Mechanics and properties of matter

Mechanics and Properties of Matter is one of the titles in the series of ASE Lab Books that were published in the early 1970s for the Association for Science Education. Each title brought together the best of the teaching notes and experimental ideas from members of the association that had appeared in the ASE journal, School Science Review.

Contents

Linear motion

• Accelerated motion
• Measurement of g by free fall
• Trajectory of a projectile
• The ticker-tape vibrator used purely for time measurement
• The frequency of a ticker-tape vibrator
• A spirit level accelerometer

Dynamics

• Force of a jet
• The momentum balance: a demonstration of Newton's Second Law of Motion
• The use of dynamics trolleys
• Impulses
• Principle of the jet engine
• Simple illustration of Newton's Third Law
• Experiments with balloons
• Levitation and the Third Law
• Experimental proof of 'force x distance = ½ x mass x velocity squared’
• Swinging spheres
• A centre of gravity kit for first or second forms
• The teaching of moments using a torque-meter
• Apparatus to demonstrate stable, neutral and unstable equilibria
• To find a rule for three or more forces in equilibrium

Circular motion

• The experiment with the flywheel
• A new use for hat-pins
• Rotational motion and a toppler

Pressure

• 'Blowing up' a girl
• Showing atmospheric pressure
• Low pressure in a 'mini-chamber'
• Vacuum at the top
• To show that atmospheric pressure decreases with height
• A simple technique useful for early work on pressure in liquids
• Some elementary demonstrations of pressure phenomena
• An intermittent siphon
• A wider range Boyle's law apparatus for class use
• p-V relationship for gases
• A class apparatus for Boyle's law

Archimedes' principle: the Cartesian diver

• Archimedes' principle
• Teaching Archimedes
• The densities of aniline and water
• Principle of flotation: poser and solution
• A ball-operated Cartesian diver
• A manometer-controlled Cartesian diver

Surface tension

• Surface tension
• A simple demonstration of surface tension
• Simple surface tension demonstration
• Surface tension and the hydrostatic paradox
• Surface tension by capillary 'rise' for mercury
• Surface tension phenomena: an analogue
• Water walls

Elasticity

• A self-plotting extensometer
• Torsion of wires
• Crystal models and elasticity
• The elasticity of rubber

Viscosity

• Viscosity: the parabolic profile
• Modifications to falling-sphere viscometer
• On using bubbles in Stokes' method of measuring the viscosity of a liquid
• Bernoulli's Theorem: fluid flow
• Demonstrating the Bernoulli effect
• Aeroplane wings: a simple laboratory demonstration
• Examples of Bernoulli's Theorem

Miscellaneous

• The Robert Boyle oil film experiment
• 'The splash of a drop'
• Energy transformations: a Meccano flywheel-driven trolley