I have long been impressed with the extensive number of experiments that can be done with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The ubiquity and affordability of LEDs continues to provide promise for new inquiry-style experiments. In this article, I describe a few innovations that I have added to the repertoire of the LED as physics equipment. Some of these experiments are on the physics of color, especially with concerns to unusually colored diodes, but mostly they are on new ways to help students and teachers get to know how diodes work and what makes them such special apparatus.
References
1.
E.
Etkina
and G.
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,” Phys. Teach.
52
, 94
(Feb.
2014
).2.
John W.
Jewett
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L.
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I did a similar experiment without dismanteling the nightlight in my article “
Infrared light revisited
,” Phys. Teach.
56
, 570
(Dec.
2018
).5.
The pink diode gets a brief reference in
Gorazd
Planinšič
and Eugenia
Etkina
, “Light-emitting diodes: Learning new physics
,” Phys. Teach.
53
, 210
(March
2015
).6.
Ibid.
7.
Ibid, and also
Yaakov
Kraftmakher
, “Experiments with light-emitting diodes
,” Am. J. Phys.
79
, 825
(August
2011
).8.
Dean
Zollman
and Ian
Bearden
, “Determining Planck’s constant with LEDs—What could possibly go wrong?
” Phys. Educ.
55
, 015011
(2020
).© 2020 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2020
American Association of Physics Teachers
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