Physics

Chat times for 2009/2010
Mon 9am ET/6am PT
Thu 8pm ET/5pm PT
Dr. Christe Ann McMenomy

Laboratory Exercises

Labs are not required for completion of the non-AP course itself; you may do as many or as few as you like. However, you must complete of 2/3 of the lab assignments to receive lab credit for the course. If you are planning to take the AP exam, certain labs are required for consideration of the course for AP credit (and you must take the AP option).

Many lab assignments will be available from the web site at the start of the session; several will be added through the course of the year. Most labs will be associated with specific topics, and you are encouraged to complete the lab and send in the report during during the assignment period. You make make arrangements to complete the other labs out of sequence if you have trouble obtaining equipment.

For safety reasons, both you and your parents must read the safety procedures before starting the lab sequence. Your parents must sign and send a copy of the lab permission letter to me before I can accept any lab reports from you for credit.

Lab Equipment

Note: this list is currently under review for the 2009-2010 academic year.

I will put together a kit that will include the following items. Cost is about $30. If you are interested, please let me know so that I can order the equipment from Edmunds and American Science Surplus in time for class to start.

  • Selection of magnets
  • Standard Lens for comparison with other students
  • Gyroscope
  • Slide mounted diffraction grating
  • Small compass
  • Copper wire
  • Prism
  • Miscellaneous lenses, both convex and concave, with positive and negative focal lengths
  • Ohaus Spring Scale, 250 gm
  • Polarizing scraps
  • Frictionless bearings ring
  • -10 to +110 Centigrade thermometer in 1 degree marking

In addition, you will need to supply some materials for various experiments for fall quarter.

  • Various pieces of wood and doweling or other clever ways to support or suspend equipment
  • Straight pins (like sewing pins)
  • Nails
  • Calibrated weights (Possibilities: a nickel weighs 5 grams; most medications come in 500 milligram divisions.)
  • String (use nylon fishing wire, it is strong and relatively frictionless).
  • Stopwatch accurate to 1/10 of a second
  • 2 liter soda pop bottle
  • Small plastic bottle (test tube or flower tube, perfume sample bottle) that will fit through the mouth of a soda pop bottle.
  • Meter sticks and foot ruler divided on one side into centimeters and millimeters
  • Balloons
  • Buckets
  • Markers
  • Styrofoam cups
  • Straws
  • Stove and pots for heating water
  • Batteries
  • Flash light bulbs
  • Rubber bands
  • Colored cellophane
  • Protractors (the small, transparent plastic kind)

Sources

Lab equipment may be borrowed from schools or purchased. Most physics principles can be demonstrated using household equipment; measuring these phenomena accurately gets trickier, and that's where we have to be the most inventive. However, if you are willing to make do with "home" accuracy instead of "lab grade" equipment, you can still learn the priniciples of physics...and remember: most of our household equipment such as voltmeters are better than the ones used by the original scientists who discovered these principles. If you want more accurate equipment, you should check my growing list of mail order suppliers.

This course is offered through Scholars Online, a non-profit organization supporting classical Christian education through Internet-based courses. Permission to copy course content (lessons and labs) for personal study is granted to students currently or formerly enrolled in the course through Scholars Online. Reproduction for any other purpose, without the express written consent of the author, is prohibited.