This article describes a simple way to introduce nanomaterials using the presence of carbon nanodots (CNDs) in widely available food. Budweiser® beer and Coca-Cola®, commercial foods that are commonly accessible, were utilized to demonstrate the optical property of nanoparticles. Specifically, green and violet laser pointers were employed for the…

Friction is one of the common forces that affect our everyday life and one of the oldest problems studied in physics. An interpretation of its nature is included in all general physics courses, in both high school and college. The desire and need to better understand it guided a long list of scientists who devoted themselves to the study of…

Gel electrophoresis, used by geneticists and forensic experts alike, is an immensely popular technique that utilizes an electric field to separate molecules and proteins by size and charge. At the microscopic level, a dye or complex protein like DNA is passed through agarose, a gelatinous three-dimensional matrix of pores and nano-sized tunnels.…

A compass is an excellent classroom tool for the exploration of magnetic fields. Any student can tell you that a compass is used to determine which direction is north, but when paired with some basic trigonometry, the compass can be used to actually measure the strength of the magnetic field due to a nearby magnet or current-carrying wire. In this…

Finding ways to demonstrate--in a high school classroom--that subatomic particles from space produce other particles capable of reaching the Earth's surface is not a trivial task. In this paper, we describe a Geiger-Muller tube-based cosmic ray coincidence detector we produced at a total cost of less than $200, using two tubes purchased used…