Today's smartphones are getting more sensors than ever as factory-installed accessories. The time when a luxury mobile phone had only vertical and GPS sensors is gone. New smartphones come equipped with multiple sensors for many physical parameters. Smartphones are becoming portable physics laboratory data loggers for a variety of measurements in mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and optics. All sorts of possibilities are now open, provided their sensors are calibrated. Many examples using the sensors available in smartphones have been presented, mostly in this column and a few other publications, such as acceleration sensors,1–3 microphones,4,5 camera,6–8 and light sensors.9,10
References
1.
J.
Kuhn
and P.
Vogt
,“Analyzing spring pendulum phenomena with a smartphone acceleration sensor
,” Phys. Teach.
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, 504
– 505
(Nov. 2012
). 2.
P.
Vogt
and J.
Kuhn
,“Analyzing radial acceleration with a smartphone acceleration sensor
,” Phys. Teach.
51
, 182
–183
(March 2013
). 3.
R.
Vieyra
and C.
Vieyra
,“Analyzing forces on amusement park rides with mobile devices
,” Phys. Teach.
53
, 149
–151
(March 2014
). 4.
K.
Forinash
and R.
Wisman
,“Smartphones as portable oscilloscopes for physics labs
,” Phys. Teach.
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, 242
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(April 2012
). 5.
J.
Kuhn
, P.
Vogt
, and M.
Hirth
,“Analyzing the acoustic beat with mobile devices
,”Phys. Teach.
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, 248
–249
(April 2014
). 6.
J.
Kuhn
, A.
Molz
, S.
Gröber
, and J.
Frübis
,“iRadiactivity — Possibilities and limitations for using smartphones and tablet PCs as radioactive counters
,” Phys. Teach.
52
, 351
–356
(Sept. 2014
). 7.
M.
Meiβner
and H.
Haertig
,“Smartphone astronomy
,” Phys. Teach.
52
, 440
–441
(Oct. 2014
). 8.
M.
Fitzgerald
, D.
McKinnon
, L.
Danaia
, and S.
Woodward
,“Using smartphone camera technology to explore stellar parallax: Method, results, and reactions
,” Astron. Educ. Rev.
10
, 010108
(Dec. 2011
). 9.
J. A.
Sans
, F. J.
Manjón
, A. L. J.
Pereira
, J. A.
Gómez-Tejedor
, and J. A.
Monsoriu
,“Oscillations studied with smartphone ambient light sensor
,” Eur. J. Phys.
34
, 1349
–1354
(Nov. 2013
). 10.
P.
Klein
, M.
Hirth
, S.
Gröber
, J.
Kuhn
, and A.
Müller
,“Classical experiments revisited: Smartphones and tablet PCs as experimental tools in acoustics and optics
,” Phys. Educ.
49
, 412
–418
(July 2014
). 11.
See, for example,
M.
Perryman
,“Resource Letter Exo-1: Exo-planets
,” Am. J. Phys.
82
, 552
–563
(June 2014
) and references therein. 12.
M.
Perryman
, ed., The Exoplanet Handbook
(Cambridge University Press
, Cambridge
, 2011
).13.
Samsung Galaxy S4 specifications
, http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SCH-I545ZKALRA; Capella Microsystems, http://www.capellamicro.com.tw/EN/product_c.php?id=64.14.
Physics Toolbox Apps Suite
, available at http://goo.gl/K4CK3M. Its application for acceleration was introduced in Ref. 4.15.
16.
A.
Barrera
,“Introduction of Studio Physics teaching in Panama
,” AIP Conf. Proc.
1513
, 62
–65
(2013
). © 2015 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2015
American Association of Physics Teachers
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