Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Natural Frequency
Through animations, videos, and text, students discover that all objects have a natural frequency or set of frequencies at which they vibrate.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Forced Vibration
With videos, illustrated diagrams, and informational text, students learn about sound waves as forced vibrations.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Standing Wave Patterns
Elaborate on the essential characteristics and the causes of standing wave patterns and relate these patterns to the vibrations of musical instruments.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music:fundamental Frequency and Harmonics
For musical instruments and other objects that vibrate in regular and periodic fashion, the harmonic frequencies are related to each other by simple whole number ratios. Students learn why these whole number ratios exist for a musical...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Resonance
The focus of this physics tutorial is on the application of mathematical relationships and standing wave concepts to musical instruments in three general categories of instruments: instruments with vibrating strings, open-end air column...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Guitar Strings
A guitar string has a number of frequencies at which it will naturally vibrate. These natural frequencies are known as the harmonics of the guitar string. Students work through several example problems.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Open End Air Columns
Through illustrated diagrams and interactive practice examples, students explore the physics of sound in open-end air column musical instruments.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Sound Waves and Music: Closed End Air Columns
Through illustrated diagrams and interactive practice examples, students explore the physics of sound in closed-end air column musical instruments.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Wavelike Behaviors of Light
In this series of interactive physics tutorials, students will focus on the wavelike nature of light.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Two Point Source Interference
Students examine the findings of Thomas Young's light experiment, which showed that an interference pattern results when light from two sources meets up while traveling through the same medium.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Thin Film Interference
Students investigate an example of interference that provides further evidence in support of the wavelike behavior of light.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Polarization
Through illustrated practice problems and video clips, students learn about polarization of light.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves/color: Electromagnetic and Visible Spectra
This illustrated physics tutorial explains the electromagnetic and visible spectra of light using illustrated examples and interactive practice problems.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves/color: Absorption, Reflection, Transmission
In this physics classroom, students learn how and why light of certain frequencies can be selectively absorbed, reflected or transmitted.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Color Addition
Through illustrated example problems, and some interactive practice, students learn about color addition and color perception.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Color Subtraction
In this physics tutorial, students learn how materials that have been permeated by specific pigments will selectively absorb specific frequencies of light in order to produce a desired appearance.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Blue Skies and Red Sunsets
Students will focus on the interaction of sunlight with atmospheric particles to produce blue skies and red sunsets.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves/color: Two Point Source Interference Pattern
Students investigate the underlying causes of two-point source interference pattern. They also discover that the spatial separation between the antinodal and nodal lines in the pattern is related to the wavelength of the waves.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: The Path Difference
After looking at a representative two-point source interference pattern with accompanying order numbers, students investigate the rationale behind the numbering system, and develop some mathematical equations that relate the features of...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color: Young's Experiment
Students read a detailed description and explanation of Thomas Young's experiment which played a major role in the general acceptance of the wave theory of light.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves/ Color: Other Two Point Source Interference
Where can we experience the phenomenon that light taking two paths from two locations to the same point in space can undergo constructive and destructive interference? There are several answers to these questions and they will be...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Reflection and Ray Model of Light: The Line of Sight
Students explore this simple physics principle: In order to view an object, you must sight along a line at that object; and when you do light will come from that object to your eye along the line of sight.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Reflection and Ray Model of Light: The Law of Reflection
Through an illustrated tutorial and some interactive practice problems, students learn about the law of reflection of light.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Reflection/light Ray Model: Specular/diffuse Reflection
A series of incident rays and their corresponding reflected rays are depicted in the diagrams in this tutorial. Each ray strikes a surface with a different orientation; yet each ray reflects in accordance with the law of reflection.