Teaching classical mechanics using smartphones

A number of articles published in this column have dealt with topics in classical mechanics.^1–3 This note describes some additional examples employing a smartphone and the new software iMecaProf.⁴ Steve Jobs presented the iPhone as “perfect for gaming.”⁵ Thanks to its microsensors connected in real time to the numerical world, physics teachers could add that smartphones are “perfect for teaching science.” The software iMecaProf displays in real time the measured data on a screen. The visual representation is built upon the formalism of classical mechanics. iMecaProf receives data 100 times a second from iPhone sensors through a Wi-Fi connection using the application Sensor Data.⁶ Data are the three components of the acceleration vector in the smartphone frame and smartphone's orientation through three angles (yaw, pitch, and roll). For circular motion (uniform or not), iMecaProf uses independent measurements of the rotation angle θ, the angular speed dθ/dt, and the angular acceleration d²θ/dt².