Teaching resources

Teaching material

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This section lists all the proposed experiments in a format that has been reviewed and validated by our editorial team. Each experiment in this list has been designed such that it can be performed even at home and/or using readily available or non-expensive material.

Upon clicking on an experiment you can download a zip file containing a PDF version of the proposal and its latex source file. You are free to use, modify, translate in other languages and redistribute the material under the Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International License. We encourage you to share your versions with us. We will soon support other formats and languages.

All the resources are also available through our github repository. Clicking on the picture you will see a PDF preview of the material. To download the source code, click on the button. Check it for other languages, too.

Free Fall

Author: Giovanni Organtini
id: exp-20200902-1-v1

An experiment about free fall. It allows to experimentally test the independence of motion in different directions, as well as to measure the gravity acceleration. Simple, yet effective. Can be done with any smartphone.

mechanics
smartphone

Stevin's Law

Author: Sara Sidoretti
id: exp-20200916-1-v1

This experiment allows to measure the pressure under a fluid (salted water) as a function of the depth. In the proposed version it allows the measurement of the atmospheric pressure, as well as the gravitational acceleration or the density of the fluid. It requires a smartphone equipped with a barometer.

Stevin's law
smartphone

Atmospheric pressure

Author: Sara Sidoretti
id: exp-20200916-2-v1

This experiment is a sort of variation of the experiment on Stevin's Law: it allows to study how the atmospheric pressure changes with altitude and open a discussion about its formulation. Is the increase of the pressure with depth linear? Or its linear behaviour has to be considered a first order approximation? It requires a smartphone equipped with a barometer and is more suitable for university students.

Stevin's law
pressure
smartphone

Light absorption

Author: Michael Rotondo
id: exp-20201012-1-v2

An activity to study how light is attenuated when passing through a medium as a function of its thickness.

optics
smartphone

Accelerations in an elevator

Author: Francesca Sartogo
id: exp-20201217-1-v1

This experiment aims at investigating the physics in non-inertial frames. Remarkably enough, this kind of experiments lead to the formulation of General Relativity.

non-inertial frames
smartphone

The Doppler effect

Authors: Alessandro Ercoli & Cristina Trifolelli
id: exp-20201223-1-v1

This document contains two experiments about the Doppler effect. Suitable for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the wavelength shift. In one case a source/observer is attached to a spring and oscillates; in another the source/observer is on a rotating platform.

wave mechanics
smartphone

Springs dynamics

Author: Viviana Amati
id: exp-20210106-1-v1

An experiment to study the dynamics of a mass attached to a spring, using a smartphone. It uses a magnet as the load mass and the magnetometer to detect the oscillations.

oscillations
smartphone

Standing waves

Authors: Alessandro Ercoli & Cristina Trifolelli
id: exp-20210106-2-v1

Locating nodes and antinodes in standing waves developed in air inside a tube, using a smartphone. No need to have a transparent tube.

waves
smartphone

Acoustic resonance

Author: Frédéric Bouquet
id: exp-20210107-1-v1

Spotting resonating frequencies in a tube (can use either an open tube, like a loo roll, or a closed one, e.g., a glass). It uses a custom experiment in phyphox.

waves
smartphone

Newton's cooling law

Author: Beatriz Padín
id: exp-20210329-1-v1

How can a medical examiner determine the time of death of an individual? By applying Newton's law of heat transfer, which we study in this experiment with Arduino to formulate based on experimental data.

heat
Arduino

Interference from multiple slits

Author: Tommaso Tabarelli de Fatis
id: exp-20210427-1-v1

In this experiment we use a clever device made of a CD or a DVD as a diffraction grating, a smartphone to measure angles (the position of the maxima in the interference pattern) and a second smartphone or a computer camera to detect the various wavelengths.

light and waves
smartphone

Speed of sound

Author: Noemi Tinti
id: exp-20210625-1-v1

Measure the speed of sound by blowing on the opening of an open or closed tube and measuring the frequency of the sound produced

sound and waves
smartphone

Measuring the magnetic field with a smartphone

The Biot-Savart's Law

Authors: Pietro Cicuta & Giovanni Organtini
id: exp-20230609-1-v1

An experiment to determine the characteristics of the magnetic field generated by a current in a straight wire, and to locate the magnetic sensor inside a smartphone.

electromagnetism
smartphone

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