Someone in a car moving at constant speed along a smooth, straight road cannot perceive movement unless he looks out a window. When the person looks out and sees another car traveling alongside, in the same direction and at an equal speed, he will think that the other car is not moving either. When we see a tree in the distance as we are driving…

The development of an understanding of the nature of science is generally assumed to be an important aspect of science communication with respect to the enhancement of scientific literacy. At present, a general characterization of the nature of science is still lacking and probably such a characterization will not be achievable. The overall aim of…

To address the lack of research in early science learning and young children's informal science experiences, this exploratory case study investigated a 7-year-old girl's (Abigail) emergent science competencies and how they are related to her science experiences in everyday family contexts. Data sources included observations, interviews, parent…

The standard method to create dramatic color images in astrophotography is to record multiple black and white images, each with a different color filter in the optical path, and then tint each frame with a color appropriate to the corresponding filter. When combined, the resulting image conveys information about the sources of emission in the…

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…

This article discusses the kinematics and dynamics of equestrian show jumping. For some time I have attended a series of show jumping events at Spruce Meadows, an international equestrian center near Calgary, Alberta, often referred to as the "Wimbledon of equestrian jumping." I have always had a desire to write an article such as this…

This simple experiment uses an unusual graph straightening exercise to confirm the parallel axis theorem for an irregular object. Along the way, it estimates experimental values for g and the moment of inertia of a tennis racket. We use Excel to find a 95% confidence interval for the true values.

There is no consensus on the genuine meaning of wave-particle duality and the interpretation of quantum theory. How can we teach duality and quantum theory despite this lack of consensus? This study attempts to answer this question. This research argues that reality issues are at the core of both the endless debates concerning the interpretation…

This study examined the inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in popular science writing to determine whether it could serve supplementary resource for teaching NOS and to evaluate the accuracy of text mining and classification as a viable research tool in science education research. Four groups of documents published from 2001 to 2010 were…

In this paper, I describe a lay course in special relativity (SR) given at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI's) at Florida International University and the University of Miami. Courses are also offered in general relativity quantum theory cosmology the nature of time, and the fine-tuned universe. Each course is presented in six…

A vehicle starts from rest at constant acceleration, then cruises at constant speed for a time. Next, it decelerates at a constant rate.… This and similar statements are common in elementary physics courses. Students are asked to graph the motion of the vehicle or find the velocity, acceleration, and distance traveled by the vehicle from a given…

In undergraduate E&M courses the magnetic field due to a finite length, current-carrying wire can be calculated using the Biot-Savart law. However, to the author's knowledge, no textbook presents the calculation of this field using the Ampere-Maxwell law: ?B [multiplied by] dl = µ[subscript 0] (I + e[subscript 0] dF/dt) [multiplied by] 1

When a system exchanges energy with a constant-temperature environment, the entropy of the surroundings changes. A lattice model of a fluid thermal reservoir can provide a visualization of the microscopic changes that occur in the surroundings upon energy transfer from the system. This model can be used to clarify the consistency of phenomena such…