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On the Operation of the Hanstead Car
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Persson, Rasmus A. X. – Physics Education, 2022
We consider the operation of the hypothetical mechanical vehicle driven by an engine powered by small rockets introduced by P D Hanstead in the inaugural volume of this journal. Hanstead arrived at three contradictory conclusions regarding the change in velocity should some of the rockets malfunction at a particular time. This thought experiment…
Descriptors: Physics, Science Instruction, Motor Vehicles, Space Sciences
Speed, Acceleration, and Distance Plots from a Racecar Speedometer (0-300 Km H[superscript -1])
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Ruiz, Michael J. – Physics Education, 2021
A spreadsheet plotting assignment of real-life data from a racecar is employed to help students master the relationships among speed, acceleration, and distance. The racecar application will capture the imagination and interest of the student. The data is obtained by reading speedometer values from a YouTube video for 40 s as a racecar accelerates…
Descriptors: Physics, Motion, Assignments, Spreadsheets
The Distraction of Driving on Wet Roads: What Causes the Road Marks Blurry
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Khalifah, Ardi; Abdullah, Mikrajuddin – Physics Education, 2021
When the road is wet (there is a water layer on the road surface), the road marks become blurred and drivers are distracted. We discuss the contributing processes and identify which processes are dominant to the occurrence of this phenomenon. Modelling and a simple experiment demonstrate that the dominant processes are: (a) refraction of light by…
Descriptors: Motor Vehicles, Transportation, Travel, Light
Constant Speed Motion Analysis Using a Smartphone Magnetometer
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Nuryantini, Ade Yeti; Sawitri, Asti; Nuryadin, Bebeh Wahid – Physics Education, 2018
This study demonstrated that the constant average speed of a dynamic car could be measured and calculated using the smartphone magnetometer. The apparatus setup was built using a dynamic car, a linear track up to 1.50 m, a bunch of magnets, and a smartphone magnetometer application. The smartphone magnetometer application, 'Physics Toolbox Suite',…
Descriptors: Physics, Science Instruction, Teaching Methods, Motion
Understanding the Doppler Effect by Analysing Spectrograms of the Sound of a Passing Vehicle
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Lubyako, Dmitry; Martinez-Piedra, Gordon; Ushenin, Arthur; Ushenin, Arthur; Denvir, Patrick; Dunlop, John; Hall, Alex; Le Roux, Gus; van Someren, Laurence; Weinberger, Harvey – Physics Education, 2017
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the Doppler effect can be analysed to deduce information about a moving source of sound waves. Specifically, we find the speed of a car and the distance of its closest approach to an observer using sound recordings from smartphones. A key focus of this paper is how this can be achieved in a…
Descriptors: Science Instruction, Acoustics, Scientific Concepts, Physics
Road Capacity with a Steady Flow Traffic
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Minkin, Leonid; Whiting, Percy – Physics Education, 2018
Problems of optimization in natural science, technology, economics, and management are of great interest. Students also usually find them intriguing. However, the selection of such problems in introductory undegraduate physics textbooks is very limited and should be broadened. To that end, a model of traffic flow optimization, simple enough for…
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Physics, Science Instruction, Motor Vehicles