A smartphone is a powerful learning aid in the hands of a large section of students around the world. The camera of the phone can be used for several learning purposes apart from its obvious purpose of photographing. If the focal length of the lens of the camera can be determined, several experiments in optics can be performed with it. In some…

In this experiment we have first determined the focal length of an equiconvex lens. We have observed that a real image can be formed by the lens on the same side of the source if the source is sufficiently strong. This is due to the reflection from the concave surface of the lens. We have measured these image distances for different object…

We propose a laboratory experiment on the quantitative study of the normal dispersion of light. A triangular isosceles prism made of flint glass TF3 is used as the object of study, and we describe a simple and affordable device for observing and photographing the dispersion spectrum on a smartphone. A possibility of the quantitative investigation…

This paper proposes a simple method to design experiments for drawing the light paths at a lens to find its effective focal length and principal planes. In the designed experiments, long-exposure photography was used to record the light scattered using a moving sheet of paper, thus revealing the light path. According to the proposed experimental…

Data from the Kepler satellite were analysed using the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes database. With the participation of 53 students, we determined the parameters of the HAT-P-7b (Kepler-2) exoplanet system (transit duration, planet-to-star radius ratio, orbital period, semi-major axis and star mass). We used approaches that are easy to…

A simple measurement of the refractive index of a liquid has been performed using a spherical lens. This lens is a spherical shape flask containing the liquid under study. Parallel pointer laser beams are directed to the lens to obtain the back focal length of the lens. The focal point is determined visually or using the Tracker software to…

Astrophotography has been responsible for the discovery of planets, solar systems, stars, and several other celestial objects, which directly helps with expanding our knowledge about the universe and creating scientific models for nature. Practical techniques have been extensively described, including Covington, who has published an extensive…

Many of us teach that insects can see "invisible" ultraviolet light, but what demonstrations do we perform to illustrate this? Often UV can be used to cause fluorescence or phosphorescence, which can make its existence more visible. But, is it possible to create photographs or videos that convincingly illustrate the vision of insects? In…

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the follow-through on thrown ball velocity, potentially justifying inclusion of the follow-through in Roberton's five critical components. Method: Seventy-eight University students participated in the overarm, dominant hand, throwing task, which involved throwing a standard tennis…

From ancient times, the different features of planets and moons have created a huge interest. Aristarchus was one of the first to study the relative relations among Earth, Moon, and Sun. This interest has remained until today, and therefore it is always relevant to make this knowledge more appealing to the younger generations. Nowadays, smartphone…

Collisions are a key topic in physics and engineering education. An experiment with multiple body one-dimensional collisions is presented, aiming to measure relevant physical quantities by tracking the motion of the system of particles during the collision. Relations between different physical quantities can be explored in the experiment, such as…

We demonstrated the fabrication of a low-cost and high-resolution papercraft smartphone spectrometer and characterized its performance by recording spectra from gas discharge lamps. The optical design and a lab-made narrow slit used in the fabrication led to fine images of the slit on the image sensor, resulting in high spectral resolution. The…

This paper mainly proposes a simple method to record scattered light rays via photography, presenting a clearer and brighter representation of the optical path. This technique is applied to the double-slit interference experiment and single-slit diffraction experiment typically conducted in general physics courses, and shows the intuitive results…

Photovoice is a type of participatory action research in which individuals document their experiences through photography. Through the taking, captioning, and reflecting on photographs that they have taken, participants are able to affect change within their communities. Participants also take part in an interview or focus group about their photos…

Huygens' principle in which every point on a propagating wave acts like a point source of radiation is a foundation principle of physics. Normally, Huygens' principle is demonstrated by passing a wave, for example a water or light wave through an aperture comparable in size to the wavelength. In this paper, an experiment is described in which a…