The Physics Teacher
May 2026
Volume 64 Issue 5
This Month’s Cover...is a Worthington–Edgerton crown produced by a droplet landing on a stagnant liquid surface. “Defying Gravity” was created by students Angelina Schorr, Grant Adam, Victoria Vo, Ian Becker, and Jennifer Cheng as part of their laboratory activities. For more details, check out “Blending Fluid Mechanics and Art—Part 1: Making a Splash with High- Speed Photography” by Avery Trevino, Madeleine E. Federele, Jack-William Barotta, and Roberto Zenit.
Columns
AI Physics Tools, And the Survey Says..., Astronotes, Fermi Questions, Figuring Physics, For the New Teacher, iPhysicsLabs, Just Physics, Little Gems, Physics Challenge for Teachers and Students, Talkin' Physics, Technology In The Classroom, Tricks of the Trade, TCY Tidbits, Visual Physics, and Websights.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Measure or calculate? by Shiv Kumar Chakarvarti. DOI: 10.1119/5.0318384
A low-cost Van de Graaff generator by Salvatore Ganci. DOI: 10.1119/5.0324670
PAPERS
Experimental Demonstration of the Slingshot Effect by Rod Cross. DOI: 10.1119/5.0251798
Blending Fluid Mechanics and Art—Part I: Making a Splash with High-Speed Photography by Avery Trevino; Madeline E. Federle; Jack-William Barotta; Roberto Zenit. DOI: 10.1119/5.0235801
Noether’s Theorem and Newton’s Laws by Eugene Hecht. DOI: 10.1119/5.0206210
Using Similar Triangles as a Mnemonic to Teach Students About Inclines by Liam G. McDermott. DOI: 10.1119/5.0250515
Modular Tracks for Magnetic Levitation by Kohei Tada. DOI: 10.1119/5.0248064
Make Your School (or Town or State) Part of the Problem! by Boris Korsunsky. DOI: 10.1119/5.0256510
Exploration and Production of Grow Lights: A Multidisciplinary Physics Project Based on Smartphones by Kehong Chen; Yizhou Ling; Youwei Yang. DOI: 10.1119/5.0239435
Distance from the Sun or Solar Incidence Angle? Investigating the Causal Mechanism of the Seasons Through an Experimental Setup by Ioannis Starakis; Krystallia Halkia. DOI: 10.1119/5.0252150
Black Box Experiments with Polarization Filters by Hendrik Maas; Gunnar Friege. DOI: 10.1119/5.0297225
Direction of the Plumb Line by Seppo Mäkinen. DOI: 10.1119/5.0238786
Smart Insight into Vector Inner Products from a Stupid Coordinate System by David Syphers. DOI: 10.1119/5.0244344
Using a Collaborative Exam Approach as an Equitable Exam Retake by Nathan J. Kuwada. DOI: 10.1119/5.0222448
Observations When Students “Self-Assess” Their Homework by John Andrew Milsom. DOI: 10.1119/5.0236100
Using the Falstad Online Simulator to Help Teach the Kinetic Theory of Gases by Derrick E. Boucher. DOI: 10.1119/5.0244169
Does the Meter Matter? Damping Differences in a Magnet–Spring Oscillator from Current vs. Voltage by Hyejung Kwak; Seokmin Yun. DOI: 10.1119/5.0286773
Simple Experiments to Visualize Energy Reduction When Sound Is Not Transmitted by Seokmin Yun; Hyejung Kwak; Hyukjoon Choi. DOI: 10.1119/5.0264469
Using a Mosquito Racket to Illustrate the Link Between Electrostatics and Electric Circuits by Panagiotis Koumaras; Theodoros Pierratos. DOI: 10.1119/5.0236836
An Autonomous Setup for Learning to Control an Oscilloscope by Pedro Assis; João Joaquim; Manuel Ratola. DOI: 10.1119/5.0241330
Using a Smart Cart to Explore Damping in Simple Harmonic Oscillators by Jiawei Song; Yi Zhou; Yuxin Zhang; Xinyu Zhang; Wei Zhuang. DOI: 10.1119/5.0247975
Laser Experiments and Applications on Palm (LEAP): Creating a Do-It-Yourself Wave Optics Educational Opportunity for Schools Without Optics Laboratories by J. G. Ortega-Mendoza; A. Guzmán-Barraza; José Ángeles; Greg A. Smith; Daewook Kim; A. Padilla-Vivanco. DOI: 10.1119/5.0232578
The Leaning Ladder Problem by Rod Cross. DOI: 10.1119/5.0244528
Exploring Introductory Community College Astronomy Performance for Students Requiring Mathematics Remediation with Two-Way ANOVA by Zachary Richards. DOI: 10.1119/5.0248249
A Toy Model to Explain Superconductivity by Suhas Adiga; Mamta; P. Arun. DOI: 10.1119/5.0250860
Neural Network Use for Physics Students: Projectile Motion with Drag by Tom Bensky. DOI: doi.org/10.1119/5.0242692
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