Related papers: Getting the Swing of Surface Gravity
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this…
Studying physics of very large scale like the solar system is difficult in real life, using telescope on clear skies over years. We are probably a world first to create four well designed gravity computer models to serve as powerful…
Introducing Modern Physics represents an increasingly urgent need, towards which physics education concentrates many efforts. In order to contribute to this attempt, at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in…
The design of a serious game is presented that served as an instrument to motivate and aid to Physics education using active and ludic learning, specifically the topic of free fall of objects, with diverse educational purposes, first to…
A priority of physics instruction is to help students make the connection between the formulae they think they are required to memorize and the real world in which they interact every day. If you ask students to describe a situation in real…
Physics instructors often rely on demonstrations when teaching, using real-time examples to appeal to student intuition or tinkering with a physical system to develop a deeper and more natural understanding of a topic. However, some…
General Relativity (GR) represents the most recent theory of gravity, on which all modern astrophysics is based, including some of the most astonishing results of physics research. Nevertheless, its study is limited to university courses,…
We describe an example of learning with multiple representations in an A-level revision lesson on mechanics. The context of the problem involved the motion of a ball thrown vertically upwards in air and studying how the associated physical…
The Solar System motivates students to interest themselves in sciences, as a large number of concepts may be easily introduced through the observation and understanding of planet's motion. Using a large representation of the Solar System at…
Concept of curvature of liquid surrounding a spherical surface seems obvious in daily life, but based on earthly conditions everywhere. However, our understanding about the concept seems more transparent when we keep the system out of the…
A bouncing rubber ball under a motion sensor is a classic of introductory physics labs. It is often used to measure the acceleration due to gravity, and can also demonstrate conservation of energy. By observing that the ball rises to a…
Newtonian gravity can be regarded as a hypothetic-deductive system where the inverse square law is the starting point from which gravitational phenomena are deduced. This operational form of presenting gravity endorses problem solving and…
A simple model is presented to explain the Higgs boson physics to the grand public. The model consists of a children ball pool representing a Universe filled with a certain amount of the Higgs field. The model is suitable for usage as a…
Project/problem-based learning, as an active methodology, improves significantly the learning process, making students take an active role in the construction of their own knowledge, and at the same time, develop soft and social skills that…
Several scenarios used in teaching feature a rolling motion with slipping that transitions to one without through friction with the ground. We summarise these transitions by introducing an unknown impulse that is transferred to the ground.…
This article proposes and discusses qualitatively the use of a didactic board game in Science Education for high school students. The game contemplates in an interdisciplinary way the areas of Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Astronomy and…
Experiments are done by colliding a swinging bat with a stationary baseball or softball. Each collision was recorded with high-speed cameras, from which the post-impact speed, launch angle, and spin of the ball could be determined. Initial…
The kind of flat-earth gravity used in introductory physics appears in an accelerated reference system in special relativity. From this viewpoint, we work out the special relativistic description of a ballistic projectile and a simple…
In this article, we reflect upon our positive experiences incorporating or working on extra credit projects in algebra-based introductory physics that asked students to connect physics with humanities, social sciences, and everyday life. We…
This text is aimed at undergraduates, or anyone else who enjoys thinking about shapes and numbers. The goal is to encourage the student to think deeply about seemingly simple things. The main objects of study are lines, squares, and the…