Typical commercial solar panels consist of approximately 60 individual photovoltaic cells connected in series. Since the usual Kirchhoff rules apply, the current is uniform throughout the circuit, while the electric potential of the individual devices is cumulative. Hence, a solar panel is a good analog of a simple resistive series circuit, except…

In our teaching practice, we find that a large number of first-year university physics and chemistry students exhibit some difficulties with applying Newton's third law to fluids because they think fluids do not react to forces. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

We present a number of simple demonstration experiments recorded with high-speed cameras in the fields of gas dynamics and thermal physics. The experiments feature relatively slow combustion processes of pure hydrogen as well as fast reactions involving oxy-hydrogen in a stoichiometric mixture. (Contains 4 figures.)

Creativity has become a hot topic in education. From President Barack Obama to Amazon's Jeff Bezos to "Newsweek" magazine, business leaders, major media outlets, government officials, and education policy makers are increasingly advocating including student creativity in the curriculum. But without a clear understanding of the nature of creativity…

Acommon undergraduate laboratory experience is the determination of the elastic constant of a spring, whether studying the elongation under a static load or studying the damped harmonic motion of the spring with a suspended mass. An alternative approach to this laboratory experience has been suggested by Menezes et al., aimed at studying the…

After a brief history of the Levitron, the first horizontal axis Levitron is reported. Because it is easy to operate, it lends itself to educational physics experiments and analogies. Precession and nutation are visualized by reflecting the beam from a laser pointer off the "spignet". Precession is fundamental to nuclear magnetic…

This experiment and analysis offer an effective experience in greenhouse gas reduction. Ammoniated water is flowed counter-current to a simulated flue gas of air and CO2 in a packed column. The gaseous CO2 concentrations are measured with an on-line, non- dispersive, infrared analyzer. Column operating parameters include total gas flux, dissolved…

Though many undergraduates are interested in medicine, relatively few experiments related to drug design and development are included in introductory chemistry laboratory courses. In this experiment, aqueous solutions of four different drugs (acetaminophen, caffeine, phenacetin, and sulfanilamide) are extracted using 1-octanol, a mimic of the…

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a process commonly used for the synthesis of thin films for several important technological applications, for example, microelectronics, hard coatings, and smart windows. Unfortunately, the complexity and prohibitive cost of CVD equipment makes it seldom available for undergraduate chemistry students. Here, a…

Diffraction and interference are phenomena that demonstrate the wave nature of light and of particles. Experiments relating to the diffraction/interference of light can easily be carried out in an educational lab, but it may be impossible to perform experiments involving electrons because of the lack of specialized equipment needed for such…

Undergraduate physics majors typically begin their study of modern physics with special relativity. It is here that physics students first encounter the counterintuitive concepts of time dilation and length contraction. Unfortunately, the derivations of these results are often cloaked in several layers of analysis that render them rather…

A method to study the charging processes of a capacitor is presented. This only requires a Van de Graaff generator, a capacitor, two standard digital multimeters and a stopwatch.

A laboratory exercise for the education of students about thermal runaway reactions based on the reaction between aluminum and hydrochloric acid as a model reaction is proposed. In the introductory part of the exercise, the induction period and subsequent thermal runaway behavior are evaluated via a simple observation of hydrogen gas evolution and…

We propose the use of smartphone-based slow-motion video analysis techniques as a valuable tool for investigating physics concepts ruling mechanical wave propagation. The simple experimental activities presented here, suitable for both high school and undergraduate students, allows one to measure, in a simple yet rigorous way, the speed of pulses…

Since 2010, second-year undergraduate students of an eight-year training program leading to a Doctor of Medicine degree or Doctor of Philosophy degree in Peking University Health Science Center (PKUHSC) have been required to enter the "Innovative talent training project." During that time, the students joined a research lab and…