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Physics Experiments To Inspire Undergraduates?
PShardlow writes "I have recently been asked to propose two projects for a 1st year undergraduate teaching laboratory in the summer term this year. These are projects that a pair of students will spend 36 hours working on, and as such can be quite in-depth. A good project would include something they can build, something they can measure, and something they can calculate. Previous projects have included cloud chambers, a Jacobs ladder, a laser Doppler speed camera, laser sound detection, smoke rings, and physical random number generators. This is an opportunity to really inspire students into the joy that can be experimental physics — but it only works if we demonstrators propose interesting projects. So I ask the Slashdot community for suggestions of fascinating projects to do, things that are relevant to today's physics problems but could feasibly be completed by a pair of first-year undergraduates in 72 man hours."
The latest issue of SciAm has a good one:
First, roll up a shitwagon with a few buzzards sitting on its bedsides.
Next, have each student measure the time it takes a bird to fall off the truck as well as the distance from the truck where the bird hit the ground after losing consciousness from a whiff of the stinky Indian students.
After that, get the height of the truck and do the parabolic-arc equations which describe how high the birds were, how long it took them to hit the ground, and how far away they were when they hit the ground. Compare the gathered data to the calculated data and discuss.
Optional: Send the stinky Indians over to the biology lab to be swabbed for bacillus stinkius and then put into the autoclave.