PHYSICS 161

PHYSICS 161

Selected Demonstrations arranged by chapter in Tipler: Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Third Edition

Chapter 1: Systems of Measurement

A1-31 VOLUME MEASURE DEMONSTRATION
A1-11 LENGTHS - METER AND YARD
A1-01 MASSES - KILOGRAM AND POUND
Lets students see and feel relative sizes of English and metric units.
Video POWERS OF TEN - 1978 (on videodisc)

Chapter 2: Motion One Dimension

C2-01 AIR TRACK - CONSTANT VELOCITY AND UNIFORM ACCELERATION
Kinematics of uniform acceleration studied by accelerating a glider by a weight over a pulley.
C4-33 FREE FALL IN VACUUM - FEATHER AND BALL
Classic "Guinea and Feather" experiment.
C2-06 BALL DROP ON ROPE - EQUAL AND UNEQUAL INTERVALS
Series of balls on string with geometric spacing drop at equal time intervals.

Chapter 3: Motion in Two and Three Dimensions

A2-21 MAGNETIC VECTOR BOARD
Movable magnetic vectors which stick to the lecture hall blackboards.
A2-23 VECTOR PRODUCT
Three-dimensional model of vector product with variable angle and magnitude of vector product.
A2-33 DIRECTION COSINES MODEL
Three-dimensional model - dispels geometry myths about projections of vectors.
C2-41 VECTOR ADDITION OF VELOCITIES
Ball struck with equal impulses in the x and the y directions moves off at 45 degrees.
Loop: VECTOR ADDITION - VELOCITY OF A BOAT
Show film loop on blackboard and draw vectors for boat velocity and river current, then show how they add in several circumstances.
C2-21 BALLS DROPPED AND SHOT
Shows independence of horizontal and vertical coordinates.
C2-22 MONKEY AND HUNTER
Monkey drops when bullet is shot directly at him, so the bullet always hits him.
C2-25 FUNNEL CART
Ball projected vertically from cart moving with a constant velocity drops back into the funnel.
C2-27 FUNNEL CART ON INCLINE
Do Funnel Cart demonstration on an inclined track; have students calculate whether or not ball will fall back into funnel.

Chapter 4: Newton's Laws I

C3-12 PENCIL AND PLYWOOD
A pencil is accelerated to high speed using a CO2 fire extinguisher and impaled on a piece of plywood.
C4-02 AIR TRACK - A=F/M
Illustrates 2nd law with various masses and forces.
C5-01 NEWTON'S THIRD LAW - STATIC DYNAMOMETERS
Simple demo of action/reaction for static case.
C4-43 TERMINAL VELOCITY - STACKED COFFEE FILTERS
Simple yet elegant demonstration of viscous forces and terminal velocity.
C4-51 WEIGHTLESSNESS IN FREE FALL - MASS IN BEAKER
A 100g mass is attached to the inside of an inverted plastic beaker by a rubber band, which pulls mass into beaker when system is dropped.
B2-03 EQUILIBRIUM OF FORCES - INCLINED PLANE
Body on smooth inclined plane in equilibrium with weight hanging over pulley.
D1-35 CENTRIPETAL FORCE - ROTATING MASS
Measure centripetal force vs. angular speed.

Chapter 5: Newton's Laws II

C6-02 INCLINED PLANE - FRICTION BLOCK
Measure coefficient of sliding friction and show that static friction is greater than sliding friction.
C6-11 SLIDING FRICTION - LECTURE TABLE AND FELT
Show quantitatively that static friction greater than sliding friction.
C6-12 SKIDDING AUTOMOBILE
Car slides backward when rear tires are locked.
C6-14 SOCIAL CLIMBER
Friction toy with nice force analysis.
C4-21 ATWOOD MACHINE
Determine acceleration of weights or value of g.
C4-22 HORIZONTAL ATWOOD MACHINE
Measure decrease in tension in string during acceleration.
D1-51 BANKED CURVE MODEL
Geometry for force analysis of car on banked curve.

Chapter 6: Work and Energy

A2-41 LINE INTEGRAL MODEL
Large model of line integral on 3d xyz coordinate axes.
B4-01 HOOKE'S LAW
B4-03 SPRINGS IN SERIES AND PARALLEL
Features of springs used in succeeding topics.
C8-04 HILL TRACK
Illustrates transformation between kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy.
C2-09 RACING BALLS
Let students predict results of ball race on straight and dipped tracks. Nice analysis.
D1-53 LOOP-THE-LOOP
Illustrates forces and energy conservation. (Also good in Chap 12)
C8-03 GALILEO'S PENDULUM
Pendulum bob rises to same height for any radius.
C8-01 GIANT PENDULUM
A must! Energy conservation prevents it from smashing your nose.
B3-12 PULLEY - MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE
Shows mechanical advantage and work in pulley system.

Chapter 7: Systems of Particles and Conservation of Momentum

B1-01 CENTER OF MASS - DISC SECTION
B1-04 CENTER OF MASS - BRASS BARBELL
Static location of CM.
C1-01 CENTER OF MASS MOTION - BARBELL
B1-17 CENTER OF MASS - STICKS
Center of mass moves in parabola when object thrown.
C5-13 WATER ROCKET
Increase of propellant mass increases rocket speed.
C5-14 ROCKET TRIKE
CO2 fire extinguisher propells trike and instructor. Unforgettable demo...A MUST.
C7-01 AIR TRACK - ELASTIC COLLISIONS
C7-02 AIR TRACK - INELASTIC COLLISIONS
Quantitative collision demos with timers on each glider.
C5-11 AIR TRACK - ACTION-REACTION PAIRS
Air track gliders at rest push away from each other.
C5-18 FAN CART
Internal force results in no motion.
C7-53 AIR TRACK - SPEED OF AIR GUN PELLET
Collision experiment on air track to measure pellet speed.
C7-51 BALLISTIC PENDULUM - PELLET GUN
Same pellet gun as B3-34 with ballistic pendulum setup.
C7-54 BALLISTIC PENDULUM - BOW AND ARROW
Load bow to find its potential energy, then use ballistic pendulum to show same KE is in arrow.

Chapter 8: Rotation

D1-02 PELLET VELOCITY FROM ROTATING DISCS
Determine velocity of pellet from B3-34 by measuring transit time between two rotating paper disks.
B2-21 CONCEPT OF TORQUE - TORSIONAL CHAIR
Dependence of Torque=rxF on r, F, and angle.
D2-31 OBERBECK CROSS
Calculate moment of inertia and angular acceleration of system when known torque applied, verify with demo.
D2-32 AIR TABLE - LINEAR AND ANGULAR ACCEL OF A DISK
Standard problem of disk accelerated by string around its diameter.
D2-11 HINGED STICK AND FALLING BALL
End of hinged stick falls with a>g so ball falls into cup.
D2-12 TOPPLING CHIMNEY
Chimney breaks up with top half rotating more slowly.
SLIDE: TOPPLING CHIMNEY
Nice photo sequence; use with demo.
D2-01 RING AND DISK ON INCLINED PLANE
D2-02 MISCELLANEOUS BODIES ON INCLINED PLANE
Acceleration down incline depends on moment of inertia.
D1-82 ROLLING FRICTION
Direction of frictional reaction force for accelerated rolling object depends on moment of inertia.
D3-01 MASSES SLIDING ON ROTATING CROSSARM
D3-03 ROTATING CHAIR AND WEIGHTS
Large and small demos of angular momentum conservation.
D3-05 ROTATING CHAIR AND BICYCLE WHEEL
Change in orientation of rotating wheel causes rotation of chair with instructor.
D4-03 BICYCLE WHEEL GYROSCOPE ON PIVOT
Large gyroscope shows precession and nutation.
D4-02 BICYCLE WHEEL GYROSCOPE WITH COUNTERWEIGHT
Large, very slow precession and nutation.
D4-07 SUITCASE GYROSCOPE
Let students feel gyroscopic effects by moving suitcase.
D1-53 LOOP-THE-LOOP
Show rotational KE results in higher starting point than in case of sliding.
SLIDE: CAT RIGHTING ITSELF WHILE FALLING
Explain using conservation of angular momentum.
Videodisc: Skylab Physics
Shows lots of rotational effects with no gravity.

Chapter 9: Static Equilibrium of a Rigid Body

B2-23 TORQUE CONDITION FOR EQUILIBRIUM
Shows both translational and rotational conditions must be met for stable equilibrium.
B1-08 STATES OF EQUILIBRIUM - CONE
Illustrates stable, unstable, and neutral equilibrium.
B1-01 CENTER OF MASS - DISC SECTION
CM of disc with missing section found by hanging figure.
B1-02 CENTER OF MASS - LEANING TOWER
Add top section and leaning tower topples.
B1-06 DOUBLE CONE - LARGE
Double cone appears to be rolling uphill but CM is moving down.
B1-11 BALANCE MAN
Low CM gives figure great stability.
B2-41 ROBERVAL BALANCE
Paradoxical mechanism creates torque balance used in standard pan balance. Ask students to predict result.
B1-15 TOPPLING CYLINDERS
Tilted cylinder topples when lid added; vertical cylinder topples when lid removed. Have students calculate why.
B2-32 EQUILIBRIUM OF TORQUES - LARGE
Large demo of static torque balancing.
B2-42 ARM MODEL
Illustrates forces attained in arm.
B2-43 CRANE BOOM
Forces in crane boom in several orientations.
B2-35 EQUILIBRIUM OF TORQUES ON METERSTICK
Balance meterstick asymmetrically on two fingers, then move fingers together. Have students guess what happens to meterstick.

Chapter 10: Gravity

LOOPS: ORBITING BODIES IN VARIOUS FORCE FIELDS PART I
ORBITING BODIES IN VARIOUS FORCE FIELDS PART II
Illustrates orbit of planet if gravity were other than an inverse square force.
E2-51 GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE - MODEL
Place donut magnets on post with similar poles together, weight of magnets overcomes magnetic repulsion and pushes magnets together.
P1-02 LOCAL INERTIAL FRAME OF REFERENCE
Dramatic demo of free-falling reference frame illustrating Einstein's principle of equivalence.


For comments or constructive criticism of this document please e-mail Dr. Richard Berg, rb22@umail.umd.edu, or send comments by phone or to the mailing address on the home page.

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