It’s not always enough to just hear music. Many of us enjoy visualizing it while listening. 4th of July fireworks are commonly synced to Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever. Concert goers see spotlights flashing to their favorite pop songs. Modern home owners play their sound systems synchronized with Phillips Hue lighting and nanoleaf® light panels with a Rhythm module. For many years, classic visualizers have di
The ability to quickly match empirical data to well-known mathematical models is an essential feature in the analysis of experiments. This technique is generally referred to as curve-fitting. The up-and-coming, but not yet leased, CloudLab software from PocketLab provides an easy way to fit data to models including linear, quadratic, power, exponential, and logarithmic. This curve-fitting can be done for any selected region of PocketLab data. This lesson provides a sneak preview of this CloudLab featu
Late in 2017 a handful of companies began selling LED flame lamps that do a great job of simulating an actual burning fire. The illumination is bright, has a color temperature of a warm orange flame, and the light produces negligible heat while running at under 5 watts of electric power. This light seems to be a great replacement for traditional gas lanterns, hurricane lamps, and oil lamps. The simulated flame is unbelievably realistic in the flame light purchased by the author. No obvious pattern could be detected in the flickering LED flame by observing the light with the eye.
In addition to being a fun toy, the “Slinky” is commonly used in physics classes to qualitatively investigate a variety of wave properties: longitudinal versus transverse traveling waves, superposition of waves, wave reflection from a solid barrier or a free end, and standing waves and resonance. Many of these investigations work well when the Slinky is stretched out on the surface of a floor. However, to do a quantitative study of standing waves and resonance, suspending the stretched Slinky from the ceiling offers the advantages of less fricti
The physics of the sounds produced by music boxes is definitely worth studying in curricula based upon NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). The prongs of a metal music box comb and an oscillating meter stick that overhangs a table are both examples of cantilevers--long projecting beams that are supported only at one end. Other common examples include many suspension bridges, beams that support balconies on high rises, diving boards, airplane wings, and flagpoles mounted to the side of a building.
In this lesson we develop a laboratory experiment in which students quantitatively verify a major theoretical equation for the Doppler Effect when the wave source is at rest with respect to the medium and the observer is moving through the medium. The waves are simulated waves on an iPad or similar device. Ozobot keeps Voyager moving at a known speed, either toward or away from the wave source.
This lesson can be used to provide a demonstration of forced oscillations and resonance in a small model structure. This lesson is possible by teaming Vernier Software & Technology with PocketLab.
PocketLab Voyager is perfect for performing an experiment on torsional harmonic oscillation. Voyager is taped to a mass hanging from a spring. The mass is given both an initial vertical translation and a torsional twist and then released. While simultaneously bobbing up-and-down and twisting back-and-forth, the two motions are recorded by Voyager. The period of the translational motion is recorded by the acceleration sensor. The angular velocity sensor concurrently records information for measuring the period of the torsional oscillation.
This lesson deals with what are commonly referred to as coupled pendulums, in which energy is transferred back-and-forth between the pendulums via the coupling. Pendulums coupled by springs are commonly studied in college physics classes during studies of simple harmonic motion. However, our lesson makes use of string-coupled pendulums, as they are easier and less expensive to construct.
It is quite well known that when two frequencies of sound are close together, beats are produced and heard. Demonstrations of this phenomenon are common in acoustical studies in physics classes. In this lesson we investigate three laboratory techniques for seeing beats instead of hearing them. These visual beats can be recorded and studied by the use of the PocketLab app and Voyager’s light sensor. The first technique uses two #50 lamps that are driven at slightly different AC sine wave frequenc
