This book has been written for anyone who is interested in, obsessed with, or simply mildly curious about exploring physics. The experiments in this book are intended to serve as a resource for teachers at all levels to use in planning laboratory activities for their classes and to get ideas for demonstrations. This book can also provide a way for anyone not necessarily directly involved with an academic physics class—including parents, scout leaders, and hobbyists—to pursue the world of physics as far as their interests take them. Young children—and those facilitating their education—will be able to appreciate many of these experiments on an intuitive level—perhaps one day to revisit them in greater depth.

If you are looking for science project ideas, you should be able to find something in these pages to work with. Students involved in a first-year high school or college physics class will find the overall sequence familiar and hopefully won’t have too much trouble finding their way around.

I imagine that readers with a wide range of interests, backgrounds, and available resources will look through these pages for ideas about physics experiments. For this reason, I have written the projects/experiments to be accessible to readers in a number of different ways and on a variety of levels. Most of the experiments include a way to get started without requiring elaborate equipment.

How This Book Is Organized

Each section starts with a list of required items followed by step-by-step methods. Because there is often more than one way to do a project, various options are given to accommodate varying experience, available resources, and interest levels among readers.

The expected outcome for the experiments is given to help you interpret your experimental results. First you will find the most qualitative and intuitive insights, followed by increasingly detailed descriptions. For those who are interested (and
only
those who are interested) equations are provided to complete the explanation for why the experiments work. The reader is invited to pursue only as much or as little detail as they care to. This book is not intended to be a textbook on physics theory. I have tried, however, to help readers connect with the next step they might be ready to take. Just to be sure, each project has a conclusion that spells out the point of the experiment.

The World of Physics: Discovery and Rediscovery

On more than one occasion in the history of physics, the greatest advances have taken place at a time when the conventional wisdom of the day was that everything had already been discovered and all that was left to work out were the details. The hands-on approach presented here is to help
the reader to (re-)discover physics directly. (All I ask, is in your acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for physics, you reserve a few kind words for this book.)

There is typically more than one way to do many of these experiments. At least one procedure from start to finish is given for each experiment. But also a range of alternative approaches and extensions can be found for most of them. Hopefully this book will leave you with ideas, not only for how to do these experiments, but also for how to come up with experimental ideas of your own.

What You Will Need: Tool Bin/Parts List

The Basics

Each of the projects in this book has a specific parts list, called “What you need.” Because different readers will have access to different types of equipment, alternative approaches are presented. A list of major suppliers is given in
Appendix A
at the end of this book.

The following are some of the items you may want to have handy. Most of these items are available in typical physics labs and many can be improvised.

stopwatch—a one-tenth-second resolution is sufficient because it easily exceeds human reaction time.
ring stands—many of the projects in this book involve supporting or holding other components of the apparatus. While this can be accomplished in other ways, having a basic set of ring stands with a few clamps gives you more time to focus on setting up the experiment.
meterstick—most metersticks have millimeter markings. Metersticks often serve multiple functions in addition to measuring, such as holding lenses and mirrors. The thinner ones usually fit better with the supports used in optical experiments.
tape measure—most of your work will be in meters. It is easy enough to convert feet to meters, but given the choice, a tape measure with metric divisions is preferable.
ruler—with millimeter divisions.
spring(s)—springs with varying degrees of stiffness to compare are useful. The best are ones that can be partially stretched by a reasonable weight.
pulley—the less friction and the lowest mass, the better.
string and rope—various kinds. You will want at least some thin strong string. Weaker string that can break plays a role in
Project 24
.
mass set—a range of masses from 10 g to 1 kg (1000 g). They should have an attachment point from the top and, ideally, also from the bottom.
spring scale—these come in various ranges, from a full scale reading of 2.5 newtons (255 g) to a full-scale reading of 50 newtons (5100 g). If you are doing demonstrations before a group, a large circular version of the scale with oversize lettering is the way to go. (Not to quibble, but weight is a
force
that is read in newtons and mass is a measure of an object’s inertia, which is measured in grams. Physics purists definitely prefer weighing objects in newtons.) Most of our work will be in the System International (SI), which, to oversimplify, is a fancy new name for the metric system. Spring scales also come calibrated in pounds (and if you must, dynes, which almost no one uses today)—if you happen to have one, you can do the math. Conversion factors can be found in
Appenidix B
.
balance—low-end electronic balances have become much more affordable and can be purchased for less than $50. Other options include analog triple-beam scales or the more elaborate digital balances.
wire—several meters of insulated wire, such as American wire gauge (AWG) 18, 20, or 22.
jumper wires—jumper wires with various combinations of attachments make the electrical projects go a lot smoother. One termination is called a
banana plug
, which easily connects a circuit to a meter or a power supply. Another is spring loaded and grips onto an electrical connection called an
alligator clip
. (In the UK, some people refer to these “croc” clips. I am
not
making this up.)
DC power supply (or batteries with a wire connection)—some projects require the capability to adjust the voltage. This requires an adjustable power supply, which can be purchased as a component. The power supply pictured in
Figure I-1
(PASCO, part number SE-8828) costs less than $150, and enables you to do all the projects in this book that call for a DC power supply. Reasonably priced DC power supplies can also be purchased from Sargent-Welch, part number WLS-30972-81 or Flinn, part number AP5375.

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