Physics Lecture Demonstrations

Demonstrations suggested for the text
Halliday & Resnick Fundaments of Physics, 9th edition, by
Jearl Walker

First Semester
Chapters 1-20

Revised Fri Aug 12 10:19:21 2011


Chapter1--Measurement

M-a6a Movie--Powers of Ten "Powers of Ten" is a 9 minute film spanning scales from the edge of the universe to the sub-atomic
M-a1a Meter Standard A replica of the platinum-iridium bar in Paris that was the international standard for length before 1960.
M-a1b One Nanosecond Bar A piece of plastic cut to a 1 ns length and imprinted "one nanosecond." Ruler shown for comparison.

Chapter2--Motion Along a Straight Line

M-c1d Motion Detector and Board An ultrasonic motion detector generates a real-time graph of displacement (and/or veloctiy and/or acceleration) versus time as a boards is moved in front of the detector.
M-c1b Linear Air Track: Position vs. Time A glider travels down the 5 m air track while evenly spaced photogates record the elapsed time. One can then plot the position versus time for the glider on an overhead. The track may be inclined for uniformly accelerated motion.
M-c1c Linear Air Track: Instantaneous Velocity An air track glider passes through two pairs of closely spaced photogates with each pair separated by 2 meters, enabling instantaneous velocities, accelerations, and predicted distances to be calculated.
M-c2d Video: 405 the movie 2000 film showing plan making emergency landing on top of Jeep: http://www.405themovie.com/. (For amusement purposes)
M-c2b Inclined Air Track Prop up one end on an air track and use photogates to time the glider's voyage.
M-c2a Dime and Feather Tube A penny and a feather fall freely inside a glass cylinder that can be evacuated.
M-c2c Basketball and Tennis Ball drop Basket and Tennis balls are dropped simultaneously from the same height.
M-c3a Timed Free Fall -- Lecture Hall A metal ball is dropped from 1m and then from 4m into a catch bucket; a precise digital timer records the time of flight for each fall. [May conflict with Shoot-the-Monkey or Timed Free Fall.]

Chapter3--Vectors

M-a4a Magnetic Blackboard Vectors A set of magnet-backed vectors of lengths 3, 4, and 5 used to show vector addition on the blackboard.
M-a4c PhET Vector Addition Simulation Colorado PhET 2-D vector simulation: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/simulations/vectormath/vectorMath.swf
M-a3a 3-D XYZ axes A simple 3-D XYZ Coordinate System

Chapter4--Motion in Two and Three Dimensions

M-d6e Shoot the Monkey An air-gun shoots at a monkey, released when the air-gun is fired; the bullet hits the monkey in mid-air. [May conflict with Timed Free Fall or Balls Shot and Dropped.]
M-d6c Jumping Ball on Cart A ball projected vertically upward from a wheeled cart falls back into the muzzle.
M-d6d Balls Shot and Dropped -- Lecture Hall A ball is dropped and simultaneously another is projected horizontally; they hit the floor at the same time. [May conflict with Shoot-the-Monkey and Timed Free Fall.]
M-d6g Range of a Gun Shoot at 45, then calculate 30 or 60 and place the target
M-d1f Balls on Rotating Disk A disc with two balls mounted at different radii rotates at varying speeds. A third ball may be placed in the center if disk is horizontally mounted. Both orbital and spin rotations may be seen.
M-c1a Addition of Velocities--Tank and Sheet A battery powered tank runs at constant speed on a moving paper to show how velocities add and subtract.
M-e1a Crossing the River A battery powered tank runs at constant speed on a sheet of paper that is pulled in a direction perpendicular to the tank's velocity.

Chapter5--Force and Motion -- I

M-f2a Inertia Masses A 100 g mass is suspended from a 1 kg mass which is suspended from a crossbar. A sharp downward pull breaks the lower thread; a slow pull the upper thread.
M-f2d Tablecloth Pull Yank a tablecloth from under a bottle of wine, beer, and a book.
M-f2b Hammered Blocks The bottommost of a stack of blocks, when struck sharply, will slide to the side while the upper blocks remain in place.
M-f2c Loose Hammer Head The head of a hammer will remain in place when the handle is struck from above or below.
M-f3a Glider on Level Air Track A glider on a level air track persists in gliding.
M-f3b Block on a Cart A block is placed on a rolling cart; when the cart is stopped, the block continues.
M-g1d Second Law--Fan Propelled Cart Launch a fan-propelled (constant acceleration) cart down the track and observe what happens when its mass is varied.
M-g1g Dynamics Cart with Force and Motion Sensors Use a motion sensor with a force sensor mounted on a dynamics cart pulled by a constant tension string to illustrate Newton's second law. The mass of the cart and the string tension can be varied.
M-r2d Bend the Wall Push on a concrete wall and the wall's deflection is detected by the deflection of a laser beam
M-g1e Spring Scale vs Pan Balance Show and tell a mass on a spring scale and a pair of masses on a pan balance.
M-h1f Force Sensors on Colliding Cars Measure the forces on each of two colliding cars, one heavy and one light, using force sensors.
M-h1c 3rd Law with Scales Pull on two coupled spring scales with springs of equal or unequal strength.
M-h1e 3rd Law with Bathroom Scales Have two students push against bathroom scales laid back-to-back to verify that each scale reads the same.
M-h1a Push Me Pull Me Carts Two people stand on roller carts and both pull on a rope or push with a long stick.
M-h1d Fan Cart with Sail A cart with a sail propelled by a battery powered fan shows interesting third law behavior.
M-h1b Tennis Ball Cannon A cannon mounted on an air track glider shoots out a tennis ball horizontallly.
M-g1c Atwood's Machine Two equal masses are hung from a pulley. A small amount of mass is transferred from one side to the other.
M-j3a Suspended 3-4-5 Block A 1 kg mass rests on a 3-4-5 incline (e.g. incline angle = arctan(3/4)). Forces parallel and perpendicular to the incline will support the mass in mid-air when the incline is removed.
M-j3e Tension in a String The weight of a mass hung from a spring scale is compared to the weight shown on a spring scale between two masses over pulleys
M-j3d Four scales in a row A mass is hung at the end of a series of spring scales
M-j3f Scale-Mass-Scale-Mass A mass is hung at the end of a series of spring scales with an intervening mass.
M-j3c Rope and three students Two large strong students pull on the ends of a rope and a small student pushes down in the middle.

Chapter6--Force and Motion -- II

M-k2a Friction Cars on Inclined Plane The static or dynamic forces required to move teflon-coated, rubber-coated, and wooden carts on an inclined plan are displayed on a spring scale
F-c3b terminal velocity--coffee filters Drop a coffee filter and it descends at a low terminal velocity. Crumble it and it free falls.
F-c3c Coffee Filter Drop One coffee filter dropped from one meter and four coffee filters dropped from 2 meters hit the ground at the same time, demonstrating that the drag force is proportional to the square of the velocity
M-d5d Ball on a String Attach a lightweight ball to a string and twirl
M-d5a Orbit Ball This consists of a large and a small ball attached to opposite ends of a string which passes through a metal handle. The light ball is twirled and the centripetal force is provided by the weight of the heavy ball.
M-d5b Conical Pendulum Three balls, suspended by differing lengths of string from the same height on a rotating shaft, rotate in the same horizontal plane.
M-d5c Swing the Bucket Swing a bucket of water in a vertical circle and then in a horizontal circle over your head.
M-d5e Chain Wheel A loop of chain is rotated very fast and then released onto the demo table, where it runs over obstacles while retaining its circular form.
M-d5m Tangential Velocity This demo uses an apparatus that rotates a ball on a string and that provides a means to cut the string while the ball is in flight.
M-d5o Falling off the Merry-go-round Blocks lined up radially on a turntable fall off in succession as the turntable speeds up.

Chapter7--Kinetic Energy and Work

M-m2a Simple Pulley Show a simple pulley in equilibrium
M-m2b Compound Pulley Weights of a proportion of 5-to-1 are the equilibrium conditions for this compound pulley.
M-m2e Double Pulley Setup A 500g mass balances a 1000g mass in a two pulley system; can show that the work done by each in moving is the same.
M-m2d Bosun's Chair -- Single Pulley Subject in harness with attached rope that flows through overhead pulley, pulls self up with a force equal to half subject's weight.
M-m1a Pile Driver Drive a nail into a block of wood with a pile driver.
M-m2c Spring Launched Cart on Level Track A spring (of measurable spring constant) launches a cart (with measurable final veloctiy) on a level air track. Mass of cart can be varied.
M-r1a Stretching a Spring Add masses to a spring and measure displacement; compare with a bungee cord.

Chapter8--Potential Energy and Conservation of Energy

M-m4a Bowling Ball Pendulum A bowling ball pendulum is pulled back until it touches the lecturer's nose and let go. The lecturer does not move.
M-m4b Galileo's Pendulum and Nail A pendulum started at the height of a reference line reaches the same height when its swing is intercepted by a post that effectively shortens the length of the pendulum.
M-m4c Loop the Loop A rolling ball must be released from a height equal to 2.7 times the radius of the loop.
M-m4f Spring-Launched Rolling Cart Predict the height to which a spring-compressed cart will rise on an inclined plane given the mass, spring constant, and amount of spring compression. Do the experiment.
M-m4h Ping-Pong Slingshot Shoot Ping Pong Balls at unbelievers in energy conservation.
M-d1e High road low road - large version Two balls race, one following a straight channel and the other along a channel with a valley.
M-d1g Galileo's Circle - Inverted Two balls following different chords of a circle hit base at the same time.

Chapter9--Center of Mass and Linear Momentum

M-j1a Hanging Shapes Suspend a 2-dimensional shape from holes drilled near the edges, and use a plumb bob to find the center of gravity.
M-j1d Meter Stick on Fingers Slide fingers together under a meter stick to come together at center of mass. Repeat with mass attached to one end of stick.
M-d4b Throwing Foam Slab A slab of foam has its center of mass marked with a black dot; this dot follows a parabolic path when the slab is thrown.
M-d4e Air Track Inchworm Two air track gliders coupled by a spring will oscillate about the center of mass that is marked by a flag.
M-n1c Measuring Impulse - Force and Motion Sensors A force sensor mounted on a cart and monitored by a motion sensor collides with a barrier; the impulse can be calculated two independent ways.
M-n1a Lacrosse Ball Compression/Impression Drop a lacrosse ball on down-ward facing carbon paper, and then press down on the ball until it is squashed the same amount.
M-n1b Egg in sheet Throw an egg into a sheet held by two people.
M-n2c Spring apart Pasco carts Tripping the spring between two Pasco carts launches them in opposite directions; the cart masses may be varied.
M-r4b Atomic Trampoline Compare a steel ball bouncing on an amorphous metal to one bouncing on stainless steel.
M-r4a Happy and Unhappy Balls Two black rubber balls of about 1.5 cm diameter are dropped from a height simultaneously. One ball bounces high while the other barely rebounds. Great to pass around.
M-n3d Inelastic Collisions on Air Track Inelastic collisions between air track gliders of equal and/or unequal mass.
M-n2a Fire extinguisher wagon Mount a fire extinguisher on a cart and take a ride.
M-n2b Water Rocket A toy rocket is launched twice, once when pumped up with air and once when pumped up with water.
M-n3a Newton's Cradle Five adjacent metal balls on a bifilar suspension illustrate momentum conservation properties.
M-n3c Elastic Collisions on Air Track Elastic collisions between air track gliders of equal and/or unequal mass.
M-n3g Happy and Unhappy Ball Collisions A happy ball rolls down the incline and knocks the block over; the unhappy ball does not.
M-n3e Supernova A tennis ball is placed on top of a basketball and both are released from rest.

Chapter10--Rotation

M-j4a Torque Bar A long thin rid mounted perpendicular to a bar handle holds a 2 kg mass on a sliding collar.
M-j4e Movie: Milwaukee Pitstop Ad A humorous, fake video showing a car being rotating by a torque wrench. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5LrarVz94g
M-j4d Wrench, Nut, and Bolt Use a wrench, nut, and bolt to illustrate torque.
M-j4b Equal Arm Balance Combinations of weights and distances on either side of the fulcrum of the equal arm balance may be selected to produce equilibrium. An oblique arm is used to show that the effective length of the lever arm is set by the component of the force.
M-q1a Inertia Wands Students twirl equal mass wands, one with the mass concentrated in the middle, the other with the mass concentrated at the ends.
M-q2a Whirlybird Two equal masses with adjustable positions are mounted on a radial bar fixed to a horizontal axis with a pulley. A weight on a string rotates the assembly.

Chapter11--Rolling, Torque, and Angular Momentum

M-m4i Movie: Honda Cog Two-minute Honda movie ad of a series of mechanical cogs bumping into each other in sequence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEF0cg1j35
M-m4l Movie: OK Go - This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Machine) Sequence of collisions set to "This too Shall Pass" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w
M-q1b Ring versus Disk Race The Matched Disk and Ring are identical in diameter and mass. When rolled down the inclined plane, the disk wins the race due to its lower moment of inertia.
M-q1c Racing Disks Two disks of identical mass, one weighted in the center and the othe weighted at the rum, are rolled down an incline.
M-q1d Racing cylinders 3 Cylinders of identical mass and appearance accelerate down an incline at different rates.

M-q1e Racing cylinders -- different mass Yet another set of disks to race, including cylinder pair of uniform density but different mass.
M-k2b Rolling Friction -- Happy and Unhappy Balls Race the happy and unhappy balls down an inclined plane
M-q4a Rotating Platform and Weights Spin on a rotating platform with a dumbbell in each hand.
M-q4c Bike wheel on rotating platform Invert a spinning bicycle wheel while standing on a rotating platform.
M-q4g Train on Circular Track A train rides on a circular track mounted to a rotating platform.
M-q4i Angular Momentum Vortx The angular speed of a quarter or steel ball increases as it rotates through ever-smaller circles down the Vortx.
M-q4h Balloon Helicopter A balloon is attached to a Hero's engine-type arrangement of wings
M-q4f Collapsing Star Collapse a spinning suspended Hoberman Sphere into a small ball.
M-q5c Bicycle Wheel Gyro The bike wheel is hung from its axle by a wire attached to the ceiling; when spun the bike wheel illustrates gyroscope motion nicely.
M-q5d MITAC Gyroscope This motorized gyroscope, used in the teaching labs, is good for showing a gyroscope's directional constancy; precession due to applied torques, and nutation.

Chapter12--Equilibrium and Elasticity

M-j2a Stable and Unstable Equilibria Two large rings each with two masses that have radially adjustable positions. Stable, unstable, and neutral equilibrium can be shown.
M-j1c Center of Gravity Blocks Stack blocks stairstep fashion at the edge of the table until the topmost block sticks out beyond the table edge.
M-j2b Tight Rope Walker The Tight Rope Walker consists of a pulley with four heavy lead weights on long semi-stiff wires symmetrically mounted around it. When placed on the "rope" (Cord), the weights hang down well under the rope, leaving the center of the Walker's mass below the rope and thus making it easy for the Walker to keep its balance.
M-j2c Tilted Pop Can A partially filled pop can when tilted appropriately will remain tilted
M-j2e Balancing Bird The balancing bird is an example of stable equilibrium.
M-j4c Mass on Bar between Scales A horizontal beam with a sliding 1 kg mass is hung between two spring scales.
M-k1a Pushing the Refrigerator Depending on where a large rectangular box is pushed, it will slid, tip, or turn.
M-k1b Ladder against a Wall Set a ladder against the wall and walk up the rungs until the ladder begins to slide.
M-k1c Walking the Spool The spool can roll forward or backwards when the string is pulled, depending on the angle of pull.
M-r2a Breaking Wire Suspend a wire from the ceiling and add masses until the wire breaks.
M-r2c Poisson's Ratio with rubber tube The striped tube can be stretched to show lateral contraction with increasing length.
M-r3a Deformation of Thick Book The large book can be pushed perpendicular to the spine to show shear.
M-r5a NaCl crystal model NaCl model made of wooden balls connected by metal sticks.
M-r5b Ball and Spring crystal model Cubic crystal model made of platic balls connected by springs.

Chapter13--Gravitation

M-L1a Movie: Cavendish Balance Time lapse of the Cavendish Experiment on Videodisk.
M-L2a Gravitational Well A large fiberglass vortex-shaped cone is used to show circular and elliptical orbits and conservation of angular momentum.
M-L2c Satellite Launch Applet Animation launching a satellite tangentially to earth surface, as function of velocity: http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/viewtopic.php?t=24

Chapter14--Fluids

M-k3a Bed of Nails Lie down on a bed of nails.
F-b3a Crush the Can--with pump A vacuum pump evacuates a 1 gallon can; atmospheric pressure crushs the can.
F-b3f Magdeburg Disks -- Hanging from Ceiling The space between two plates is evacuated; one plate hangs from the ceiling and a person sits on a seat attached to the other.
F-b3h Suction Cups Press together two suction cups and try to pull them apart.
F-b3i Egg in a Bottle Put a lighted match inside a milk bottle and cover with a peeled hard-boiled egg.
F-b3e Vacuum Ping Pong Ball Cannon Atmospheric pressure shoots a ping pong ball through an aluminum can.
F-b4i Sulfurhexafluoride Balloon A SF6-filled balloon falls to the floor with a thud.
F-b4j Asphyxiation of flame by CO2 Pour gaseous carbon dioxide over a flame to extinguish it
F-c1a Torricelli's Tank Water streams out from three holes at different heights in a tall cylinder.
F-b2a Pascal's Vases Tubes of different geometries rise vertically out of a common reservoir of colored water.
F-b4c water and oil "U" tube Water and oil rise to different heights in a "u" tube.
F-b2f Hydraulic Press Break a piece of wood in a hydraulic press.
F-b4a Weigh Submerged Block A 2 kg Al cylinder, suspended from the 20 N spring scale, is lowered into water and the new weight is observed; Can have beaker on scale; Can lower into oil for comparison
F-b4g Finger in Water Ask what will happen when a finger is inserted into a beaker of water balanced on a pan balance.
F-b4h Sulfurhexafluoride Boat An aluminum boat floats on a sea of Sulfur Hexafluoride gas
F-b4f Ice Melting in Water Show that the water level doesn't change when the ice in a beaker of ice water melts.
F-b4b Cartesian Diver Squeeze the bottle to sink the diver.
F-b4d Coke and Diet Coke An unopened diet soda can floats in water, and a regular soda can sinks.
F-c4a Mixing-Unmixing Two concentric cylinders, separated by corn syrup and with a line of dye in the syrup parallel to the axis, can be rotated and "unrotated" to restore the line of dye. [Broken]
F-c2a Venturi Flowmeter Air flows through a restricted glass tube to the atmosphere; the pressure at different points of the tube is shown by manometers.
F-c2b Floating Ping Pong Ball A ping pong ball floats in an upward stream of air.
F-c2h Floating Beach Ball A beach ball ball floats in an upward stream of air.
F-c2i Toilet Paper Cannon Send streamers of toilet paper some dozens of feet into the air.
F-c2c Funnel and Ball A ping-pong ball is supported by air streaming out of an upside down funnel.
F-c2k Fan blowing on Board A fan blows on a board mounted so that it can rotate about an axis in the wind. What orientation will the board take?
F-c2L Falling Card Hold one of these cards horizontally in the air, and then drop one to observe the dominate behavior of the card orienting itself horizontally, as well as the slipping and rotating behavior believed due to turbulence.
F-c2g Bernoulli Paper Lift Raise a strip of paper by blowing just above its surface
F-c2d Windbag Blow up an 8-foot long bag with one breath.
F-c2e Ping Pong Ball and Racket Use a ping pong racket to hit a curve ball using a 2-3" diameter styrofoam ball or a ping pong ball.

Chapter15--Oscillations

W-a2a Spring and Weight A mass hangs on the end of a spring. Using two springs of different k and a variety of masses, show the effect of varying k and m.
W-a2d Springs in Series and Parallel A spring with mass m, two identical springs in parallel with mass 2m, and two identical springs in series with mass m/2 oscillate with the same period.
W-a2c Air track glider and Spring Two identical air track carts are attached to (opposite) ends of an air track by means of two different springs. A mass may be added to either cart, and the dependence of the oscillation frequency on mass and on spring constant may be explored.
W-a2e Glider and Spring with Motion Detector A motion detector enables the time dependence of a glider's position, velocity, and acceleration to be displayed.
W-a1d Torsion Pendulum A steel cylinder is suspended by a steel music wire along its right axis. When the cylinder is displaced by rotation and released it will oscillate in simple harmonic motion.
W-a1a Simple Pendulum A bob on a string hanging from a stand exhibits simple harmonic motion for small angles.
W-a1b 4-to-1 Pendula One pendulum four times longer than a second oscillates with twice the period of the second.
W-a1c Different mass pendula Three pendula of different masses but the same length all oscillate with the same period.
W-a1e Pendula Amplitude Dependence Two identical simple pendula set in motion with different initial amplitudes, oscillate nonisochronically.
W-a4a Projected SHM Shadow project a ball mounted on a rotating disk.
W-a6a Tacoma Narrows Film A 3 minute video of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Very impressive and memorable.
W-a6c Damped Driven Hanging Mass A mass, supported by a spring whose support is driven, vibrates against a solid screen; the drive amplitude, frequency and the screen angle can be varied.

Chapter16--Waves -- I

W-b1a Pulse on 1.9m spring Give the 1.9 m spring a quick pulse. The length and/or tension in the spring can be varied. Good for showing pulses, standing waves, harmonics, energy transfer.
W-b1b Pulses on Torsional Wave Apparatus Excite each of the three torsional transverse wave machines by hand to show how the wave speed varies as the inertia of the medium (the rod length) varies.
W-b2a Hanging Slinky A long slinky is supported on a bifilar suspension, and the ends are taped to the lab stands, for showing longitutinal wave properties with minimal friction. [BROKEN]
W-b2b Slinky Two students stretch a slinky and send longitudinal waves down the slinky.
W-b2f Standing Waves on a String Use a mechanical vibrator to generate standing waves on a string with one end under tension from a hanging mass. Best under UV light
W-b2g Standing Waves on torsional wave machine Excite standing waves on the torsional wave machine by hand
W-b2r Wave Superposition -- Torsional Wave Apparatus Send pulses simultaneously from both ends of one section of the torsional wave machine.
W-b2k Joined spring and cord The 1.9 m spring is attached to a rubber cord; pulses started at one end will produce both transmitted and reflected pulses.
W-d4c Chladni Plates A driven Chladni plate covered with sand shows standing wave patterns. Noisy!

Chapter17--Waves -- II

W-c1a Range of Hearing Use a function generator and wide-range speaker to demonstrate the range of hearing.
W-b3d Speed of Sound by Phase Difference A function generator drives a speaker, and an oscilloscope displays the signals from the function generator and a microphone that moves radially from the speaker.
W-b3a Bell in a Vacuum An alarm buzzer is suspended inside an evaculated bell jar, turned on, and the bell jar is evaculated. When air is let back into the jar, the sound returns.
W-b3c Speaker and Candle A large speaker operating at low frequncy and large amplitude makes a candle flame oscillate.
W-b3b Helium voice (or recorder) Fill your lungs with helium and then talk, sing, or blow a musical instrument.
W-b3g SF6 voice (or recorder) Fill your lungs with sulfer hexafluoride and then talk, sing, or blow a musical instrument.
W-d3b Organ Pipe A closed-end, square wood organ pipe of adjustable length.
W-b5c Two Points in Ripple Tank Two point source generators of ripples show interference patterns in the ripple tank on the overhead projector.
W-b5b Moire Pattern Transparancies Transparancies with identical concentric circular patterns are placed on top of each other with a slight offset.
W-b5e Two-Speaker Bar A 2 meter long bar with a speaker at each end produces auditory interference patterns.
W-b5f Baffle and Speaker Listen to a single bare speaker, then surround it by a baffle.
W-d4g Musical Goblet Rub the edge of a goblet with a wet finger to make it sing. An oscilloscope can be used to measure the frequencies.
W-d4f Shattering Wineglass with Sound Shatter a wine glass with sound waves at the glass resonant frequency
W-d2a Guitar Hanging weights on the end of a "guitar" can be varied to "tune" the guitar to a desired pitch.
W-d3a Resonant Tube A long tube is rolled in front of a speaker driven by a sine wave generator to show resonance. A microphone probe shows pressure variations on the o-scope.
W-d3d Bloogle Whirl a corrugated plastic tube to produce sound. At least five tones can be heard.
W-d3g Ruben's Tube Show nodes and antinodes with the flames coming from a row of holes in a hollow tube filled with propane.
W-d3c Trombone A student-class trombone illustrates the effect of pipe length on resonant frequencies.
W-d4d Stroked Aluminum Rod An aluminum rod sings when stroked with rosin-covered fingers.
W-b6a Beats with Tuning Forks Two tuning forks of identical frequency are mounted on resonant enclosures; when a small piece of wax is attached to one, beats can be heard.
W-b6c Beats with Tuning Forks and Oscilloscope Examine with an oscilloscope the beats from two identical tuning forks mounted on resonant enclosures.
W-b4a Doppler Buzzer Swing a small battery powered buzzer on the end of a string in a circle over your head.
W-b4b Doppler in Ripple Tank Move the wave generator back and forth in the ripple tank.
W-b4c Doppler with Stroked Aluminum Rod Shake the stroked aluminum rod at the audience

Chapter18--Temperature, Heat, and the First Law of Thermodynamics

H-e3a Gay-Lussac's Law--Constant Volume bulb The constant volume bulb is filled with helium at room temperature and pressure, then sealed. It is then immersed in boiling water, ice water, and liquid nitrogen (or in a alcohol/acetone bath).
H-e4a Egg in Milk Bottle A peeled, hardboiled egg is sucked into a milk bottle when the bottle is cooled, and comes out when the bottle is heated.
H-a3a Bimetallic Strip Strips of dissimilar metals bonded together bend when heated. Makes a nice thermometer.
H-a3b Ball and Ring The Ball will pass through the hole in the brass plate (termed the ring) when both are at room temperature. When the ball is heated with the torch it expands and will not pass through the ring.
H-c3d Hand Boiler Warmth from your hand forces liquid from the bottom to the top bulb.
H-e1c Charles' Law--Piston Chamber and Flask The piston rises and falls depending on whether the flask is heated or cooled.
H-e1a Balloons in liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen is poured over an air-filled balloon until it collapses.

H-b1b Metals Sinking into Wax Hot copper, lead, and aluminum cylinders at a common temperature are placed on a wax block.
H-b7a Fire Syringe A small (2mm x 2mm) piece of tissue is put at the bottom of the "fire torch," a clear glass cylinder that is closed at one end. When a plunger is inserted into the open end and rapidly pressed inwards, the tissue bursts into flames.
H-e2b Pop Gun The pop-gun is an example of adiabatic compression
H-b2a Convection Tube One side of a glass tube loop is heated while a drop of ink is inserted in the other side.
H-b3a Melting Wax on Rods Three metal rods (Cu, Al, Steel), with wax mounted on the ends of each, radiate horizontally from a central heated disk. This is a race to see which melts first.
H-b3b Ice Melting Blocks A chunks of ice placed on an aluminum block melts much quicker than ice on a foam block.
H-b4b Light the Match A match at the focus of one parabolic mirrir is lit by a heating element at the focus of another parabolic mirror.
H-b4c Infrared Camera -- Blackbody Radiation An infrared camera is aimed at the class and at various hot and cold heat sources.
H-b4a Black and White Radiation A thermopile with indicator is held to both sides of a hot coffeepot with one side painted black and the other side white.
H-d2a Crookes' radiometer Light shining on the "radiometer" makes the vanes spin, but in a direction opposite to that expected for light absorption and reflection.
O-b4b Blackbody Radiation - Infrared Camera Examine objects in a dark room with an infrared camera
O-b4a Blackbody Radiation Project the spectrum of an incandescent bulb as a function of temperature.

Chapter19--The Kinetic Theory of Gases

M-a1c One Mole Bars Set containing one mole each of iron, copper, zinc, and aluminum.
H-d3a Vertical Molecular Motion Simulator
H-c3b Cryophorus When one end of a glass tube with bulbs at each end containing water is placed in liquid nitrogen, the water at the other end starts to freeze.
H-c3c Drinking Bird This toy bird keeps bobbing its head in water because the evaporative cooling and internal pressure differences force the liquid inside above its center of mass, whereupon it tips, momentarily restoring equilibrium.
H-d1c Brownian Motion - Aqueous small spheres The Brownian movement of small latex or glass spheres in water is projected onto a screen or wall for all to see.

Chapter20--Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

H-b6b Stretching Rubber Band Stretch a rubber band or balloon and feel the heat generated with your lips.
H-f3a Stirling Engine An excellent, simple, working model of the Stirling engine.


Physics Lecture Demonstrations at the Department of Physics and Astronomy
The Johns Hopkins University