Ebatronics: A New Paradigm for Experimental Laboratory in Applied Science and Technology

In this paper, the main concepts and the preliminary results related to a new approach for creating innovative green laboratory experiences in applied science and technology will be discussed. The term ebatronics is here introduced for the first time in the literature to indicate a kind of experimental laboratory based on the conjunction of wooden recycled materials and microcontroller based devices. In particular, tensegrity based systems are presented. A gallery of prototypes developed by the authors is shown. An intense set of photos will illustrate the real effectiveness of the proposed laboratory project.

Scientific Research: Fun and Excitement for Me … And You!

This brief article is directed towards young readers, perhaps in their teens, who might be thinking about their future careers and the paths that they might like to follow in later life. I give them for consideration an outline of the fun and excitement that I have myself experienced in scientific research, and encourage them to follow me. To do this, I start by giving some remarks about my own early life and its choices. I then identify some of the decisions and lucky breaks that led to my main scientific work on the theories of stability, nonlinear dynamics and chaos. I point to some new frontiers where knowledge of the physical sciences is spreading into wider areas such as the bio-mechanics of DNA and the prediction of tipping points that could dramatically increase global warming. Finally I give some detailed advice that could be useful as you hopefully enter the thrilling world of scientific research.

Taming the Load Current of Identical Cells in Matrix

We explore the load current [Formula: see text] for a rectangular array (matrix) of [Formula: see text] identical cells where [Formula: see text] strings (columns) of [Formula: see text] serial cells (rows) are arrayed in parallel. [Formula: see text] is equal to [Formula: see text] with the internal resistance of the cell and the load resistance exchanged. By treating a linear fractional function as a translated inversely-proportional function, we can easily capture the properties of [Formula: see text] and the relative magnitude of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] via their ratio. The limiting behaviors of the load current are discussed beyond the ideal-cell and short-circuit limits. For the given total number of cells, we graphically verify the recent findings on the matrix of cells that produces the maximum load current. Finally, we analyze the possibility of a car starting with lemon cells or AA dry cells in matrix. This work would be useful in creating a high school or university curriculum that unifies identical cells in series, parallel, or matrix.

Relevancy of Force Concept Inventory and Mechanics Baseline Test in Excerpting Conceptual Understanding of High-Performing Students

In the topics of mechanics, readily available instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) have been extensively used to assess students’ conceptual understanding, especially for high school and undergraduate students. In this paper, the relevancy of these two instruments in excerpting conceptual understanding of high-performing students was examined and the results were elaborated. The findings in this paper suggest that the FCI and MBT are indeed effective to show students’ basic conceptual understanding in mechanics but should not be used to assess improvement after learning intervention or to differentiate students’ conceptual understanding in a population of high performers. More advanced assessments, such as those that comprise higher order thinking questions, should be used for such purposes.

Aspects of Force and Acceleration in Special Relativity

In relativistic dynamics, the direction of acceleration is not generally parallel to the direction of force. Both the magnitude and direction of an object’s three-acceleration can alter even when the magnitude of the applied three-force is constant. Graphs of the variation in acceleration and the angles between an object’s velocity, acceleration, and the applied force vectors are presented in order to illustrate the behavior at close to the speed of light.

Demonstrating Gravitational Lensing Using Solar Eclipses

As encouraged by the interesting paper “Solar eclipses as a teaching opportunity in relativity” by Overduin et al.,awe made measurements of the angular deflections of neighboring stars during the 9 March 2016 total solar eclipse as imaged by National University of Singapore (NUS) students, to verify a result of general relativity. In this project, we used these images and measured the stars’ pixel positions and transformed them to equatorial coordinates using a similar approach to Overduin et al., with a few modifications. Instead of solving to determine the pixel scale and rotation, we performed a plate solution using the software AstroImageJ which enables accounting for the image’s higher order distortion. This data is found in the image’s Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) header. Image star pair separations were then compared to their database separations after determining how the individual deflections affect angular separation. Our experimental results have large uncertainties and were deemed imprecise to confirm the effects of gravitational light deflection. We include a detailed analysis and discussion on this educational project.

A New Thought Experiment on Relativistic Length Contraction

Relativistic length contraction is revisited and a simple but new thought experiment is proposed in which an apparent asymmetric situation is developed between two different inertial frames regarding detection of light that comes from a chamber to an adjacent chamber through a movable slit. The proposed experiment does not involve gravity, rigidity or any other dynamical aspect apart from the kinematics of relative motion; neither does it involve any kind of nonuniformity in motion. The resolution of the seemingly paradoxical situation has finally been discussed.

White Light Communication: A Design for High School Experiment

As wireless communication carrier frequencies continually increase to respond to growing bandwidth demands, from hundreds of MHz (3G/4G) to dozens of GHz (5G), it would only be logical to postulate that the next step in this technological revolution would be to move to hundreds of THz, also known as visible light. This completely alleviates the carrier frequency induced bandwidth limitations while serving as ambient lighting. In this paper, a visible light communication setup capable of moderate bitrate serial communication with interference from ambient lighting will be presented. Furthermore, this paper proposes the implementation of a similar setup as a form of hands-on experiential learning for high school and undergraduate engineering students.

Pendulum Motion Damped by Speed-Independent Friction

A pendulum without a supporting string or rod is obtained if a small block or marble is released at the rim of a spherical bowl or cylindrical half-pipe. This setup also applies to the familiar loop-the-loop demonstration. However, the bob will then experience sliding or rolling friction, which is speed independent in contrast to the linear or quadratic air drag which is more commonly used to model damping of oscillators. An analytic solution can be found for the speed of the bob as a function of its angular position around the vertical circular trajectory. A numerical solution for the time that the object takes to move from one turning point to the next shows that it is smaller than it would be in the absence of friction.