31 January
21 January
Here are two applets students may like to try:
A. The first is a simple “experiment” showing that the extension of a spring is proportional to the force applied:
http://www.absorblearning.com/media/attachment.action?quick=5l&att=394
B. For the second applet, you can try:
- looking for the unknown masses.
- observing the potential energy at different extensions of each spring.
- varying the gravitational field strength.
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/mass-spring-lab/mass-spring-lab_en.html
15 January
I find this video easy to understand and it may be useful for students to appreciate the wave property of matter and how it is observed via interference. The video ends with a mind-boggling problem that when an attempt to detect the path of the electron, it goes back to behaving as a particle.
There’s a whole series of “What the Bleep” videos that you might want to check out also. Be careful though, the rabbit hole is pretty deep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc
Quoting from another website on what could have happened to each electron and to make the problem clearer (and hence more confusing):
The possibilities are: 1) the electron went through the left slit; or 2) the electron went through the right slit; or 3) the electron went through both slits. For the sake of logical rigor, we should add the possibility that 4) the electron went through neither slit (that is, it found some other way to get to the back wall). Now, one problem with possibility number 3 — a single electron going through both slits — is that, in nature, there is no such thing as half an electron. So if we found half an electron at both slits, we would have something really new; but that has to be a distinct possibility, considering that, in order to create the apparent interference pattern, something would have to radiate from both slits.
How are we going to find out? Well, we are going to put an electron detector at each slit. The electron detectors at the slits will be devices to keep watch over the passage through the slit. Every time an electron (or part of an electron) goes through, the detector will give a holler, “Hey, an electron (or part of an electron) just went through.” In this way, we will be able to learn something about how the electrons get through the barrier in a double slit experiment.
As it turns out, when you put the electron detectors at the slits, the result is that the electron is always detected at one slit or the other slit. It is never found going through both slits. And it is never found going through neither slit. You send one electron through, you find it at one of the slits. We have eliminated possibilities number 3 (both slits) and number 4 (neither slit). The only results we find are possibilities number 1 (left slit) or number 2 (right slit), in equal proportions.
They call this phenomenon the measurement effect. When we measure something at the quantum level, the very act of measurement will have an effect on the thing itself.
This is a phenomenon that still has no classical explanation.
Even Richard Feynman called it “a phenomenon which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery.”
13 January
Concept cartoons useful for eliciting rich questioning and classroom dialogue in a non-threatening manner. Speech bubbles can either represent possible problems and questions arising from daily interactions with science or surface alternative concepts of scientific ideas.
Here’s my attempt at doing one! It’s on the Physics topic of forces. There is both truth and error in what each student says. Can you identify them?
If you agree with Michael, how do you reconcile the reason given with the observation that in vacuum, both objects fall to the bottom in the same time despite having different weights?
Stuart Naylor from Milgate House Publishing and Consultancy Ltd will be coming to Singapore from 11 to 12 June 2009 to conduct a Concept Cartoon Workshop for Sec Science Teachers.
Suggested solution
While it is true that in vacuum, both balls will reach the bottom at the same time, in a fluid, there are other forces such as viscous forces (drag) and upthrust. Viscous forces would increase with velocity until the object reaches terminal velocity, when the sum of the upward forces of drag and upthrust and the downward force of weight are equal in magnitude. With the weight of the lead ball being bigger, it will take a longer while for the sum of the upward forces to equal its weight, assuming that both balls have the same acceleration in the beginning. Hence, the terminal velocity of the lead ball is larger than that of the aluminum ball and it will fall faster.
02 January
This demonstration can be modified for use as a magic trick.
Materials:
- Glass of water
- Piece of cardboard that is larger than the mouth of the glass.
Procedure:
- Fill the glass up with water.
- Place the piece of cardboard over the mouth of the glass.
- Holding the cardboard against the mouth of the glass, invert the glass.
- Release the hand slowly.
Explanation
Water can remain in an inverted glass with the piece of cardboard underneath because atmospheric pressure is acting upward on the cardboard, holding it up together with the water. There is little air pressure within the g;ass, so the downward force acting on the cardboard is mainly the weight of the water, which is to the order of several newtons whereas atmospheric pressure exert an upward force of several thousand newtons.
Modification:
- Drill a small hole in a plastic cup, near the base.
- Seal the hole with your thumb and fill the cup with water.
- Place the cardboard over the mouth of the cup.
- Invert the cup together with the cardboard, while keeping your thumb over the hole.
- Using a magic word as the cue, shift your thumb slightly to allow a little air into the cup. This will cause the cardboard and water to fall. As the air pressure within the cup is equal to that of the atmosphere.