Uses projectile motion to explain the two roots found when using the quadratic formula. An example is provided for finding the time of flight for a projectile which has a negative root implying a negative time of flight. This negative time of flight also has a useful physical meaning. (MVL)

Describes an investigation in which students predict and verify the effect that the number of clicks of a toy copter gun has on the height that the copter will attain. Provides follow-up questions for the students. (MDH)

A study involving 48 undergraduates found a link between motion detection and letter-position encoding and a positive relationship, albeit a nonlinear one, between motion detection threshold and the likelihood of making letter errors. This result held when age, IQ, reading age, and phonological awareness were taken into account. (CR)

Describes an activity in which students try to determine, by using physics calculations, when to drop a raw egg from a tower to hit their physics teacher who is walking beneath it. (WRM)

Discusses a case study on discovery learning with a computer simulation environment in the physics domain of collisions. Finds that providing assignments with the simulation improves students' performance on one aspect of an intuitive-knowledge test. Contains 43 references. (Author/WRM)

Presents a pre-lab exercise, an experimental setup, and discussion of computer-generated graphs that can be used to study the motion and energy of a bouncing ball. (WRM)

Describes a simple model that illustrates concepts about time and its relation to terrestrial longitude. The model also simulates the diurnal motion of the sun and moon and their changing positions against the background stars. (Author/WRM)

Provides a set of macro-experiments designed to improve students' intuitive understanding of physics and motivation for learning physics. Students become part of the experimental apparatus and experience the physical phenomena firsthand. (DDR)

This article suggests that the development of listening skills should extend to the "soundscape" of nonspeech acoustical information. It presents a model for effective aural processing, identifies categories of information obtained from nonverbal sound, and explores "ear-tuning" or listening exercises that use sound to glean…

Examined whether different lexicalization patterns of motion events in English and Spanish predicted how college student speakers performed in recognition memory and similarity judgment tasks. Found no language effect in recognition memory after either linguistic or non-linguistic encoding, nor in similarity judgments after non-linguistic…

Suggests an approach to teaching vectors that promotes active learning through challenging questions addressed to the class, as opposed to subtle explanations. Promotes introducing vector graphics with concrete examples, beginning with an explanation of the displacement vector. Also discusses artificial vectors, vector algebra, and unit vectors.…

Describes modifications to an apparatus for measuring the force of an object in circular motion. Explains how to accurately measure rotation rate with the use of a motion detector. (WRM)

Presents ideas for adapting active-engagement physics labs for students with mobility-related disabilities. (WRM)

Describes how to build a home-made pitching machine that can be used as a ball launcher in physics class. (WRM)

Discusses mathematical and physical evidence that air consists of a tiny volume of particles moving at an average speed of over 1000 miles per hour. (WRM)