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…

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…

Procedures for displaying computer-generated text and graphics to a large audience are inexpensive when a Fresnel-mirror projector is used. Although small liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) can be easily projected, large LCDs require some modification (which is described). Other devices with LCD displays (oscilloscopes, televisions, and pulse-height…

Describes (1) an inexpensive photogate, (2) one use for a "dead" ammeter, (3) photogate addition for visual and audio signal, and (4) a photogate housing constructed from a plastic water pipe. (JN)

Describes apparatus and method used to allow rapid and repeated measurement of acceleration of a ball rolling down an inclined plane. Acceleration measurements can be performed in an hour with the apparatus interfaced to a Commodore PET microcomputer. A copy of the BASIC program is available from the authors. (Author/JN)

Evaluates the Measurement Module (TEL-Atomic, Incorporated), a real time data capture and display instrument which (according to the manufacturer) was designed primarily for use in demonstrations. Includes comments on the module's specifications and features, software, documentation, and student laboratory use. The module is compatible with Apple…

A PET microcomputer is used as an accurate and programmable timer to support data acquisition from velocity experiments covering falling, rolling, and sliding objects, and human velocity, acceleration, and power measurements. The inexpensive instrumentation is simple and easy to use and compares favorably with conventional, more expensive…

Discusses the use of microcomputers as a universal instrument to replace more expensive instrumentation in many traditional labs. Describes the availability of microcomputers as inexpensive educational tools which can be used successfully in labs with minimal requirements on the computer. (SK)