Unlock the World of Smartphone Physics Experiments for Remote Learning

[ZapperZ]

This is a good article describing the rise in the use of smartphone to do various physics experiment, especially now when in-person classes are a distant memory for the time being.

I've used smartphones in my in-person labs in a couple of experiments, especially using the accelerometer in the smartphones. But after all this mess, I'm going to start thinking of designing many more experiments that students can do on their own with the stuff they already have. So this article linking several of the apps and types of experiments that students can perform at home is definitely timely and useful. Already, just from a quick reading of this article, the idea of using the smartphone's magnetometer to measure the direction of the Earth's magnetic field dip angle is already conjuring up in my head a simple activity that students can do on their own.

BTW, I have the app "Gauges" on my iPhone that I've been using to design a couple of physics experiments, and in my Astronomy class, all the students have downloaded a sky-viewing app (I use "Sky Guide") where they've been tracking motion of planets across the sky throughout the semester. This semester, several students tracked the motion of Venus, and they saw in late March the retrograde motion made by the planet. One student even made an animated GIF of all the images that he captured. It was cool!

Zz.

 

[jedishrfu]

Do you have any experience with Distant Suns astronomy app? Its been around a long time and seems quite useful.

https://distantsuns.com/

and the developers story:

https://distantsuns.com/about/

 

[ZapperZ]

Do you have any experience with Distant Suns astronomy app? Its been around a long time and seems quite useful.

https://distantsuns.com/

and the developers story:

https://distantsuns.com/about/

No, I haven't used it. Until now, most of the online activities for my Astronomy class were all web-based, usually using PhET and the different astronomy simulations out of University of Nebraska-Lincoln webpage.

Zz.

 

[etotheipi]

Not super relevant, but I came across an app a little while ago called 'Universe Splitter' that I thought was pretty funny (I've no idea of the scientific validity, you guys would know infinitely more about that than I do ). Supposedly it connects to a lab somewhere in Switzerland:

Let's say you have to make a difficult decision — for example, whether to accept a job offer or to turn it down — just type both actions into your Universe Splitter, and press the "Split Universe" button.

Universe Splitter will then, over the internet, activate a remote "Quantis" brand quantum device which will send a single photon into a quantum "either/or" state. According to current scientific thinking, though, the photon will actually be in a "both, but in separate universes" state! Within seconds, Universe Splitter will report to you which of those two universes you’re in, and by taking a different action in each, you will cause these otherwise identical universes to diverge.

 

[rsk]

Thanks, useful article.

I'm currently trying to put together a few 'practicals' that secondary school (middle and high to US readers) students can do at home during school closure. Right now I've got a few ideas in mind using mainly Phyphox and also something called Physics toolbox.

Once done, I'll share anything useful here.