Huygens' principle in which every point on a propagating wave acts like a point source of radiation is a foundation principle of physics. Normally, Huygens' principle is demonstrated by passing a wave, for example a water or light wave through an aperture comparable in size to the wavelength. In this paper, an experiment is described in which a…

The Arduino board and its communication with several sensors are becoming more and more popular in the physical science community. They offer inspiring possibilities for learning different physical concepts. In this article, we focused on creating a very practical educational system for experimenting with diffraction of laser light and graphically…

In a university third-year instrumental chemistry laboratory students build a laser based polarimeter for determining light scattering with commercially available optical components used in modern optics research laboratories. During this laboratory experiment, students learn that solutions containing molecules which scatter light also influence…

One way to motivate students' interest in physics is to teach it in the context of medicine. Optics, for example, can be taught with examples from the eye. For many years simple optics of lenses has been taught using a model of the eye. However, recent advances in using lasers for ophthalmological (ocular) examinations can be used to increase…

Describes the design and fabrication of a classroom hologram and activities utilizing the hologram to teach the concepts of real and virtual images to high school and introductory college students. Contrasts this method with three other approaches to teach about images. (MDH)