DEMONSTRATIONS UPDATE FALL 2009

PHYSICS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

DON'T JUST TALK ABOUT IT DO SOMETHING

Most of the demonstrations available are described in the Demonstration section of the Physics Department web site (www.physics.auburn.edu, Introductory Courses menu). Some new and changed demonstrations are described below. Astronomy and Modern Physics sections have been added since site was created. During the summer and fall of 2006 a large number of changes were made to mechanics, E&M, fluids, and thermodynamics sections. Other sections were changed later. The demonstration part of the department web site has been redone using a program called Joomla!.

CHANGES TO DEMONSTRATIONS ON WEB SITE AND TO EQUIPMENT

RECENT CHANGES

1. Ruben's Tube. Demonstrate standing waves in sound by burning propane in a tube. Tube has holes in side. Height of flames depends on position of nodes and antinodes. Function generator drives speaker placed at end of tube.

2. Euler disk available. As it spins it slowly falls over so gravitational potential energy becomes rotational kinetic energy and keeps it spinning longer.

3. New device to demonstrate pressure versus volume relation for ideal gas.

4. Green plug in laser and 3 times brighter red laser available.

5. Device that produces 5 laser beams for use in ray tracing available.

6. Meteorites and sextant avai;able for use in astronomy.

7. New vibrator for use with standing wave demonstration. Use longer string setup on front desk.

8. New Faraday cage.

9. Smaller and easier to use Tesla coil.

10. Small torch to heat ball and rod used in effect of heat on length demonstrations.

11. New device to show conversion of gravitational PE to rotary KE. Position of masses can be varied to show effect on rate of rotation.

12. New device to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum. Shows why a helicopter needs tail rotor.

13. A cloud chamber is availabe to show alpha ray tracks. It takes ~ 15 min to cool enough for tracks to form.

14. We know have a flex camera to show closeup of small demonstrations on movie screen. It can be used to show tracks in our cloud chamber.

15. Ripple tank for demonstrating wave behaviour.

16. A V shaped trough can be used in the eddy cuurent demonstration instead of hiding magnet inside tube. The students can see magnet slowly moving. 

17. New ring launcher. It has transformer attachment that will light up flashlight bulb.

18. A metal detector can be used as an application of eddy currents.

19. Balance rod. Which is more stable? Rod with weight near hand or rod with weight on end away from hand.

20. Motor driven model of solar system available for astronomy class or lab.

21. Calculate and measure period of physical pendulum (ring on knife edge). Periods agree to within .02 sec. Also baseball bat and meter stick version of physical pendulum available.

22. Terminal velocity can be demonstrated by dropping objects in long tube and observe they stop accelerating.

23. Circuit available to show energy neeeded to produce photons is related to color (frequency)

24. Flystick brand portable Van de Graff can be used to move thin pieces of aluminum around in the air (repulsive force of like charges). 

25. As an attention getting but messy way of introducing fluids try this. Put a warm 2 liter bottle of diet Coke in the sink. Add 2 pieces of Mentos candy. Get out of the way. The contents will shoot up in the air. You may want to move students away from sink. Have a towel available. This is not a chemical reaction.The carbon dioxide rapidly leaves the liquid. Physicists still debating surface tension reduction versus nucleation sites. Bring your own diet Coke. Mentos in stock.

Older Changes You May Have Missed

1.Two new heat engines are available to demonstate heat engine operating between different temperatures. One is a simple Sterling engine that operates between room temperature and say a hot cup of coffee. The other one uses a temperature difference to produce enough electricity to run a small motor.
2. Constant speed cart versus accelerated cart available.
3. A new device is available to measure speeds such as Bozack's hand just before it hits the board in his karate demonstration.
4. Fur is available for use in electrostatics.Use at your own risk. Not responsible for attacks by animal rights advocates.
5. A safer and better looking Jacob's ladder device is available to replace homemade version. Use as visual aid in talking about voltage, resistance, lightning and hot air rising.
6. A CD containing the black and white movie of muon decay in atmosphere showing special relativity effect on time is available. Some of you may have seen this movie as a student. Length ~ 35 minutes.
7. Device to visually demonstrate current flow is available. It could be used with generators and motors. 
8. New Power of Ten Video. Somewhere between galaxies and atom, pause to look at satellite photo of Southeast. This is on a web site. Go to http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/.
9. A ratemeter with sound is available to replace the increasingly erratic geiger counter.
10. Glycerin is available for making soap films last longer. Anisole back in stock for use in disappearing eyedropper demo.
11. A new version of the setup to show electric field between parallel plates is in use. A power supply is used to supply high voltage rather than Van de Graff generator.
12. Visual Acceleration Cart. Leds on the side of the cart show amount of acceleration. Red and green to show direction. Put on inclined plane to show how component of gravity along incline decreases as angle decreases.
13. For those who want to make a laser beam visible but don't want to mess up everything with chalk dust, we now have "fog in a can".
14. A video tape of the physics of car crashes is available. Emphasis on momentum.
15. "Buzzing " magnets available. Toss them in air. They will attract each other and come together making sound. Useful as visual aid to start section on magnetism.
16. Two plasma devices are available that produce miniature lightning bolts. Pattern changes if you touch device. Smaller battery powered version can be passed around.
17. A flashlight is available that uses a capacitor charged up by moving a magnet back and forth through a coil instead of batteries. Uses the idea that an EMF is induced in the coil by changing magnetic field (one of Faraday's contributions to E&M).
18 A solar powered vehicle is available for use in discussing energy transformation: light>electricity>kinetic + friction.
19. A fan cart is now available. Air from fan can be partly or completely blocked. Which way will it move? Think about momentum conservation.
20. New devices are available to show magnetic field around single wire, coil & solenoid. These are for use on overhead projector and use small transparent base compasses to show field.

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