Slow motion video enhances our ability to perceive and experience the physical world. This can help students and teachers especially in cases of fast moving objects or detailed events that happen too quickly for the eye to follow. As often as possible, demonstrations should be performed by the students themselves and luckily many of them will already have this technology in their pockets. The “S” series of iPhone has the slow motion video feature standard, which also includes simultaneous sound recording (somewhat unusual among slow motion cameras). In this article I share some of my experiences using this feature and provide advice on how to successfully use this technology in the classroom.

1.
There have been articles on using slow motion video in a physics class before; for examples, see
Dwain M.
Desbien
, “
High-speed video analysis in a conceptual physics class
,”
Phys. Teach.
49
,
332
(
Sept.
2011
);
Michael
Vollmer
and
Klaus-Peter
Möllmann
, “
Ring falling into a chain: No magic — Just physics
,”
Phys. Teach.
49
,
335
(
Sept.
2011
).
2.
This idea is known as Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem.
3.
This idea came to me courtesy of my mentor
William
Layton
, layton@physics.ucla.edu.
4.
For a discussion of the cup and ball demo, see
A.
Bartlett
, “
Falling chimney apparatus modification
,”
Phys. Teach.
13
,
435
(
Oct.
1975
) and his discussion of real towers in
Albert A.
Bartlett
, “
More on the falling chimney
,”
Phys. Teach.
14
,
351
(
Sept.
1976
). For a good discussion of the physics, see
G.
Varieschi
and
I.
Jully
, “
Toy blocks and rotational physics
,”
Phys. Teach.
43
,
360
(
Sept.
2005
).
5.
The YouTube channel Vsauce has done a great video on this topic and cycloids in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skvnj67YGmw. Also, you will want to read
D.
Figueroa
,
G.
Gutierrez
, and
C.
Fehr
, “
Demonstrating the brachistochrone and tautochrone
,”
Phys. Teach.
35
,
494
(
Nov.
1997
).
6.
See more of
James
Lincoln’s
iPhone video ideas at TPT Online under the “
Supplemental
” tab at https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5011847 E-PHTEAH-55-029709.

Supplementary Material

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