AP Physics Lab Ideas for High School

[123HI]

hi, I'm in the AP Physics for high school, and I've been wondering about an idea about constructing a lab... i need some things i can test, because the assignment is to create a lab on your own w/e it is... (kinematics, thermo, w/e AS LONG AS it's not electrical or uses wires)... any suggestions on what to test?

 

[andrewchang]

calorimetry?

 

[Valhalla]

home-made calorimeter... you can measure the final temp and check it with a theoretical calculation based on $$Q=mc\Delta T$$

If you feel like it you could do Newton's law of cooling as well. It is the same experiment, but you have different measurements and calculations.

 

[123HI]

home-made calorimeter... you can measure the final temp and check it with a theoretical calculation based on $$Q=mc\Delta T$$

If you feel like it you could do Newton's law of cooling as well. It is the same experiment, but you have different measurements and calculations.

that seems good, but i did it in school already... ihmm i need to make a LAB DESIGN and get the materials and actually test out my lab... this needs to be a quantitative lab not qualitative... hmm i was thinking of doing a foucault pendulum, but it would be rather hard to do that in school...

 

[berkeman]

My friend just did a wind tunnel with his son for a Science Fair project. The son is in grammar school, so it was a pretty simple setup and experiment. But at the AP high school level, you could have some serious fun. Maybe google wind tunnel stuff to see if that might be practical. Smoke trails, wing geometries, laminar flow versus separation versus lift...cool stuff!

 

[123HI]

My friend just did a wind tunnel with his son for a Science Fair project. The son is in grammar school, so it was a pretty simple setup and experiment. But at the AP high school level, you could have some serious fun. Maybe google wind tunnel stuff to see if that might be practical. Smoke trails, wing geometries, laminar flow versus separation versus lift...cools stuff!

seems like a fantastic idea! but now i have to concern about building a wind tunnel... i'll definitely give it some thought... right now I'm also thinking about young's modulus... hmm... ok thanks for your contribution!