Investigation and experiment ideas

[emmjade]

I'm a high school physics teacher and my students have to design their own experiments based around electricity and electronics/photonics concepts.

One group must do their experiment on basic circuits and electricity, and I've thought of a few example ideas for them: Measuring power use of a battery powered device in different settings, measuring resistance of wires/resistors under various conditions, measuring internal resistance of a battery.

However, I'm stuck on the group has to do their experiment on electronics / photonics.

The investigations need to be based around
- amplifiers
- LED's
- Light dependent resistors
- Light intensity modulation
- Thermistors
- Non-Ohmic devices like Diodes

I can think of plenty of boring ones, but can anyone think of some interesting investigations? They need to be able to take measurements of at least two variables during their experiment.

Thanks!

 

[Valerie Park]

1. Investigating the relationship between voltage and current in an LED circuit. 2. Comparing the performance of different types of LEDs in terms of brightness and power consumption. 3. Building a light-sensitive switch using an LED, LDR and a transistor. 4. Studying the effect of temperature on the resistance of a thermistor. 5. Investigating the effect of changing parameters such as resistance, capacitance and inductance on the gain of an amplifier. 6. Constructing an optical communication system using infrared LEDs and photodiodes. 7. Using a solar cell to convert light into electrical energy and measuring the efficiency of the conversion process. 8. Investigating the effect of frequency on the characteristics of non-Ohmic devices like diodes.

 

[sir-pinski]

Here are a few ideas for experiments based on electronics/photonics concepts:

1. Investigating the relationship between light intensity and the output voltage of a photodiode. Students can use different light sources of varying intensities and measure the corresponding output voltage of the photodiode, creating a graph to analyze the relationship.

2. Studying the effects of temperature on the resistance of a thermistor. Students can use a thermistor and a temperature sensor to measure the resistance of the thermistor at different temperatures, and analyze the data to determine the relationship between temperature and resistance.

3. Designing and building a simple audio amplifier using basic electronic components. Students can experiment with different configurations and analyze the output using a frequency analyzer to see how different components affect the sound quality.

4. Investigating the effects of different types of diodes (such as Zener diodes or Schottky diodes) on the output voltage of a circuit. Students can set up a simple circuit with a diode and measure the output voltage with and without the diode, to see how different types of diodes affect the circuit.

5. Designing an experiment to demonstrate the concept of light intensity modulation using a laser and a photodetector. Students can use different materials (such as polarizers or diffraction gratings) to modulate the intensity of the laser beam and measure the corresponding changes in output voltage of the photodetector.

Overall, the key to a successful experiment is to make it hands-on and interactive, allowing students to explore and discover the concepts themselves. Encourage them to think outside the box and come up with their own ideas as well. Good luck!