When thinking about measurement uncertainty in a laboratory experiment that features quantum mechanical effects, it is important to consider both the physical principles of underlying quantum theory (e.g., the uncertainty due to quantum mechanical superposition states) as well as the limitations of the measurement (e.g., the spread in outcomes due…

The necessity to teach experimental physics in the pandemic period motivated the development of practices in which students may take measurements with instruments constructed by themselves. In this article, we present an experimental practice to approach Newton's law of cooling with a thermoscope (the earliest device for detecting changes in…

Air pollution is one of our day's significant reasons for human health problems and affects every community throughout the world. Monitoring air pollution is a key aspect of raising awareness and pollution mitigation approaches followed by different nations. This paper targets to develop a low-cost Internet of things-based embedded system to…

We discuss the limits of the equation of the period of a simple pendulum, T[subscript s] = 2[pi][square root]l/g, frequently used in high-school and university classrooms to measure the acceleration of gravity. We evaluate the relative error in determining the acceleration of gravity with this simple equation instead of a more realistic one,…

Every day we deal with chemistry in various forms, but sometimes we don't see that. An example is biosensors that help us to evaluate health conditions, monitor environmental pollution and ensure food freshness. The most well known (and most widely sold) is the biosensor for blood glucose measurement, used every day by people with diabetes.…

This study has proposed a simple method to show the convective heat transfer. The object in this study is an air conditioner (AC) as a simple case of convection. In addition, AC is also easy to find in the class because most classrooms in Indonesia installed AC. Usually, a visualization needs special software (i.e. MatLab or others) and good…

Radon is a dangerous radioactive gas that is always present in the environment. It is important that students and society in general are aware of radon as a health hazard. This study describes a simple experiment to measure the variations of radon gas concentration outdoors. We compared the concentration of radon gas in the environment in dry and…

Practical work is a distinctive feature of school science and has close associations with scientific experiment and scientific methods as well. In this study, the nature of practical work was examined in the view of the diversity of scientific methods. Based on an analytical framework derived from Brandon's matrix consisting of four categories of…

We provide a design for a low cost orientable search coil that can be used to investigate the variation of magnetic flux with angle. This experiment is one of the required practical activities in the current A level physics specification for the AQA examination board in the UK. We demonstrate its performance and suggest other suitable…

This paper describes the use of a tabletop electron microscope in teaching college level physics. The workings and use of an electron microscope encompass many aspects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). A sequence of activities was constructed to compliment the instructional material in the physics course of the University…

Wave physics phenomena can be observed in everyday life and represent a fundamental prerequisite to many domains of classical and modern physics. Lots of studies demonstrate that novices have to face important learning difficulties in approaching this topic. The study of string vibrations' modes allows an educational introduction to basic…

In 1849, Hippolyte Fizeau determined the speed of light in a famous experiment. The idea was to measure the time taken for a pulse of light to travel between an intense light source and a mirror about 8 km away. A rotating cogwheel with 720 notches, that could be rotated at a variable speed, was used to chop the light beam and determine the flight…

This article is about the development of an Internet-based remotely-controlled physical experiment, this is a part of the Remotely Controlled Laboratory at the University of Applied Sciences of Cologne known as TH Köln. The main experimental set-up is based on Pohl's Torsion Pendulum which was enhanced by a PXI measurement system and a webcam. In…

In the school year 2012-2013 about 50 students (Fig. 1), managed by mentors (teachers from the middle school Gimnazija Vic in Ljubljana, Slovenia) created an atmospheric probe and launched it into an altitude of more than 30 km above Earth's surface. The aim of this "space expedition" was to take pictures of Earth and to measure how air…

An undergraduate electrical conductivity measurement experiment in a physical chemistry lab and basic fitting procedures are presented that allow a characterization of micellar system of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) in binary mixture of water and acetonitrile (ACN) as a cosolvent (10%, v/v) at 30.0 °C.…