High School and Undergraduate Physics Practicals

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.

• 1 Millikan’s oil drop experiment 2 Planck’s constant 3 Rutherford’s gold foil experiment 4 Measuring the acceleration due to gravity 5 Average velocity using an AirTrack 6 Determining acceleration using an AirTrack 7 Confirmation of Newton’s second law 8 Showing conservation of energy using an AirTrack 9 Conservation of momentum in an inelastic collision using an AirTrack 10 Hooke’s Law 11 Young’s modulus 12 Velocity of rifle shell using a ballistic balance 13 Simple pendulum 14 Simple Harmonic Motion using a mass-spring system 15 Capacitor charge and discharge 16 The internal resistance of a dry cell 17 The IV characteristics of a diode 18 The IV characteristics of a filament lightbulb 19 The Resistivity of constantan 20 Resistors in Series and Parallel 21 Heat Transfer 22 Boyle’s law 23 Charles’s law 24 Mechanical equivalent of heat 25 Specific heat capacity of brass 26 Investigation of mechanical waves 27 Measuring the speed of water ripples 28 Infrared Radiation 29 Diffraction using a monochromatic laser 30 Inverse square law for gamma radiation 31 Refraction of light 32 Magnetic field due to a coil of wire 33 Investigation of magnetic flux of a current carrying wire 34 Magnetic flux linkage