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…

Gravitational lensing is an interesting phenomenon in astronomy and is most typically given rise to by galaxies. The majority of the matter in a galaxy is thought to be dark matter, and the galactic gravitational lensing effect is mainly caused by dark matter halos. In gravitational lensing-related demonstrations in physics education, the feet of…

Originally an empirical law, nowadays Malus' law is seen as a key experiment to demonstrate the transverse nature of electromagnetic waves, as well as the intrinsic connection between optics and electromagnetism. In this work, a simple and inexpensive setup is proposed to quantitatively verify the nature of polarized light. A flat computer screen…

There is an increasing emphasis on fundamental particles, including quarks, in the high school physics classroom. However, many teachers might not feel comfortable teaching particle physics because it is a highly abstract and complex topic, and there are few hands-on activities to help teachers bring it into the classroom. In 2010, a…

We present a versatile experimental apparatus for exploring rotational motion through the interplay between the moment of inertia, torque, and rotational kinetic energy of a wheel. The heart of this experiment uses a 3D-printed wheel along with easily accessible stock components that allow for the adjustment of the moment of inertia while keeping…

Recently devices such as the optical mouse of a computer, webcams, Wii remote, and digital cameras have been used to record and analyze different physical phenomena quantitatively. Devices like tablets and smartphones are also becoming popular. Different scientific applications available at Google Play (Android devices) or the App Store (iOS…