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Feb 2005

Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 68-128

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Simple Demonstration of the Earth's Magnetic Field

Samuel Derman

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 68 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus

Upright Homopolar Motor

David Kagan

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 68 | Cited 3 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus

Balancing Sticks and Reaction Times Revisited

Robert H. Romer

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 68

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus

The Astronomical Unit

Jay M. Pasachoff

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 69

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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95.10.Jk Astrometry and reference systems
01.40.-d Education
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New AAPT President — Richard W. Peterson

Thomas Greenlee

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 70

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.10.Cr Announcements, news, and awards
01.60.+q Biographies, tributes, personal notes, and obituaries
01.40.-d Education
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Primal Inquiry: Making Stuff Work

Dick Peterson

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 72

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus
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Absorption Spectra

Paul Hewitt

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 74

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.40.-d Education
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Collaborative Competition? A Great Way to Teach and Motivate

Tony Romanello

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 76 | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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In my physics classes, I strive to motivate my students to do their very best work and inspire them to work harder than they have ever been asked to before. To reach that level, I find that my students need an outside motivation. They need to have someone from outside of their education community judge their skills and efforts. I have found that participation in team competitions provides students with the motivation to excel and also has the benefits of teaching students to work in a team setting. Thanks to several science-oriented organizations, there are a number of what I like to call “collaborative competitions” just begging for our students to enter, compete, and yes, even win! In this paper, I will describe some of the competitions my students have participated in and provide some tips for other teachers who may want to do likewise.
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01.40.G- Curricula and evaluation
FREE

Teaching E = mc2: Mass Without Mass

Art Hobson

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 80 | Cited 4 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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The mass-energy relation is, according to Einstein, the most important result of the special theory of relativity.1 Many educators have called for the inclusion of more such “modern” (post-1900) physics in our introductory courses.2 Although we frequently treat E = mc2 as a simple numerical relation, useful for solving nuclear physics problems, it is more important to discuss what this equation means. What can it tell us about the nature of energy and matter? Does rest mass arise purely from the energy of force fields? It seems not to be widely recognized that the answer to this last question is now known, at least for 90% of the mass of ordinary matter, to be “yes.”
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01.40.G- Curricula and evaluation
03.30.+p Special relativity

Of Orbits, Conics, and Grammar

Hugh Henderson

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 84 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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In the half-dozen or so years leading up to the publication of the Principia, Isaac Newton observed the comets of 1680 and 1682 and wrestled with the extent to which his law of gravitation could be applied. In time, he would see the connections between the four possible orbits of a satellite (circular, elliptical, parabolic, and hyperbolic) and the four curves produced by the careful carving of a cone. But if we look a little further into the conic sections, we find some interesting connections among the natural orbit of a satellite, ancient mathematics, and the roots of familiar words. Illuminating these connections for introductory physics students may help them to better understand the role of language and mathematics in the descriptions of science.
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01.65.+g History of science
01.70.+w Philosophy of science
FREE

Prescribing Eyeglasses for Myopia and Hyperopia

Michael J. Ruiz

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 88 | Cited 6 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Most eyeglass prescriptions are given for patients with one of two common visual problems: myopia and hyperopia. Myopia is the condition where the eye cannot clearly focus on far objects; e.g., one can't easily see the blackboard from the back of the room. Hyperopia refers to problems seeing close up, e.g., difficulty reading the newspaper. Physics enables us to estimate the prescription of eyeglasses quickly from data anyone can gather. The beauty of the method derives from the fact that you do not need to know anything about the detailed structure of the eye's compound lens system and biological media. This is due to the fact that eyeglasses are corrective.
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42.66.Si Psychophysics of vision, visual perception; binocular vision
01.40.-d Education

The Dizzying Depths of the Cylindrical Mirror

Alan J. DeWeerd and S. Eric Hill

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 90 | Cited 5 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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A typical introduction to geometrical optics treats plane and spherical mirrors. At first glance, it may be surprising that texts seldom mention the cylindrical mirror, except for the occasional reference to use in fun houses and to viewing anamorphic art.1,2 However, even a cursory treatment reveals its complexity. Holzberlein used an extended object to qualitatively illustrate that images are produced both before and behind a concave cylindrical mirror.3 He also speculated on how this extreme astigmatism results in an observer's dizziness. By considering a simple point object, we make a more detailed analysis of the cylindrical mirror and the dizziness it induces. First, we illustrate how rays from a point object reflect to form not one point image but two line images. Next, we describe how an observer perceives a likeness of the object. Finally, we suggest how confusing depth cues induce dizziness. Although we focus on the concave cylindrical mirror, the discussion is easy to generalize to the convex cylindrical mirror.
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42.79.Bh Lenses, prisms and mirrors
42.66.Si Psychophysics of vision, visual perception; binocular vision
01.40.-d Education
FREE

How About a Magnet and a Paper Clip?

Hans Pfister

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 95 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Physics education research shows that many introductory physics students have difficulties fully grasping Newton's third law.1 This is exacerbated when we ask for the validity of Newton's third law in areas outside of mechanics, such as electrostatics or magnetostatics. Undoubtedly, there is a difference between hearing about something and actually seeing or feeling it. Students can be told that two forces are equal and opposite but this by no means implies that they are convinced this is indeed the case. Some students respond with the correct answer but still harbor a remnant of doubt that the forces might not be the same.
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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
45.05.+x General theory of classical mechanics of discrete systems

Maximizing the Range of a Projectile Launched by a Simple Pendulum

D. Bittel

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 98

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Maximizing the range of a projectile is a common problem. For a projectile launched at angle θ, with fixed speed v from ground level, the range equation is
math
The angle that maximizes this range, θm, is 45°. Calculations for the more realistic, and complicated, case of a projectile launched from a height h have appeared in a number of places.1–4 The range equation is
math
The angle that maximizes this range is
math
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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
45.40.Gj Ballistics (projectiles; rockets)

Curriculum Reform and Professional Development in San Diego City Schools

Joseph A. Taylor, Janet Carlson Powell, David R. Van Dusen, Bonnie J. Schindler, Bill Pearson, Dan Lavine, and Kim Bess

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 102 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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In the spring of 2001, the San Diego City Schools (SDCS) initiated a science reform program that involved several significant changes. The first was to resequence the science courses to have students take physics first (in ninth grade), followed by chemistry, then biology. Second was a change in the students' high school graduation requirement to specifically name physics, chemistry, and biology as being required. Physics is now required for all freshmen in 18 SDCS high schools. These new regulations align with the University of California's recommendation of three years of laboratory science for freshman admission. To accommodate the dramatic increase in physics enrollment that resulted from these changes, SDCS needed to augment its existing physics faculty. The only option was to ask approximately 40 “out-of-discipline” (credentialed in science but not in physics) teachers from the district to teach ninth-grade physics.
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01.40.G- Curricula and evaluation

Inductively Modeling Parallel, Normal, and Frictional Forces

Edward P. Wyrembeck

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 107

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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This year, instead of resolving the weight mg of an object resting on an incline into force components parallel and perpendicular to the surface of the incline, I asked my students to actually measure these forces at various angles of inclination and graph the data. I wanted my students to inductively discover mg sin θ and mg cos θ, and to use these graphs to confront the passive nature of the static frictional force.1 I believe the graphs themselves are very powerful conceptual tools that are often never discovered and used by students who only learn to use equations at specific angles to solve specific quantitative problems.
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01.40.Fk Research in physics education
01.50.Pa Laboratory experiments and apparatus

Using the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Frank A. Settle, Elizabeth R. Blackmer, and Thomas P. Whaley

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 111

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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A valuable resource for physics, the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues1 (see Fig. 1) is well worth an exploratory visit by teachers of introductory physics and their students. It provides a searchable collection of vetted annotations of references including books, articles, films, websites, and CD-ROMs. While many of those resources focus on the history of nuclear physics and its applications to weapons and nuclear power production, the library also contains materials on the military, social, geopolitical, and cultural consequences of those applications.
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01.50.ht Instructional computer use
01.30.Xx Publications in electronic media

Projectile Motion Without Trigonometric Functions

Pirooz Mohazzabi and Zahra A. Kohneh

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 114 | Cited 2 times

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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In this paper we provide a treatment of projectile motion that is accessible to students who are unfamiliar with trigonometry but do have a minimal knowledge of elementary algebra and know the Pythagorean theorem. In this approach, we view the initial velocity of the projectile as being a combination of a vertical part (component) v0V and a horizontal component v0H (see Fig. 1). This is in contrast to the usual approach of taking the initial speed v0 and the launch angle as being given. We let the initial position be the origin and neglect air drag. Assuming that the constant acceleration kinematics equations are known, we may write
math
and the horizontal distance traveled is
math
where t is the elapsed time. We also have
math
where g is the magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity. And the vertical displacement is
math
These equations may be used to find the location and velocity of the projectile at any time t. We can also find the equation of the path of the projectile by combining Eq. [1(b)] and Eq. [2(b)] to get
math
which is the equation of a concave-down parabola.
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45.40.Gj Ballistics (projectiles; rockets)
01.40.-d Education
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Physics for Poets?

Erlend H. Graf

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 118

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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“Slowly the hour-hand of the clock moves round; So slowly that no human eye hath power To see it move …!”1
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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
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Pocket Solar System

Cliff Swartz

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 120

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
96.10.+i General; solar nebula; cosmogony
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Oscilloscope Display of Current-Voltage Curves

M. Camden

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 121 | Cited 1 time

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01.50.My Demonstration experiments and apparatus
07.07.Hj Display and recording equipment, oscilloscopes, TV cameras, etc.
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The Meeting Is Canceled (F1)

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 122

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01.40.-d Education
FREE

When Push Comes to Shove (F2)

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 122

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01.40.-d Education
FREE

The Spring in the Winter (F3)

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 122

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01.40.-d Education
FREE

Mercury on Earth (F4)

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 122

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01.40.-d Education
FREE

Celebrate the World Year of Physics in style! Solve some physics puzzles!

Boris Korsunsky

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 123

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.40.-d Education
01.10.Hx Physics organizational activities
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Learning to Listen to What Your Students Say

Patricia Blanton

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 124

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Have you worked for hours on your lectures yet feel you were the only one listening when you delivered them? (The snoring from the back of the room was your first clue.) Have you lamented your frustration when your assessments show the students did not develop a good understanding of the concept about which you delivered that brilliant lecture? (Students cry, “You never gave us a problem like that!”) Have you spent hours developing demonstrations only to find that students remember the demo but not the concept you were trying to illustrate? (“I remember that you didn't get hurt on that bed of nails but I don't remember why.”) The lecture format that you experienced throughout most of your education just is not working for most of the learners in your classroom. It's your turn to be the one helping others to understand, and you are struggling with identifying techniques that work.
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01.40.Fk Research in physics education
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Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: The Mechanical Universe

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids

Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: More electric fields

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids

Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: Movies of electrostatics experiments

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids

Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: Building electric motors

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids
84.50.+d Electric motors

Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: 400 years of W. Gilbert's De Magnete

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids
01.65.+g History of science

Web Resources for Teaching Introductory Electric and Magnetic Fields: The MIT TEAL Physics 8.02 Electricity & Magnetism Project

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids

Two non-E&M-specific website announcements recently sent to WebSights include: The CoolStuff Physics Demo Archives at Arbor Scientific

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.50.F- Audio and visual aids

Two non-E&M-specific website announcements recently sent to WebSights include: The Skyserver Archive of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Dan MacIsaac

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 126

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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95.80.+p Astronomical catalogs, atlases, sky surveys, databases, retrieval systems, archives, etc.
01.50.F- Audio and visual aids
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God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe: Amir D. Aczel and The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos: Robert P. Kirshner

Marvin L. De Jong

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 128

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Vv Book reviews
98.80.-k Cosmology

MicroReviews by the Book Review Editor: Are Universes Thicker than Blackberries?: Discourses on Gödel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscience Topics: Martin Gardner

John L. Hubisz

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 128

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Vv Book reviews
01.55.+b General physics
01.70.+w Philosophy of science

MicroReviews by the Book Review Editor: Alien Vision: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum with Imaging Technology: Austin Richards

John L. Hubisz

The Physics Teacher -- February 2005 -- Volume 43, Issue 2, pp. 128

Online Publication Date: Jan 2005

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Abstract Unavailable
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01.30.Vv Book reviews
41.20.-q Applied classical electromagnetism
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