Tag Archives: measurement

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, or Never Use a Formula You Don’t Understand

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Ed Hitchcock

In my grade 10 Science class I recently gave my students an introductory microscope lab, and in my haste I used a “canned” lab from a textbook. Although there are some good activities in this lab, students are presented with … Continue reading →

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Getting to “I don’t know”

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Ed Hitchcock

I like Isaac Asimov’s quote about Science:
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny …’
I tell them repeatedly that all the interesting stuff in … Continue reading →

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Great free tools for sound recording and analysis

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Ed Hitchcock

With my grade 11 Physics class we are currently studying sound, and we have been using a variety of tools. Here are some of the great free tools that we have found useful:
Free Audio Editor
The title of this software pretty … Continue reading →

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Fun with waves

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Ed Hitchcock

The properties of waves are sometimes hard to see when doing real-life demos, so by video recording a wave machine it can be played back, or paused, and viewed repeatedly and at leisure. It also allows us to simultaneously show … Continue reading →

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How Do You Measure That (HDYMT)?

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Ed Hitchcock

Consider the following question:
A projectile leaves a canon at 25 m/s. If the barrel of the canon is 1.0 m long, a) what is the average acceleration of the projectile? b) If the projectile has a mass of 200g, what … Continue reading →

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Tracker is Awesome.

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Ed Hitchcock

I have written before about the importance of measurement, and the importance of authenticity. Of course, these beg the question of how one can produce accurate measurements of real-life events in order to analyze them.
I have used probeware – I … Continue reading →

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Moving toward authenticity

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Ed Hitchcock

Consider the following question:
A dog running for a ball takes 4.6 seconds to reach the ball that lands 59 metres away. How fast did the dog run?
That is a fairly typical introductory physics problem, dealing with uniform motion. It is … Continue reading →

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Inauthenticity and the Null Hypothesis

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Ed Hitchcock

Some of my more astute students point out that problems that ignore everyday forces are unrealistic. This is true, in the sense that projectiles will face air resistance, rolling objects will experience friction etc. However, this is not to say … Continue reading →

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The Importance of Measurement

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Ed Hitchcock

Science and math, by virtue of the paper medium through which they are most frequently disseminated, are intrinsically oversimplified. The questions used have explicit values, and a single correct answer. Questions like:
Two trains leave Montreal at the same time, one … Continue reading →

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