Codifying Motion and Messages
Codifying Motion and Messages
Learning Scenario: A Cognitive Test for Candidates for the "Scientific Police Force of Grenoble"
We recently encountered an innovative lesson from the Grenoble Academy on acceleration in the x-, y-, and z-dimension. This scenario-based lesson challenges students to a cognitive examination as candidates for a chief physicist position in the police force. Candidates must use their smartphone's motions, corresponding to a decoding sheet, to match accelerometer graphs and uncover the secret message.
If you do not speak French, you can easily translate it! After downloading the PDF, visit Google Translate, upload the file, and select the language into which you would like it to be translated.
Mercer University Supports Mobile Physics
Mobile device sensors are one way to help schools overcome financial barriers for lab equipment. Learn more about Dr. John Lee and high school physics professor Glenn Harman's collaboration on "Research and Reaches Out" that uses Physics Toolbox to support active learning.
New Features for Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite
We've recently made a number of updates to our Android and iOS Suites:
Stroboscope (Android only)
After being in beta mode for a number of years, Stroboscope mode is now fully operational for the majority of Android users. The Stroboscope controls the camera flash and can be modulated across a range of about 1 to 20 Hz.
Tone Detector (update to iOS)
Suite for iOS now includes a Tone Detector mode. This mode listens for a clear tone, and provides a letter note read-out as well as a frequency percentage representative of the variance in the note with respect to the identified note. The actual frequency read-out will be available in an update in the near future.
Oscilloscope (update to iOS)
Suite for iOS now also includes an oscilloscope, which can be used to make qualitative observations of sound patterns.
Clever Lab Ideas
Don't forget to check out our Lessons Page for nearly 50 ideas!
Create a combined smartphone-computer system to verify Faraday's law using the magnetometer in this Portuguese-language article.
Measure the concentration of colored solutions, like potassium permanganate in water, using the color detector. This Spanish thesis includes this, and many other practical ideas.
Smartphones can provide numerical readouts for low-friction cart experiments. Learn more in this article from Taiwan.
Measure changes in motion of a physical pendulum that is damped by a magnet by attaching it to a smartphone accelerometer.
Physics Toolbox Around the Web
Smartphone accelerometers are particularly helping for modeling transportation vehicles, such as light trains, to minimize vibration and sound.
Enhance the power of smartphone sensors by combining numerical outputs with visual data using open source Tracker software with.
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