Teaching blackbody radiation within the framework of astrophysics can motivate students to learn and obtain a more profound and qualitative understanding of the subject. In this paper we present a teaching module that intertwines teaching blackbody radiation via the continuous spectrum of hot objects, especially the stars. The module's approach…

The objective of this study is to design a temperature measurement system based on a non-contact method using a sensor camera from a webcam. The material being measured is nickel wire given an electrical current of 4.5 A-6.5 A with an interval of 0.5 A. The temperature measurement is based upon the measurement of the average pixel value…

The concepts of the Coriolis and the centrifugal force are essential in various scientific fields and they are standard components of introductory physics lectures. In this paper, we explore how students understand and apply concepts of rotating frames of reference in the context of an example lecture demonstration experiment. We found in a…

In this article, we present a low-cost lab experience, enhanced by new technologies and easy to execute. The objective of the experiment is to explore the moment of inertia of a fidget spinner quantitatively. Our choice was to integrate the teaching of physics with the use of a popular toy, the fidget spinner, very popular among young people and…

Quantum physics is challenging for young students, but also a source of fascination. "Observation" is a key concept in order to understand how principles and experimental results in quantum physics differ from what we are used to in classical physics and everyday experiences. In this study we investigate how pre-university physics…

This paper describes the use of a smartphone's sensors to investigate the motion of a torsion pendulum to demonstrate energy conservation. The smartphone was placed on and attached to a metal disk hanging by a wire. The oscillation of the disk was measured using the smartphone's sensors to simultaneously record angular position, angular speed and…

In tabletop games involving dice, it is important to ensure randomness of the dice rolls and to protect other gaming elements from being scattered by rolling dice. One way of ensuring random rolls and protecting gaming elements is to drop dice into a dice-rolling tower ("dice tower"). A dice tower is usually small (20 cm by 20 cm) and…

Affective and cognitive outcomes of science teaching in schools may be enhanced by science outreach labs (SOLs). Particularly interesting is whether and how to connect SOL visits to in-school science learning. Recent studies--among others, in this journal--have confirmed SOLs' positive affective effects. However, research remains inconclusive…

In 2017, almost everywhere in the world, there was a boom in sales of fidget spinners. A toy that has 'multi-lobes' that can rotate freely from a thrust performed with the fingers. Thereby, we analysed the physics concepts that involved in this toy, such as angular and linear velocity. We did the analysis using the software Tracker, a laboratory…

We commonly ask students to compare the results of their experimental measurements with the predictions of a simple physical model that is well understood. However, in practice, physicists must compare their experimental measurements with the predictions of several models, none of which may work well over the entire range of measurements. The…

A novel method of measuring the coefficients of kinetic and rolling friction is proposed. The method is simple to implement and reliable. Samples of measurements and calculations are presented.

While it has been demonstrated how air resistance could be analyzed by using mobile devices, this paper demonstrates a method of how to determine the drag resistance coefficient "c" of a commercial automobile by using the acceleration sensor of a smartphone or tablet. In an academic context, the drag resistance is often mentioned, but…

This work describes a simple experiment to measure the resistor temperature as a function of the applied power and proves that it is an efficient way to introduce some important physical concepts in classroom, including the Joule's first law, hot-spot temperature, thermal resistance, thermal dissipation constant, time constant and the Newton's law…

This relatively rare thermometer has a rather unusual display: lower temperatures are located at the top of the scale, higher ones at the bottom. A sphere on a chain floats in a suitable liquid, sinking at high temperatures when the density of the liquid decreases and rising in the increased density at low temperatures. With reasonable effort and…

When a hard object rolls on a soft surface, or vice versa, rolling friction arises from deformation of the soft object or the soft surface. The friction force can be described in terms of an offset in the normal reaction force or in terms of energy loss arising from the deformation. The origin of the friction force itself is not entirely clear. It…