Articoli rivista
Anno XXXIV - n.4 - ottobre/dicembre 2001 L’affare girasole o “all’inseguimento del Sole”
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. […]
Anno XXVIII - n.1 - gennaio/marzo 1995 L’analogia idrodinamica e lo sviluppo della teoria elettromagnetica di Maxwell
In 1855 Maxwell developed a formal analogy between the motion of an incompressible fluid, the electric current in a conductor, and the lines of force of a magnetic field. His analysis represents an example of interdisciplinary study of physical phenomena in the past, […]
Anno XLIII - n.2 - aprile/giugno 2010 L’analogo rotazionale
With an educational purpose, the analogy between rotational and translational quantities is explained by comparing the behaviours of a flywheel and of a trolley moving along a rail. The inertia of the two compared systems is measured in the same framework. […]
Anno XLVI - n.1 - gennaio/marzo 2013 L’anello saltatore e nuove storie
The Thomson ring experiment is revisited obtaining higher and higher jumps. The ring’s inductance and the phase lag between the primary magnetic flux and the current are determined using a new procedure. New configurations that produce an electromagnetic cannon that fires aluminium disks are presented. […]
Anno XXIII - n.3 - luglio/settembre 1990 L’astronomia: un’applicazione della fisica
Newtonian gravitational laws explain the motions of planets around the Sun and the motions of double stars around their center of mass. Small deviations from the predictions of these laws have given confirmation of the general relativity theory. Astrophysics, by means of the analysis of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the celestial bodies permits us to derive the surface temperature of stars, […]
Anno XXX - n.3 - luglio/settembre 1997 L’attimo fuggente: ovvero come verificare la rotazione della Terra in meno di venti minuti
The rotation of the Earth produces an effect on the behaviour of a sufficiently long pendulum, as in Foucault’s experiment in 1851. This article illustrates an easy method to measure the Earth’s angular velocity with acceptable accuracy and in less than 20 minutes. […]
Anno XLIII - n.1 - gennaio/marzo 2010 L’eclisse del 1919 e la teoria della relatività – il ruolo dei pregiudizi
When interpreting experimental results, context is everything. The researchers who took and analyzed the most important eclipse data had good reasons for judging the experiment a victory for Albert Einstein. […]