The Physics Teacher

Volume 57 Issue 3, March 2019

 

This month's cover provided by James Lincoln and Andrew Davidhazy, reveals dramatic ultraviolet variations in sunflowers at the lower right, while across the diagonal, their glory in the visible is seen. For more information, see the Technology in the Classroom column, “Ultraviolet photography and insect vision.”

 

 

 

Letters to the Editor

Sign convention for backward traveling waves by Carl E. Mungan. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092464

Comments on “Letting students discover the power, and the limits, of simple models: Coulomb’s law” by Peter F. Hinrichsen. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092465

Columns

And the Survey Says..., Figuring Physics, iPhysicsLabs,   Little Gems, Physics Challenge for Teachers and Students, Fermi Questions, Talkin' Physics, Technology in the Classroom, Tricks of the Trade, Visual Physics, and Websights.

Papers

Sound Propagation, Reflection, and Its Relevance to Ultrasound Imaging by Thomas Allen, Alex Chally, Bradley Moser, and Ralf Widenhorn. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092466

Two Beakers, Five E’s, Twenty Pennies, and Archimedes’ Principle by Darcy A.A. Taniguchi, James Rohr, Sam Ridgway, and Kathryn Schulz. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092468

Kinetic Friction: Time Upward and Downward by Irany Vera Manrique, Gabriela Rivadeneyra Gutiérrez, and David Alejandro Martínez González. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092469

Playground Physics: What Happens When Trying a 360° Swing? by Klaus Bickel, and Robert Denschlag. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092470

A Variable-Mass Snowball Rolling Down a Snowy Slope by Scott Rubin. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092471

Teaching Phenomena with NGSS – A Complete Unit by Christopher Like, Jeffrey Morgan, Lawrence Escalada, and Les Burns. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092472

The Pulsar Search Collaboratory: Expanding Nationwide by Kathryn Williamson, Maura McLaughlin, John Stewart, Duncan Lorimer, Harsha Blumer, Cabot Zabriskie, Sue Ann Heatherly, and Ryan Lynch. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092473

Using Real Data from the Kepler Mission to Find Potentially Habitable Planets: An Introductory Astronomy Exercise by Michael C. LoPresto. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092474

Real and “Ghost” Masses in a Statics Problem by P.-M. Binder, Beverly A. Gorospe, and Solomon Singer. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092475

What Force and Torque Are Working with the Roberval Balance? by Jaeseong Park, Hyukjoon Choi, and Jung Bog Kim. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092476

A Low-Cost Experimental Kit for Teaching Wave Optics Based on the CDIO Approach by Dinh Xuan Khoa, and Nguyen Huy Bang. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092477

A Variable Focal Length Lens Made from a Food Preservation Lid by Satoko Uchida. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092478

Geometrical, Fresnel, and Fraunhofer Regimes of Single-Slit Diffraction by Milena Davidovic, and Mirjana Božic. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092479

3-D Optical Path Drawing Method by Chun-Ming Chiang, Shih-Hsin Ma, Jyun-Yi Wu, and Yao-Chen Hung. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092480

Simulating Physics Experiments in Spreadsheets – Experimenting with Ohm’s Law by Zaheer Uddin, and Muhammad Hani Zaheer. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092481

Counterintuitive  by Convection Flux Confined in a U-Shaped Tube by Fernando F. Dall’Agnol, Rodrigo A. Antunes, Marcio R. Loos, and Daniel den Engelsen. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092482

Aspiring to Lead: Physics Teacher Leaders Influencing Science Education Policy by Becky Bundy, Julie Dahl, Seth Guiñals-Kupperman, Katie Martino, Jeff Hengesbach, John Metzler, Trey Smith, Nichole Spencer, Amanda Whitehurst, Michael Vargas, and Rebecca Vieyra. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092483

The Difference Between a Probability and a Probability Density by Antje Kohnle, Alexander Jackson, and Mark Paetkau. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092484

A Study on Parallax Error in Video Analysis by Jeff Stephens, Melissa Bostjancic, and Tara Koskulitz. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092485

Hang Time and March Madness by Terrence P. Toepker. DOI: 10.1119/1.5092493

 

Additional Resources

 

Race and Physics Teaching Collection Resource

DNA Science Lesson & Digi-Kit

Inspired by an article from The Physics Teacher, this multidisciplinary lesson and digital resource collection is based on How Rosalind Franklin Discovered the Helical Structure of DNA: Experiments in Diffraction (Braun, Tierney, & Schmitzer, 2011). Click the image to access this resource.