One of us (ST) constructed a Blue Man Group[R] instrument from 2-in PVC piping (internal radius r = 2.54 cm) as an undergraduate project. The instrument itself is shown in Fig. 1.

Ask any physicist what the preeminent journal in the field is, and I think the almost unanimous answer will be "Physical Review Letters" ("PRL"). This weekly journal of the American Physical Society publishes high-impact research from all the major subdisciplines of physics. This journal is not the one you would think is the first place a high…

Incandescent lamps with tungsten filaments have been in use for about a century while being gradually replaced by fluorescent lamps; in another generation both will quite probably be largely replaced by light-emitting diodes. Incandescent lamps (simply called "lamps" in what follows) burn out after a lifetime that depends mostly on the temperature…

The aim of this paper is to show how the noise reduction by signal accumulation can be accomplished with a data acquisition system. This topic can be used for student projects. In many cases, the noise reduction is an unavoidable part of experimentation. Several techniques are known for this purpose, and among them the signal accumulation is the…

Discusses a project in which college students equipped a house with three different types of solar energy collectors and two vertical axis windmills. (MLH)

Students are challenged to investigate a simple electric motor and to build their own model from a battery, wood block, clips, enameled copper wire, bare wire, and sandpaper. Through trial and error, several discoveries are made, including a substitute commutator and use of a radio to detect motor armature contact changes. (DH)