In this paper, some heat transfer characteristics through a sample that is uniformly heated on one of its surfaces by a power density modulated by a periodical square wave are discussed. The solution of this problem has two contributions, comprising a transient term and an oscillatory term, superposed to it. The analytical solution is compared to…

An experimental setup, based on a plastic scintillator with an embedded wavelength shifter fibre and photosensors at the two ends, has been used to detect cosmic muons in undergraduate laboratory activities. Time and amplitude information from the two photosensors were measured using the time-over-threshold technique. The distribution of the…

We describe a method for the accurate calculation of bound-state and resonance energies for one-dimensional potentials. We calculate the shape resonances for symmetric two-barrier potentials and compare them with those coming from the Siegert approximation, the complex scaling method and the box-stabilization method. A comparison of the…

In this paper, we describe how simple experiments realizable by using easily found and low-cost materials allow students to explore quantitatively the magnetic interaction thanks to the help of an Open Source Physics tool, the Tracker Video Analysis software. The static equilibrium of a "column" of permanents magnets is carefully investigated by…

Here, we present complex resonance states (or Siegert states) that describe the tunnelling decay of a trapped quantum particle from an intuitive point of view that naturally leads to the easily applicable Siegert approximation method. This can be used for analytical and numerical calculations of complex resonances of both the linear and nonlinear…

In this paper a simplified two-parameter model of the greenhouse effect on the Earth is developed, starting from the well known two-layer model. It allows both the analysis of the temperatures of the inner planets, by focusing on the role of the greenhouse effect, and a comparison between the temperatures the planets should have in the absence of…

Two methods of data analysis are compared: spreadsheet software and a statistics software suite. Their use is compared analysing data collected in three selected experiments taken from an introductory physics laboratory, which include a linear dependence, a nonlinear dependence and a histogram. The merits of each method are compared. (Contains 7…