The gyroscope in a smartphone was employed in a physics laboratory setting to verify the conservation of angular momentum and the nonconservation of rotational kinetic energy. As is well-known, smartphones are ubiquitous on college campuses. These devices have a panoply of built-in sensors. This creates a unique opportunity for a new paradigm in the physics laboratory.1–3 Many traditional physics experiments can now be performed very conveniently in a pedagogically enlightening environment while simultaneously reducing the laboratory budget substantially by using student-owned smartphones.
© 2013 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2013
American Association of Physics Teachers
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