Department of Physics

Undergraduate Demonstrations

All currently-available undergraduate demonstrations are catalogued below. To request a demonstration, please fill out the demonstration reservation form.

Mechanics

Demo Code: 1C10.1
Demo Title: Air Track & Rider
Description: Frictionless one-dimensional motion.

Demo Code: 1C20.1
Demo Title: Coin & Feather Dropped in Vacuum
Description: A clear vacuum sealed tube with a valve contains a feather and a coin. The tube is pumped down to vacuum. Holding the tube upright demonstrates how objects fall at the same rate once you eliminate air drag.

Demo Code: 1C20.2
Demo Title: Inclined Air Track with Blinking Lights
Description: Blinking lights on a track are spaced apart on a quadratic scale. You can control the frequency of the blinking via a metronome. A tilted air track & rider are placed alongside the blinking lights. As the rider slides down the track due to gravity, you can see how the position of the rider follows the quadratic term in time in its equation of motion.

Demo Code: 1D40.1
Demo Title: Tossing an Irregularly-Shaped Disk
Description: An irregularly-shaped acrylic disk has its COM marked. You can toss the disk in the air across the room and observe how the COM follows a parabolic trajectory as the disk rotates about its COM as it travels in the air.

Demo Code: 1D40.2
Demo Title: Air Track Inchworm
Description: Two riders on an air track are linked with a spring. Push them close together, then release them one at a time in rapid succession. You will find the riders travel along the track like an inchworm, one following the other.

Demo Code: 1D40.3
Demo Title: Two-Body System on Air Table
Description: Two disks are rigidly linked and placed on an air table. You can combine disks of various sizes and masses. Use those to explore frictionless motion in two dimensions with varying centers of mass.

Demo Code: 1D50.1
Demo Title: Ball on String
Description: Demonstrate circular motion by varying the length of the string as the ball rotates in the air.

Demo Code: 1D50.2
Demo Title: Pail of Water
Description: Demonstrate centrifugal force. A pail is attached to a string, and then filled with water. You can spin the pail in a circular orbit and find that the water doesn't spill out due to inertia.

Demo Code: 1D50.3
Demo Title: Conical Pendulum
Description: A pendulum is attached to the ceiling. But rather than it traveling back and forth in the vertical plane, you can have it trace out a cone by traveling in a circular path in the horizontal plane.

Demo Code: 1D55.1
Demo Title: Grinding Wheel
Description: Demonstrate centrifugal force. A metal rod is brought to contact a grinding wheel inside an enclosure. The sparks flying off the grinding wheel travel in linear path tangent to the circumference of the grinding wheel.

Demo Code: 1D60.1
Demo Title: Falling Pucks
Description: Simple parabolic motion of a projectile.

Demo Code: 1D60.15
Demo Title: Ball & Funnel
Description: A metal ball is placed inside a funnel on a small car. As the car travels on the benchtop horizontally, the metal ball is triggered to shoot vertically upwards. Watch as the ball traces a parabola and lands back inside the funnel

Demo Code: 1F20.1
Demo Title: Table-Cloth Pull
Description: Pull a smooth table cloth from underneath a large beaker filled with water...

Demo Code: 1F30.1
Demo Title: Air Track & Rider
Description: Frictionless one-dimensional motion to demonstrate inertia.

Demo Code: 1H10.20
Demo Title: Fan Cart with Sail
Description: A fan is mounted on a small cart. The "sail" is a sheet of plywood than can be attached to the cart in front of the fan. Watch how the cart moves while the fan is on with and without the sail, demonstrating action and reaction.

Demo Code: 1K10.10
Demo Title: Tipping Block
Description: Demonstrate the effect of friction. A solid rectangular block of wood is placed vertically on the benchtop. Strings are attached to the block at different heights. Pull the different strings and watch how the block moves and at which point it tips over.

Demo Code: 1K10.30
Demo Title: Walking the Spool
Description: Demonstrate the effect of friction. A spool is wrapped with flexible wire. Watch how the direction of the spool's motion changes as you vary the angle at which you tug on the wire.

Demo Code: 1K20.1
Demo Title: Angle of Repose
Description: Demonstrate the effect of friction. Blocks of wood that can carry various masses are placed on an inclined wooden track. Vary the masses and the angles to demonstrate the interplay between friction and orthogonal force.

Demo Code: 1M40.1
Demo Title: Large Pendulum
Description: Demonstrate conservation of energy with flair — and a touch of danger. A large pendulum is suspended from the ceiling. Bring it as close as the tip of your nose at one end of the lecture hall, and watch it make its round-trip to stop exactly where it started.

Demo Code: 1M40.3
Demo Title: Loop-the-Loop
Description: A toy car on a circular track can loop the loop if it starts with enough energy.

Demo Code: 1M40.5
Demo Title: Spring-Couple Pendula
Description: Two pendulums attached with a spring demonstrate conservation of energy.

Demo Code: 1N30.2
Demo Title: Collisions on Air Track
Description: Riders on an air track can collide under different conditions to demonstrate conservation of linear momentum.

Demo Code: 1N30.3
Demo Title: Big Ball & Little Ball
Description: A basketball and a tennis ball can be dropped in different arrangements to demonstrate conservation of linear momentum.

Demo Code: 1N40.1
Demo Title: Air Table Collisions
Description: Floating pucks collide on air table to demonstrate collisions of circular masses on a 2D plane.

Demo Code: 1Q10.1
Demo Title: Cylinders Rolling Down Inclined Plane
Description: Demonstrate how mass distribution of a given cylindrical object affects its moment of inertia, thereby affecting its rotational speed.

Demo Code: 1Q10.2
Demo Title: Moment of Inertia Wheels
Description: Two sets of wheel spokes each have masses attached at different radii. Spin them to demonstrate how moment of inertia affects rotational speed.

Demo Code: 1Q20.1
Demo Title: Maxwell's Wheel
Description: Demonstrate the interplay between potential energy and [rotational] kinetic energy.

Demo Code: 1Q40.2
Demo Title: Squeezatron
Description: Two spinning masses around a central axle can be retracted with a lever, spinning faster as their moment of inertia decreases.

Demo Code: 1Q40.22
Demo Title: Rotating Hoberman Sphere
Description: A rotating Hoberman sphere can be collapsed with a string and pulley mechanism, spinning faster as its moment of inertia decreases.

Demo Code: 1Q40.3
Demo Title: Rotating Platform & Bicycle Wheel
Description: Sit on a stool on a rotatable platform; hold a spinning bicycle wheel oriented horizontally. Once you orient the spinning wheel vertically, you'll find yourself rotating in the chair, demonstrating conservation of angular momentum.

Demo Code: 1Q50.1
Demo Title: Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Description: Suspend a spinning bicycle wheel by a string attached to its axis to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum.

Demo Code: 1Q50.2
Demo Title: Gyroscope
Description: Use a gyroscope to illustrate aspects of rotational kinematics.