1st Edition
High School and Undergraduate Physics Practicals With 3D Simulations
This book describes more than thirty physics practicals at high school and undergraduate levels with background information on each one, a description of the equipment needed, and instructions on how the experiment is performed. Uniquely, for those without access to a real laboratory, the book provides access to highly detailed 3D simulations of all the experiments.
The simulations are a superset of the Virtual Physics Laboratory as reviewed and given the Green Tick of Approval by the Association for Science Education. They run in any browser that supports WebGL, such as Microsoft Edge or Firefox on Windows and Safari on Mac. For the school or university student who wants to practice and widen their knowledge of physics, or for those who are learning on their own, this is an ideal book for honing and broadening experimental skills.
The simulations are the result of many years researching the teaching of online science, a field in which the author has published many papers.
The companion website for the book can be found here: https://www.virtual-science.co.uk/
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1 Millikan’s oil drop experiment
Chapter 2 Planck’s constant
Chapter 3 Rutherford’s gold foil experiment
Chapter 4 Acceleration due to gravity
Chapter 5 Average velocity using an airtrack
Chapter 6 Acceleration using an airtrack
Chapter 7 Newton’s second law using an airtrack
Chapter 8 Conservation of energy using an airtrack
Chapter 9 Conservation of momentum using an airtrack
Chapter 10 Hooke’s law
Chapter 11 Young’s modulus
Chapter 12 Conservation of momentum using ballistic balance
Chapter 13 Simple pendulum
Chapter 14 SHM with mass spring system
Chapter 15 Capacitor charge and discharge
Chapter 16 Internal resistance
Chapter 17 IV characteristics of a diode
Chapter 18 IV characteristics of a filament light bulb
Chapter 19 Resistivity of constantan
Chapter 20 Resistors in series and parallel
Chapter 21 Heat transfer
Chapter 22 Boyle’s law
Chapter 23 Charles’s law
Chapter 24 Mechanical equivalent of heat
Chapter 25 Specific heat capacity of brass
Chapter 26 Investigation of mechanical waves
Chapter 27 Measuring the speed of water ripples
Chapter 28 Infrared radiation
Chapter 29 Diffraction using a monochromatic laser
Chapter 30 Inverse square law for gamma radiation
Chapter 31 Refraction of light
Chapter 32 Magnetic field due to a coil of wire
Chapter 33 Investigation of magnetic flux of a current carrying wire
Chapter 34 Magnetic flux linkage
Appendix 1 Uncertainties
Appendix 2 Using Excel for the results
Appendix3 Controlling the simulations
Biography
Rob Lucas has worked in and around education for forty years. As well as teaching at university undergraduate and postgraduate levels, he has created many software products for teaching. These include TOM, the Thoroughly Obedient Moron, which is a computer simulator for Windows, the Virtual Language Laboratory, which was the first multimedia language lab that used a PC network, and many science 3d simulations based on his research into online methods for teaching Physics.
