A Slinky is a loose helical coil spring and is a well-known educational toy. In this paper a model for a Slinky is presented. The Slinky is represented as a sequence of rigid half coils connected by torsional springs. A range of Slinky configurations in static equilibrium are calculated. Where possible the torsion spring model is compared with the…

Reasoning with mathematics plays an important role in university students' learning throughout their courses in the scientific disciplines, such as physics. In addition to understanding mathematical concepts and procedures, physics students often must mathematize physical constructs in terms of their associated mathematical structures and…

The statics of fluids may seem simple at first but often poses problems for students when it comes to applying it to concrete cases. Despite its relatively simple laws, some subtleties, mainly related to the elastic characteristics of a fluid, must be noted. This elasticity allows the pressure exerted in a part of the fluid to propagate in its…

In this article we find the thermodynamics of some large N particles systems and some small N particles classical systems using micro canonical ensemble. Small N particle systems are seldom done in textbooks, since statistical mechanics(SM) systems work for large N systems. We show that small N systems will help the students to get an insight…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is one of the research-based assessments established by the physics education research community to measure students' understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Former works have often recorded the notion of gendered mean FCI scores favoring male students notably in the North American (NA) based studies. Nevertheless,…

What happens when a perfectly elastic ball collides with a completely inelastic ball? It is shown that the outcome depends on the stiffness of each ball. A standard textbook problem in mechanics is to calculate the outcome of a head-on collision between two balls using conservation of momentum and kinetic energy. It is easily shown that the…

We propose a method to measure the speed of sound in air using a motion detector. The experiment is based on the principle of a motion detector used to measure distances. This device measures the time of flight of alternating ultrasonic waves between the observer and the target. By assuming a fixed speed of sound, the time of flight can be…

Simulations can provide opportunities for engaged exploration in physics teaching and learning. Beyond the two-dimensional world of screen-based simulations, abstract concepts like vectors (for example, of electric fields) can frequently be visualized better in a three-dimensional virtual reality (VR) environment. These visualizations can be…

In this note, the classical Doppler shift for some accelerated mechanical systems is considered under a common graphical approach. In one dimension, we study uniform accelerated motion and simple harmonic motion. In two dimensions, uniform circular motion and pendular motion are considered. In each case, an elementary treatment shows that the…

Friction is one of the most important forces studied in classical mechanics, and still is the subject of pedagogical literature. In a small series of problems stated below, we consider a particle sliding down a curve under the actions of gravity and kinetic friction. Unlike many of the referenced sources, we neglect the centripetal force arising…

In this research, an educational approach to the concept of energy is proposed. It is based on the history of physics. In 1854 Hermann Hemlholtz gave a popular lecture on the recent discovery that energy is conserved. Such lecture is used as a guide to introduce the pupils within several nuances of this concept. Not much mathematics is used, so…

There is a close connection between simple harmonic motion and uniform circular motion. This connection is widely taught and included in standard textbooks. Here, we exploit this connection to simultaneously derive two results from introductory mechanics: the period of a mass-spring system and the centripetal acceleration formula. Previously…

The trajectory of a ball in air is affected by aerodynamic drag and lift. In general, the trajectory needs to be calculated numerically since the acceleration varies with time in both the horizontal and vertical directions. If the trajectory remains approximately parabolic, then simple analytical solutions can be found, giving useful insights into…

Humanizing engineering education is a research-based way to help students understand the origin of concepts and the people who contributed to the field's development. This case study explores an experimental intervention to improve engineering undergraduate student knowledge and interest in fluid mechanics. The intervention incorporates the…

Microfluidics has attracted widespread interest in the fields of chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, biology, etc. Integrating low-cost automation based on open-source hardware/software to improve lab security and reduce time consumption is demanded in microchemical processing. In this work, we developed a "do it yourself"…