This work documents the collaboration between the Physics department of the University of Calabria and some schools of the region in a project devoted to recovering disused instrumentation in school laboratories. The project has been conceived as a workplace experience for the students, i.e. a learning experience in a real work place. In Italy,…

Background: University physics students were engaged in open-ended thermodynamics laboratory activities with a focus on understanding a chosen phenomenon or the principle of laboratory apparatus, such as thermal radiation and a heat pump. Students had access to handheld infrared (IR) cameras for their investigations. Purpose: The purpose of the…

A recent article showed how the influx of neodymium magnets has provided striking demonstrations of the interactions between magnets and conductors. The "shaking torch" is yet another example. Many of these torches require no batteries and can be submerged in water--indeed, a light for life. In this article, the author disassembles a shaking torch…

We analyse the stability of the spring inverted pendulum with the vertical oscillations of the suspension point. An important factor in the stability analysis is the interaction between radial and oscillating modes. In addition to the small oscillations near the upper position, the nonlinearity of the problem leads to the appearance of limit-cycle…