Potential energy diagrams have been central tools for chemistry teaching and research for over 50 years. We present an application, EveRplot, which is accessible by web browser (including mobile devices) and can be used to create energy versus reaction coordinate plots quickly and easily. Through three case studies, we illustrate the use of the…

Physlets, educational applets developed at Davidson College, are a widely used teaching resource designed to simulate a variety of physical phenomena. Originally, each Physlet was a Java simulation that was embedded in an HTML page as an applet and then customized using JavaScript to simulate a specific physics concept. The use of Java to simulate…

A smartphone-based digital imaging method has been successfully introduced in an undergraduate laboratory class to quantify fluoride ions in water. Students first synthesized the chemosensor (E)-2-(1-(6-nitro-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)ethylidene)-N-phenylhydrazine-1-carbothioamide (CT) via an eco-friendly and green microwave-assisted protocol and…

Today's students are increasingly immersed in a landscape of screens and handheld digital devices through which a good deal of their interactions with the world around them are mediated. Physics educators, meanwhile, continue to rely on traditional human interactions with the physical world, such as sliding down a ramp or throwing a baseball, in…

The use of smartphones is increasingly gaining popularity in education. Students and teachers can determine scientific concepts using smartphones equipped with sensors such as Global Positioning System (GPS -- a navigation system that provides location information) and orientation (a device to measure coordinates according to a reference frame).…

Molecular symmetry and orbitals are two important chemical concepts which can be difficult for students to visualize in three dimensions; as such, instructors have traditionally adopted a variety of approaches to teach them including the use of physical models and digital renderings/resources. This paper describes a new mobile device application…

The Fourier transformation (FT) is a mathematical process frequently encountered by chemistry students. However, it remains an automated background process perceived by many students as difficult to understand. In this paper we present a simple open-source web application, which can help students to understand the basics of the FT applied to…

Through the implementation of the free website/smartphone application Sketchfab, we have found a simple means to introduce 3D visual tools into the chemistry classroom. Sketchfab stores 3D models and animations with free cross-platform accessibility. Blender is a free 3D modeling tool that has been used to prepare models and animations for…

The frequency ratios for the just diatonic scale are obtained by identifying musical intervals corresponding to Lissajous figures. The demonstration integrates the engineering physics of Lissajous patterns with the recognition of musical intervals through simple ear training. A free HTML5 app has been developed for this class activity and the…

An amusement park is full of examples that can be made into challenging problems for students, combining mathematical modelling with video analysis, as well as measurements in the rides. Traditional amusement ride related textbook problems include free-fall, circular motion, pendula and energy conservation in roller coasters, where the moving…

We have developed an online oscilloscope program which allows users to see waveforms by utilizing their computer microphones, selecting from our library of over 30 audio files, and opening any *.mp3 or *.wav file on their computers. The oscilloscope displays real-time signals against time. The oscilloscope has been calibrated so one can make…

Over the past 25 years, the Davidson College Physics Department has developed small computer programs called Physlets. These programs were written in Java and distributed as Java applets embedded in HTML pages. Physics teachers from around the world used Physlets to author interactive computer-based curricular materials for the teaching of…

Video analysis with a 30 Hz frame rate is the standard tool in physics education. The development of affordable high-speed-cameras has extended the capabilities of the tool for much smaller time scales to the 1 ms range, using frame rates of typically up to 1000 frames s[superscript -1], allowing us to study transient physics phenomena happening…

Smartphones and tablets are packed with sensors that allow us to take experimental data, essentially making them mobile physics labs. Apps exist that make it easy to capture and analyze data from these sensors, allowing users to study diverse phenomena such as free fall acceleration, the speed of sound,radioactivity, and many others. Commonly, the…

Carrying out classroom experiments that demonstrate Boyle's law and Gay-Lussac's law can be challenging. Even if we are able to conduct classroom experiments using pressure gauges and syringes, the results of these experiments do little to illuminate the kinetic theory of gases. However, molecular dynamics simulations that run on computers allow…