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At the University of Minnesota, we are
always interested in improving the education of our physics students
receive. In the late 1990's we
implemented a computerized version of our
problem-solving labs as part of a NSF-ILI grant
(#9651339) and with support from the University of Minnesota. This was
the subject of Laura McCullough's Ph.D. thesis in 2000:
"The effect of introducing computers into an introductory physics
problem-solving laboratory", which can be downloaded from the home
page.
Programs for data acquisition and analysis are written in LabVIEWTM
from National Instruments and are
designed to reinforce the pedagogy of problem-solving labs. To read more
about the rationale for the software, go to the
Frequently Asked Questions page. The
software was also the subject of an
AAPT talk in 2007. To download the software and/or view system
requirements, visit Download our Laboratory
Software.
Description of programs used in the introductory laboratories:
Practice FIT:
- Practice equation analysis (fit a function to the graph
displayed)
- First exercise in mechanics labs
- Matches data analysis format used in VideoTOOL
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Video RECORDER:
- simple format video display and acquisition
- records a video at 30 frames/second, 5 seconds long
- creates a file with AVI format
- works with Firewire IEEE 1394 video camera
- Allows the user to step through a video frame by frame
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Video TOOL:
- Load and view a video (any AVI file with 30 fps and no
dropped frames)
- calibrate using an object length in the video
- predict x and y position and x and y velocity
- acquire data manually by stepping through video frames
and placing the cursor on a moving object
- analyze data (select a function and change coefficients
to fit data)
- export data to a spreadsheet, e-mail, or text file
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Hall PROBE:
- Used with Vernier Magnetic Field Sensor and LabPro
interface
- Predict, measure, and analyze magnetic field strength
over a distance
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Faraday PROBE:
- Mimics an oscilloscope
- Allows the measurement of the magnitude and period of an
induced magnetic field
- Used with the Vernier Magnetic Field Sensor and
Differential Amplifier
- Predict, measure, and analyze magnetic flux
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