I propose an articulated and complete experimental exploration of Ampère’s law which can be performed with ordinary lab instrumentation. […]
Dancing is a pleasant and healthy activity. Its analysis from the point of view of physics allows to uncover the roles played by forces, centre of mass, moment of inertia, angular momentum, etc… […]
The classical spring mass system is studied with the aid of on line acquisition by means of an optical no contact position sensor or by means of a sonar. Both the free damped oscillations and the forced ones are studied; the proper frequency fo and the Q factor derived from the two types of oscillations are compared. […]
A 40 W bulb lamp lights up although a thick copper is shorting its terminals. This paradoxical situation may help to stimulate curiosity and induce a critical attitude towards the parameters that must be taken in account when analysing electrical phenomena. […]
Using a simple apparatus built with low-cost and easy to find materials, we measure the line integral of the earth’s gravitational field along a closed path and we find that its value is null. […]
A simple proposal for a common work of science and foreign language teachers. […]
Questo articolo presenta alcune delle più importanti caratteristiche dei corsi scientifici nell’insegnamento secondario dei sistemi educativi di cinque paesi europei: Germania, Belgio, Spagna (e Catalogna), Francia, Italia. Vi sono descritti aspetti differenti di questi corsi: le discipline proposte, gli orari settimanali, […]
The original X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA obtained in 1953 by Franklin e Gosling is discussed and explained. An experiment that shows how a similar image can be obtained with a combination of diffraction gratings is proposed. […]
The evolution in time of the motion of the Earth is briefly examined with reference to chaos theory. […]
The students of the last class of a French scientific lyceum built an electronic device that can follow the sun like a sunflower. The circuit can be used to orient solar panels in an energy-saving project. This school project has a multidisciplinary nature: for example it can be associated with the study of nervous signals in biology and can introduce the topic of artificial intelligence. […]
The author criticises the way teachers typically construct and employ tasks in physics instruction. Germany teachers prefer tasks that only have one correct solutions. In classroom discussions the teacher narrowly guides his o her students towards this specific answer. […]