When we begin our unit on rotational dynamics, should we expect students to understand angular speed and angular acceleration without any prior experience or intuition? In this article, I describe a lab in which students are instructed to spin with different angular speeds, or angular frequencies, and in different units such as rad/s, rpms, and Hz or cps. I have found that after having students perform these spins, they have a better grasp of radians per second as a unit of angular speed and how it compares with Hz or rpms. Going further, this article also includes tips for using mobile phone apps to get more accurate measurements.
References
1.
The full angular kinematics unit is included as an online appendix. This includes the lab handout. See TPT Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/10.0010003 under the Supplemental tab.
2.
A.
Kaps
, T.
Splith
, and F.
Stallmach
, “Shear modulus determination using the smartphone in a torsion pendulum
,” Phys. Teach.
59
, 268
(April
2021
).3.
M. S.
Wheatland
, T.
Murphy
, D.
Naoumenko
, D.
van Schijndel
, and G.
Katsifis
, “The mobile phone as a free-rotation laboratory
,” Am J. Phys.
89
, 342
–348
(April
2021
).© 2022 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by American Association of Physics Teachers.
2022
Author(s)
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.
