This paper reports a teaching approach to physics, developed for high schools and pre-service teachers formation courses, focused on modelling physical phenomena described by similar mathematical equations in different fields of physics. We start by analysing the phenomena and finding the relevant physical variables. […]
Using a Hall probe and a coil fed by a constant current, the line integral Ampere’s law can be measured. A simple method to approximate the integral by a finite sum is reported. […]
This work deals with a famous historical experiment, i.e. the experiment that allowed Fourier to establish his theorem about the series expansion of a periodic function. In our experiment, that deals also with many aspects of the theory of heat, we warmed up an aluminium ring by means of a flame pointed towards a single point of the ring. […]
The article takes a critical look at practical work in school science and the often extravagant claims that we make for it. In asserting that much of what we do is ill-conceived, muddled and of little educational value, a case is made for a more rigorous, […]
With the help of Planck’s formula for the black body radiation, it is possible to deduce Wien’s and Stefan-Boltzmann’s laws by means of the usual mathematical methods of secondary school. In particular, we can obtain an excellent approximation of Wien’s constant in terms of the physical constants h, […]
Philosophers and scientists of antiquity used to speak of material things or bodies, by taking for granted that world was naturally divided into separate objects. Probably that notion is due to the fact that we are living in a comparatively cold sur-rounding (the surface of the Earth), […]
After a brief review of the problems connected with the use of open and closed tests, we present an instrument we developed (using some ideas of the APU project) where an almost completely open response is translated into dichotomous keys, suitable for computer processing. […]