In 2010, the Wiimote was upgraded with three-axis gyroscopes that can measure rotational velocities up to 2000 deg/s. The improved remote is referred to as the Wii MotionPlus. We present experiments that use the gyroscope's capabilities and compare data acquired in lab settings with those obtained in playground environments. Van Hook et al.…

The inverse-square law for the intensity of light received at a distance from a light source has been verified using various experimental techniques. Typical measurements involve a manual variation of the distance between a light source and a light sensor, usually by sliding the sensor or source along a bench, measuring the source-sensor distance…

Nature is a complex causal network exhibiting diverse forms and species. These forms or rather systems are physically open, structurally complex and naturally adaptive. They interact with the surrounding media by operating a positive-feedback loop through which, they adapt, organize and self-organize themselves in response to the ever-changing…

Ligament laxity in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome hypermobility type (EDS-HT) patients can influence the intrinsic information about posture and movement and can have a negative effect on the appropriateness of postural reactions. Several measures have been proposed in literature to describe the planar migration of CoP over the base of support, and the…

An article by Belusic and Zupancic described the construction of a finger pulse sensor using a singing greeting card beeper. These authors felt that this beeper made of piezoelectric material could be easily modified to function as a respiratory belt transducer to monitor respiratory movements. Commercially available respiratory belt transducers,…

This paper presents a history of research and theories on sliding friction between solids. This history is divided into four phases: from Leonardo da Vinci to Coulomb and the establishment of classical laws of friction; the theories of lubrication and the Tomlinson's theory of friction (1850-1930); the theories of wear, the Bowden and Tabor's…

Biology textbooks tend to assert the correctness of evolutionary concepts but mention very little of the evidence that supports them. This gives the impression that evolutionary theory is poorly supported, which discourages acceptance of the theory. A case in point is the age of the Earth. Biology textbooks usually mention that the planet is…

A tippe top (see Fig. 1) is usually constructed as a truncated sphere with a cylindrical peg on top, as indicated in Fig. 2(a). When spun rapidly on a horizontal surface, a tippe top spins about a vertical axis while rotating slowly about a horizontal axis until the peg touches the surface. At that point, weight is transferred to the peg, the…

Background: A major problem in teaching science is the overcoming of misconceptions. Reif found a procedure specifying a science concept. Neglect of this procedure can induce misconceptions. To find what can prevent misconceptions, students entering engineering were tested to see whether they understood easy problems of movement requiring the…

On the basis of responses to written questions administered to more than one thousand introductory chemistry students, we claim that students often rotely apply memorized combustion rules instead of reasoning based on explanatory models for what happens at the molecular level during chemical reactions. In particular, many students argue that…

We address the broader conceptual and pedagogical implications of recent recommendations of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) concerning the re-definition of hydrogen bonding, drawing upon the recommended IUPAC statistical methodology of mutually correlated experimental and theoretical descriptors to operationally…

Slater type orbitals were used to construct the overlap and the Hamiltonian core matrices; we also found the values of the bi-electron repulsion integrals. The Hartree Fock Roothaan approximation process starts with setting an initial guess value for the elements of the density matrix; with these matrices we constructed the initial Fock matrix.…

The standard method to create dramatic color images in astrophotography is to record multiple black and white images, each with a different color filter in the optical path, and then tint each frame with a color appropriate to the corresponding filter. When combined, the resulting image conveys information about the sources of emission in the…

The spatial memory for the last position occupied by a moving target is usually displaced forward in the direction of motion. Interpreted as a mental analogue of physical momentum, this phenomenon was coined "representational momentum" (RM). As momentum is given by the product of an object's velocity and mass, both these factors came to…

The objective of Physics courses is that the students learn how to use what they know to solve problems in the real world (competencies), but no one learns to do that seeing as the professor think in the blackboard. The program of a course uses topics as examples of reasoning. Reasoning involves the ability to use their knowledge. If we precisely…