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May 2003

Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 260-312

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Work Reworked Problem

Jeffrey Wetherhold

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 260 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.55.+b General physics
01.40.-d Education

Work and Potential Energy

Richard Mancuso

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 260 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.55.+b General physics
01.40.-d Education

Work Reworked, Author Response

Robin Jordan

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 260 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.55.+b General physics
01.40.-d Education

Bridge Oscillations Reference

Albert Allen Bartlett

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 261

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.40.E- Science in school
89.20.Kk Engineering
47.85.Gj Aerodynamics

Drag Forces

A. John Mallinckrodt

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 261 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.40.E- Science in school
01.55.+b General physics

Drag Forces, Authors' Response

Michael C. LoPresto and Paul R. Holody

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 262 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.40.E- Science in school
01.55.+b General physics
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Correction: “The History and Fate of the Universe: A guide to accompany the Contemporary Physics Education Cosmology Chart” [Phys. Teach. 41 (3), 146–155 (2003)]

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 262 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.40.E- Science in school
98.80.Bp Origin and formation of the Universe
99.10.Cd Errata
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Acknowledging Our Referees

Karl C. Mamola

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 264

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.-y Physics literature and publications
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Overheating Motor

Paul Hewitt

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 266 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
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Galileo's Lens

Harry Manos

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 268

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Most visitors to Florence, Italy, know about the Galleria dell'Accademia, housing Michelangelo's famous statue of David, or the Galleria degli Uffizi with the famous Medici collection. Few visitors know that only two blocks from the Uffizi on the Arno River is one of the world's finest museums featuring historic scientific instruments, the Museo di Storia della Scienza. In the February issue of TPT, Nickell states that the Museo di Storia della Scienza “is perhaps the best museum on the history of science in the world.”1 This fact is likely true, and the museum is a must for physics teachers visiting Florence. It features a vast collection of authentic “cutting-edge” scientific instruments, including one of Galileo's lenses in a magnificent ebony and ivory frame. One of the tragedies is that this museum goes unmarked on many tourist maps and unmentioned in many guidebooks.
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01.65.+g History of science
01.30.Vv Book reviews
95.90.+v Historical astronomy and archaeoastronomy; and other topics in fundamental astronomy and astrophysics; instrumentation, techniques, and astronomical observations
01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
01.75.+m Science and society
01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
42.79.Bh Lenses, prisms and mirrors

The Doctor Is In

Chris Chiaverina

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 270

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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In 1999, Tung Jeong, professor emeritus at Lake Forest College, spent a week at New Trier High School as scientist-in-residence. During this time, he met with physics students and staff in both large and small groups to discuss the art and science of holography. As a result of a workshop he presented to our physics teachers, more than 700 physics students now make reflection holograms annually. In conjunction with his visit, he displayed some of his most spectacular holograms in our school's art gallery. Many visitors to the gallery were convinced that the disarmingly real-looking images were actually objects displayed behind glass. One hologram in particular fooled almost everyone.
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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
42.40.-i Holography

Comparison of Different Commercial Wireless Keypad Systems

Ray A. Burnstein and Leon M. Lederman

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 272 | Cited 11 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Wireless keypad systems have been in limited use for the past 10 years in the classroom.1,2 Such systems can be used to quiz students in real time during the class, thus engaging students more directly in the lecture.3 Nonetheless, until recently widespread use of such keypad systems has been limited for several reasons. First, the original systems were relatively expensive but perhaps more important was the reluctance on the part of faculty to change the existing passive lecture format.4,5 However, problems associated with large lecture classes6 and the validation of the concept of “interactive engagement” from the high-statistics study of Hake7 has changed the opinions of many. In addition the desirability of peer learning,8 which is enhanced with a response system, has also been accepted. At the present time a number of commercial systems are available. The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison and summary of what is commercially available9 and a reminder that keypads are a dramatically effective teaching and learning tool.
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01.50.ht Instructional computer use
01.40.G- Curricula and evaluation
89.20.Ff Computer science and technology

The Speed of Light: Making an Easy Time of It

Burt Brody

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 276

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Time-of-flight measurements of the speed of light in air are conceptually easy. The outgoing modulated light from a HeNe laser and the returned light from a distant reflector may be sampled using two photodetectors. The two signals can be displayed on a reasonably fast dual-trace oscilloscope to determine the transit time. In practice, however, obtaining a satisfactory return beam from the distant mirror can be difficult. I have found that, with a few hours of setup time, a common garden reflector may be used as the distant “mirror,” along with a large plastic Fresnel lens to collect the somewhat dispersed returned light, to determine the speed of light in air to within 10%.
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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
06.30.Gv Velocity, acceleration, and rotation
42.25.-p Wave optics

Improved Bell-in-a-Bell-Jar Demonstration

Dejun Han

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 278 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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It is well understood in acoustics that a medium is required to conduct sound. Stated in another way, sound is not transmitted through a vacuum. The earliest person to test this experimentally was the Irish physicist Robert Boyle (1627–1691).1 In his experiment, he put a ringing bell under a glass cover called a bell jar. After the air was pumped out, the ringing disappeared. This convinced him that sound cannot be conducted in vacuum. Here we describe an improved version of this demonstration.
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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
43.58.Dj Sound velocity

Some Pivotal Thoughts on the Current Balance

K. A. Fletcher, S. V. Iyer, and K. F. Kinsey

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 280 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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The current balance is an excellent device for demonstrating the force on a current-carrying wire. By considering the electrons flowing through the wires and applying some geometrical analysis, we can gain a better understanding of why the wire moves, how the current is distributed in the wires, and why the simplifying assumptions of the force law apply to this realistic situation.
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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
41.20.-q Applied classical electromagnetism

The Answer Is Forty-Two — Many Mechanics Problems, Only One Answer

Robert H. Romer

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 286 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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The answer is 42, actually 42 minutes, but what was the question? There are, in fact, a number of physics questions, not at first glance closely related to one another, to which 42 minutes (or perhaps 84 minutes) is the answer. This paper was prompted by one such question, a Figuring Physics item in a recent issue of this journal,1 which called for a description of the motion of a block released on a flat frictionless plate tangent to the Earth's surface. The correct answer given in Figuring Physics was that “the block will oscillate to and fro,”2 but I was disappointed to see that the time of oscillation was not called for. So let us refine the question: “For small-amplitude oscillations, how long does it take for the block to travel from one extreme to the other, i.e., what is the half-period of the motion?” This is the question (actually just one of the questions) to which the answer is 42 minutes, as we can readily calculate. Those who are familiar with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [Douglas Adams (Harmony Books, New York, 1979)] will understand why I chose to ask initially for the half period (42 min) rather than asking the more obvious question, “What is the period?”3
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01.40.G- Curricula and evaluation
45.50.Dd General motion

Vibrating Wire Loop and the Bohr Model

Danning Bloom and Dan W. Bloom

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 292 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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PASCO scientific1 has designed a vibration apparatus that includes a mechanical driver used to excite vibrations in various systems. One of these is a circular wire loop, which PASCO suggests can be used as a visual representation of the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom. In this paper we investigate the similarity between the wire loop and the Bohr atom.
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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
46.40.Cd Mechanical wave propagation (including diffraction, scattering, and dispersion)
31.10.+z Theory of electronic structure, electronic transitions, and chemical binding

Estimating the Earth's Magnetic Field Strength with an Extension Cord

Roland Berger and Markus Schmitt

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 295 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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While rotating an extension cord in the Earth's magnetic field, an electric voltage is induced at its ends. This simple setup leads to an estimation of the Earth's magnetic field's strength in a basic electrodynamics course.
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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
41.20.Gz Magnetostatics; magnetic shielding, magnetic induction, boundary-value problems
91.25.-r Geomagnetism and paleomagnetism; geoelectricity

Some Simple Black Hole Thermodynamics

Michael C. LoPresto

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 299 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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See Also: Erratum

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In his recent popular book The Universe in a Nutshell, Steven Hawking gives expressions for the entropy1 and temperature (often referred to as the “Hawking temperature”2 ) of a black hole:3
math
math
where A is the area of the event horizon, M is the mass, k is Boltzmann's constant, ℏ = math (h being Planck's constant), c is the speed of light, and G is the universal gravitational constant. These expressions can be used as starting points for some interesting approximations on the thermodynamics of a Schwarzschild black hole, of mass M, which by definition is nonrotating and spherical with an event horizon of radius
math
4,5
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04.70.Dy Quantum aspects of black holes, evaporation, thermodynamics
97.60.Lf Black holes
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Rotational Collision Apparatus for Indoor Egg Drops

Richard Halada

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 305 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Our units about momentum and energy are richly illustrated with applications to car crashes and explanations of such safety features as airbags and crumple zones. The main lab exercise, however, is an egg crash (car insurance rates being so much higher). Fairly standard rules apply: Students must devise an “egg-protection package” that will keep a teacher-supplied egg intact through two successive impacts. After the test, they must hand in a written analysis of the specific physics principles they employed, modifications they would make after seeing their project's actual performance, and suggestions for applying their protection system to auto safety.
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01.40.E- Science in school
01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
45.50.Tn Collisions
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A Pocket Electrostatics Demonstration

Dave Van Domelen

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 306

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
41.20.Cv Electrostatics; Poisson and Laplace equations, boundary-value problems
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Displaying Magnetic Forces Produced by Currents [Phys. Teach. 10(6), 340 (1972)]

James J. D'Amario and Salvatore J. Rodano

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 307

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
41.20.-q Applied classical electromagnetism
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Lake Placid

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 308

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.40.Fk Research in physics education

Ultimate Excitement

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 308

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.40.Fk Research in physics education

Home Plate

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 308

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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01.40.Fk Research in physics education
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Doing Science

Patricia Blanton

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 309

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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At a recent conference on “Linking science in the classroom to science in the laboratory,” Timothy Slater of the University of Arizona reminded the attendees that science is a verb and that science is constructed by those who do it. As he emphasized the need for using real data for doing and teaching science, I thought about the ways we introduce concepts to students and the tasks we ask them to perform.
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01.40.E- Science in school
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The Physics Teacher Online, http://www.aapt.org/tpt

Andrew Graham

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 311

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Xx Publications in electronic media
01.20.+x Communication forms and techniques (written, oral, electronic, etc.)

PERC Proceedings Online, http://piggy.rit.edu/franklin/PERC_2001_Proceedings.html http://piggy.rit.edu/franklin/PERC_2002_Proceedings.html

Scott Franklin

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 311

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Xx Publications in electronic media
01.20.+x Communication forms and techniques (written, oral, electronic, etc.)

Physics News Update, http://www.aip.org/physnews/update/

Andrew Graham

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 311

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.20.+x Communication forms and techniques (written, oral, electronic, etc.)
01.10.Cr Announcements, news, and awards
01.10.Hx Physics organizational activities

Physical Review Focus, http://focus.aps.org/

Andrew Graham

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 311

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.20.+x Communication forms and techniques (written, oral, electronic, etc.)
01.30.Xx Publications in electronic media

SciTechResources.gov, http://www.scitechresources.gov/ Science.gov, http://www.Science.gov

Andrew Graham

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 311

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.20.+x Communication forms and techniques (written, oral, electronic, etc.)
01.30.Xx Publications in electronic media
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A Portrait of the Rainbow—The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science, by Raymond L. Lee Jr. and Alistair B. Fraser

Alan J. DeWeerd

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 312

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Vv Book reviews
01.30.mp Textbooks for undergraduates
42.25.Fx Diffraction and scattering
42.25.Gy Edge and boundary effects; reflection and refraction

A Short History of Physics Through the Eyes of Hydrogen: Hydrogen: The Essential Element, by John S. Rigden

John L. Hubisz

The Physics Teacher -- May 2003 -- Volume 41, Issue 5, pp. 312

Online Publication Date: Apr 2003

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Vv Book reviews
01.65.+g History of science
32.00.00 Atomic properties and interactions with photons
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