article describes an activity done by eighth grade students using data that was gathered from sun-shadow observations. (Contains 5 figures.)

This simple example demonstrates the physical significance of similarity solutions and the utility of dimensional and asymptotic analysis of partial differential equations. A procedure to determine the existence of similarity solutions is proposed and subsequently applied to transient constant-flux heat transfer. Short-time expressions follow from…