In recent years, with the more powerful functions of smartphones, the use of sensors integrated by mobile phones as an auxiliary tool for physical experiment teaching has become more popular. Combined with the related mobile phone apps, people easily can develop and expand the physical experiment contents of mechanics, optics, acoustic phenomena,…

Asynchronous video-based educational resources allow for increased course material engagement. In today's climate, educators are encouraged to create videos for online instruction but are typically given limited production guidance. Few formal resources exist to guide educators for high-quality video production in a non-studio setting. This…

Context is what makes mathematical modeling tasks different from more traditional textbook word problems. Math problems are sometimes stripped of context as they are worked on. For modeling problems, however, context is important for making sense of the mathematics. The task should be brought back to its real-world context as often as possible. In…

Learning and understanding physics requires more than studying physics texts. It requires doing physics. Doing research is a key opportunity for students to connect physical principles with their everyday experience. A powerful way to introduce students to research and technique is through subjects in which they might find interest. Presented is…

This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. When the author was young he used to think that the ideal design for a concert hall would contain walls that were composed of sound-absorbing material, like foam or egg cartons or such. He noticed, though, that this was not the case. Most concert halls contain curtains…

My unit on sound and waves is embedded within a long-term project in which my high school students construct a musical instrument out of common materials. The unit culminates with a performance assessment: students play the first four measures of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"--chosen because of the octave interval of the first two notes--in the key…

Differences in insect morphology and movement during singing provide a fascinating opportunity for students to investigate insects while learning about the characteristics of sound. In the activities described here, students use a free online computer software program to explore the songs of the major singing insects and experiment with making…

Readily available software designed for the production of music can be adapted easily to the physics classroom. Programs such as Apple's GarageBand access large libraries of recorded sound waves that can be heard and displayed both before and after alterations. Tools such as real-time spectral analysers, digital effects, and audio file editors…

Use of a microphone attached to a computer to capture musical sounds and software to display their waveforms and harmonic spectra has become somewhat commonplace. A recent article in "The Physics Teacher" aptly demonstrated the use of MacScope in just such a manner as a way to teach Fourier analysis. A logical continuation of this project is to…

An educational model simulation of the sound produced by lightning in the sky has been employed to demonstrate realistic signatures of thunder and its connection to the particular structure of the lightning channel. Algorithms used in the past have been revisited and implemented, making use of current computer techniques. The basic properties of…

Most homes in developed countries have a sophisticated data acquisition board, namely the PC sound board. Designed to be able to reproduce CD-quality stereo sound, it must have a sampling rate of at least 44 kHz and have very accurate timing between the two stereo channels. With a very simple adaptation of a pair of regular PC microphones, a…

Describes a microcomputer-based, multichannel digital data acquisition system for acoustic signals. Hardware and software considerations are included. (JN)