An easy circuit for measuring the power of a solar panel in physics classroom by using the microcontroller Arduino will be introduced in this article. The measured data is transferred via Bluetooth to the smartphone app 'phyphox' where it is displayed graphically. The circuitry enables measuring the power of a solar panel in different situations…

Crystallography is a fascinating subject and an argument of great importance in the study of structure of matter and fundamental physics. Moreover, many characteristics of crystals, as well as other organic and inorganic substances, are analyzed with x-ray diffraction. In order to introduce at a basic level the above mentioned subjects, and also…

The concept of black body is of primary importance in studying the energy transfer of thermal electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths. Several physical bodies like incandescent lamps, electric heaters, stoves, the sun and the other stars, microwave background radiation, etc., are considered to be black bodies as their radiation spectra fits…

Water can exhibit many different colors due to a variety of physical properties. Here, we focus on some observable colors within very pure freshwater. We only treat the absorption of light due to electronic and ro-vibrational excitations and scattering due to refractive index fluctuations of the water and the respective consequences for the…

Most didactic lab experiments deal with the influence of temperature, concentration, pressure, surface area, and catalysts on chemical kinetics; however, few of them explore the influence of light radiation and the presence of inhibitor agents on reaction rates. In order to investigate the effects of the radiation source and the presence of…

In this article we present simple and low-cost experiments about the polarization of light. We use an LCD monitor or an RGB LED light bulb with a Polaroid as a source of polarized radiation, a polarizer sheet as an analyzer, and a smartphone camera to measure light intensities. Thus, using a digital camera to acquire videos students can explore in…

There is a relatively simple way of using radioactive material in classroom experiments: uranium glass, which provides teachers with a suitable substance. By using the right computer software and a radiation sensor, it can be demonstrated that uranium glass emits radiation at a greater rate than the background radiation and with the aid of UV…

In this paper we present a system aimed at demonstrating the photoacoustic (PA) effect for educational purposes. PA imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that requires no contrast agent and has a great potential for spine and brain lesion characterisation, breast cancer and blood flow monitoring notably in the context of fetal surgery. It relies on…

This paper describes a set of demonstration school experiments where infrared radiation is detected using thermal sensitive foils. The possibility of using standard glass lenses for infrared imaging is discussed in detail. It is shown that with optic components made from glass, infrared radiation up to 2.5 µm of wavelength can be detected. The…

In this paper an experiment to study Planck's radiation law is presented. The spectra of a heated furnace and of a halogen lamp under various conditions were measured with a small USB grating spectrometer and fitted using Planck's law. The temperature determined from the fit was then compared with the results of comparative temperature…

Sunlight (solar radiation) provides many beneficial contributions to mankind, including warmth and energy, vision and photoresponses, photosynthesis, and vitamin D synthesis. Along with these positive benefits attributed to solar radiation, there are also adverse effects. A particular adverse effect of current interest and concern which is…

Discusses the historical development of both the wave and the corpuscular photon model of light. Suggests that students should be informed that the two models are complementary and that each model successfully describes a wide range of radiation phenomena. Cites 19 references which might be of interest to physics teachers and students. (LC)