Project Overview
The primary idea of the project "Demonstrations in Physics" is
to create videos of physics demonstrations recorded in a classroom environment
comparable to actual lecture presentations made to students in physics
courses. These movies have been designed so that they can be used by
physics faculty at any institution. The videos can be used by faculty
to supplement their own lectures and demonstrations through the showing
of all or parts of these movies to the students. Also, the movies have
been produced with the goal in mind that faculty could watch them and
then reconstruct their own live demonstrations. The required equipment
and supplies, in most cases, would likely be available in their own respective
departments.
Currently we have produced approximately 200 movies of physics demonstrations.
These movies average about 5 minutes each and encompass almost all topics
which are covered in the standard lower division physics courses. In
the movies, the narrative description and explanations of the principles
are purposefully kept brief to allow for the faculty to provide their
own complete explanations. As each of the demonstrations was produced,
care was taken to ensure the quality of the videos and the accuracy of
the physical principles being portrayed. Each movie is accompanied with
a complete list of the equipment which was used. Also, a brief written
explanation of each movie is included. The videos are compressed in the
popular QuickTime format and then converted to mp4 format to facilitate
the browser based access. This should allow students or faculty to use
these movies without the need for any additional software or hardware.
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