| | | Both my Physics and Chemistry courses at high school (never mind University) were about 50% experimentation carried out by the students, either individually or in small groups. We were taught to question every thing and to use our own judgement. Certain matters like safety and safe procedures were simply instructed, but if a student had a valid question, the teacher was always happy to discuss and answer.
The results were reviewed with what had been already been found by scientists. Often the experiments gave one a feel of how gifted and capable the original scientists were. I remember many of those experiments even today. Especially calculating the gravitational constant using pendulums. In fact I repeated that experiment on a larger scale about a decade ago (using pendulums up to 30 feet in length) and came up with some fairly accurate results. Simple pendulums, not compound pendulums.
Here is the experiment taught by rote. It actually is a bit more interesting to derive that equation using Newtons Laws and a little bit of mathematics including trigonometry.
(5) Experiment to measure the acceleration due to gravity g using a simple pendulum - YouTube
We did our pendulum calculations using a slide rule in those days. A stop watch was used and the experiment repeated several times to see how repeatable the results were. About half a dozen data points were obtained using this method.
I repeated the experiments using a more modern method.
It's great having hundreds or even thousands of data points inputted into a computer in a matter of minutes.
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Tracker Video Analysis and Modelling Tool for Physics Education
Using lead weights with a white marker on them gets the program to run easily.
You can have the lead weight falling though a structure and (say) put a sheet of paper firmly attached to the structure in the way so the lead weight has to punch through it to see if any change in velocity or acceleration occurs. That variation is revealing to certain historical events.
A most interesting experiment to conduct, and anyone with a mobile phone, a measuring tape, and a computer can do it. High school kids can do it no problem at all. I am sure they do it, especially in countries that like to excel at real science. If taught correctly, they will know when to question the "experts". A most important skill to develop imho.
I would not have lasted 5 minutes as an engineer without these skills developed to a high level, I can tell you that for sure. It also becomes quickly apparent, in real life engineering situations, who are real scientists and who aren't. I am not saying anything special here either, this is all true for a number of professions. Standard operating procedure.
It becomes immediately and embarrassing obvious who has a clue and who doesn't. |
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