If an empty coffee cup is spun on a horizontal surface about a vertical axis in an anti-clockwise direction, then the whole cup rotates slowly backwards, in a clockwise direction, about a vertical axis located outside the cup. Clues to this curious behaviour are presented by comparing it with other spinning objects.

Electrostatic force is the preliminary and fundamental topic that forms the bedrock on which the conceptual framework of "electromagnetism" is built. Being a 'vector' quantity, electromagnetic force naturally inherits direction as well as magnitude. The conceptualization of such physical quantities may pose a challenge. The present work…

A loop-the-loop experiment is described to show how sliding friction affects motion of the ball. Conservation of energy can be used to explain the basic physics, but significant energy loss is observed in practice and expands the usefulness of this apparatus as a teaching tool.

The problem of an electrically charged pendulum above a grounded conducting surface is examined using traditional analyses, such as forces, energy, and torque. The system was numerically modelled using a finite difference method and analysed. A number of classroom activities have been suggested.

This study reports students' perceptions of learning the physics concepts of equilibrium through making "Bulan" kites. The "Bulan" kite encompasses indigenous knowledge related to the teachings and ideas found in Islam. After a workshop where students (n = 109) made the "Bulan" kite under the tutelage of a local…

Experimental results are presented concerning a bead sliding on a rotating, horizontal rod. If the rod rotates at constant angular velocity then the sliding speed in the radial direction increases exponentially with time, provided that the rotation speed is sufficient to overcome friction. Otherwise the bead rotates in a circular path of constant…

When thinking about Olympic winter sports and watching events on television, people mostly focus on events where the chances of success are high for fellow-countrymen. For example, in the Netherlands speed skating is considered the main winter sports event. But with Kimberley Bos there is now also a Dutch medal candidate for the Winter Olympics…

The toppling motion of falling chimney stacks has been the subject of a number of studies which address the interesting phenomenon that brick chimneys usually break well before they hit the ground. Modern concrete chimneys, and wind generator towers, however, are strong enough to topple without breaking and many videos of their destruction are…

Why do we need to pour less water in an egg steamer to prepare more eggs to the same degree of 'doneness'? We discuss the physical processes at work in the electric egg steamer and resolve this seeming paradox. We demonstrate that the main heat transfer mechanism from steam to egg is due to latent heat through condensation. This not only explains…

In many science and engineering undergraduate programmes, physics courses are fundamental and can be seen as a potential place where students can develop complementary abilities such as the computational thinking process. The present work proposes and describes the learning science and engineering with electronic spreadsheets cycle (LSEESC)…

In practical work focussing on conceptual development, students spend valuable in-class time on collecting data rather than making sense out of it. This provides a barrier to learning about the targeted concept. To address this problem, we developed an approach that we coin "collaborative data collection." Using a practical on the topic…

This paper has a didactic aim. Indeed, starting from the well-known principle of free fall discovered by Galileo Galilei, we want to make some reflections that we consider useful for secondary school students. Being the acceleration invariant with respect to Galilei's transformations, it is useful to underline that the free fall in a gravitational…

The net force and net torque exerted by a uniform magnetic field on a rigid current-carrying loop are discussed in all introductory physics textbooks. A notable omission, however, is the discussion of the equilibrium of a deformable current-carrying loop in a uniform magnetic field. In the article, we present such an analysis for the simplest case…

Difficulties presented by students on the concept of instantaneous velocity are well known. This is in part due to instantaneous speed being often defined in terms of the notion of mathematical limit, which may not be clear to many students in introductory physics courses. In this work we present a complementary teaching proposal that can help…

Teaching and learning quantum mechanics is one of the most demanding educational and conceptual challenges, in particular in secondary schools where students do not possess an adequate mathematical background to effectively support the description of quantum behaviour. Educational research shows that traditional approaches, generally based on…