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Physical Science Study Committee
The Physical Science Study Committee, usually abbreviated as PSSC, was inaugurated at a 1956 conference at MIT to review introductory physics education and to design, implement, and monitor improvements. It produced major new physics textbooks, instructional movies, and classroom laboratory materials, which were used by high schools around the world during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond. Original members * Professor Jerrold Zacharias, chairman * Professor Eric Rogers * Professor Francis L. Friedman * Professor George Gamow * Professor Sanford C. Brown * Professor Victor Weisskopf Development In 1956, MIT professors Jerrold Zacharias and Francis Friedman organized a group of university and high school physics educators to reform the teaching of this fundamental science at the secondary level. There was concern that traditional teaching failed to convey a sense of excitement and inquiry, and a way of thinking about physics beyond rote memorization of equations. After the lau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physics Education
Physics education refers to the methods currently used to teach physics. Physics Education Research refers to an area of pedagogical research that seeks to improve those methods. Historically, physics has been taught at the high school and college level primarily by the lecture method together with laboratory exercises aimed at verifying concepts taught in the lectures. These concepts are better understood when lectures are accompanied with demonstration, hand-on experiments, and questions that require students to ponder what will happen in an experiment and why. Students who participate in active learning for example with hands-on experiments learn through self-discovery. By trial and error they learn to change their preconceptions about phenomena in physics and discover the underlying concepts. Ancient Greece Aristotle wrote what is considered now as the first textbook of physics. Aristotle's ideas were taught unchanged until the Late Middle Ages, when scientists started making ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stroboscope
A stroboscope, also known as a strobe, is an instrument used to make a cyclically moving object appear to be slow-moving, or stationary. It consists of either a rotating disk with slots or holes or a lamp such as a flashtube which produces brief repetitive flashes of light. Usually, the rate of the stroboscope is adjustable to different frequencies. When a rotating or vibrating object is observed with the stroboscope at its vibration frequency (or a submultiple of it), it appears stationary. Thus stroboscopes are also used to measure frequency. The principle is used for the study of rotating, reciprocating, oscillating or vibrating objects. Machine parts and vibrating string are common examples. A stroboscope used to set the ignition timing of internal combustion engines is called a timing light. Mechanical In its simplest mechanical form, a stroboscope can be a rotating cylinder (or bowl with a raised edge) with evenly spaced holes or slots placed in the line of si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Ivey
Donald G. Ivey (6 February 1922 - 25 June 2018) was the principal of the University of Toronto's New College from 1963 to 1974. Career After receiving his PhD in 1949, he joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Physics as Assistant Professor of Physics, becoming a full Professor in 1963. In collaboration with his colleague Patterson Hume, Ivey helped to steer the teaching of physics in a new direction through the use of educational television programs and movies. Hume and Ivey prepared and presented over one hundred television programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on various physics topics. Short films such as ''Frames of Reference'' and the TV show ''The Nature of Things'' used humour and creative camerawork to make physics accessible to a wider range of students. Ivey was Principal of New College and Vice-President of the University of Toronto. Upon his retirement, he was appointed Professor emeritus in 1987. He died on June 25, 2018. He received n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental law of physics that quantifies the amount of force between two stationary, electrically charged particles. The electric force between charged bodies at rest is conventionally called ''electrostatic force'' or Coulomb force. Although the law was known earlier, it was first published in 1785 by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, hence the name. Coulomb's law was essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism, maybe even its starting point, as it made it possible to discuss the quantity of electric charge in a meaningful way. The law states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Coulomb studied the repulsive force between bodies having electrical charges of the same sign: Coulomb also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Education Development Center
Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit organization to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity across the United States and in more than 80 other countries. EDC headquarters are in Waltham, Massachusetts, and main offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago. EDC has 1,400 employees worldwide. EDC uses technology, most notably radio, to provide educational opportunities for hard to reach learners. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia, EDC and its partners used radio to provide lessons to students whose schools were closed due to the disease. Research conducted by EDC on teen smoking has been cited by communities and states as they consider raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21. EDC also works to improve the knowledge base in early childhood development. Named twice to The Boston Globe’s "Top Places to Work," EDC maintains a staff composed of scientists, researchers, mathematicians, educators, and health and tec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subatomic Particle
In physical sciences, a subatomic particle is a particle that composes an atom. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, a subatomic particle can be either a composite particle, which is composed of other particles (for example, a proton, neutron, or meson), or an elementary particle, which is not composed of other particles (for example, an electron, photon, or muon). Particle physics and nuclear physics study these particles and how they interact. Experiments show that light could behave like a stream of particles (called photons) as well as exhibiting wave-like properties. This led to the concept of wave–particle duality to reflect that quantum-scale behave like both particles and waves; they are sometimes called wavicles to reflect this. Another concept, the uncertainty principle, states that some of their properties taken together, such as their simultaneous position and momentum, cannot be measured exactly. The wave–particle duality has been shown to app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crystallography
Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The word "crystallography" is derived from the Greek word κρύσταλλος (''krystallos'') "clear ice, rock-crystal", with its meaning extending to all solids with some degree of transparency, and γράφειν (''graphein'') "to write". In July 2012, the United Nations recognised the importance of the science of crystallography by proclaiming that 2014 would be the International Year of Crystallography. denote a direction vector (in real space). * Coordinates in ''angle brackets'' or ''chevrons'' such as <100> denote a ''family'' of directions which are related by symmetry operations. In the cubic crystal system for example, would mean 00 10 01/nowiki> or the negative of any of those directions. * Miller indices in ''parentheses'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doubleday (publisher)
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores. In 2009 Doubleday merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is now part of Penguin Random House. In 2019, the official website presents Doubleday as an imprint, not a publisher. History The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday in partnership with Samuel Sidney McClure. McClure had founded the first U.S. newspaper syndicate in 1884 (McClure Syndicate) and the monthly ''McClure's Magazine'' in 1893. One of their first bestsellers was ''The Day's Work'' by Rudyard Kipling, a short story collection that Macmillan published in Britain late in 1898. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ripple Tank
In physics, a ripple tank is a shallow glass tank of water used to demonstrate the basic properties of waves. It is a specialized form of a wave tank. The ripple tank is usually illuminated from above, so that the light shines through the water. Some small ripple tanks fit onto the top of an overhead projector, i.e. they are illuminated from below. The ripples on the water show up as shadows on the screen underneath the tank. All the basic properties of waves, including reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction, can be demonstrated. Ripples may be generated by a piece of wood that is suspended above the tank on elastic bands so that it is just touching the surface. Screwed to wood is a motor that has an off centre weight attached to the axle. As the axle rotates the motor wobbles, shaking the wood and generating ripples. Demonstrating wave properties A number of wave properties can be demonstrated with a ripple tank. These include plane waves, reflection, refraction, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signal Generator
A signal generator is one of a class of electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typically used in designing, testing, troubleshooting, and repairing electronic or electroacoustic devices, though it often has artistic uses as well. There are many different types of signal generators with different purposes and applications and at varying levels of expense. These types include function generators, RF and microwave signal generators, pitch generators, arbitrary waveform generators, digital pattern generators, and frequency generators. In general, no device is suitable for all possible applications. A signal generator may be as simple as an oscillator with calibrated frequency and amplitude. More general-purpose signal generators allow control of all the characteristics of a signal. Modern general-purpose signal generators will have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetitive or single waveforms on the screen that would otherwise occur too briefly to be perceived by the human eye. The displayed waveform can then be analyzed for properties such as amplitude, frequency, rise time, time interval, distortion, and others. Originally, calculation of these values required manually measuring the waveform against the scales built into the screen of the instrument. Modern digital instruments may calculate and display these properties directly. Oscilloscopes are used in the sciences, medicine, engineering, automotive and the telecommunications industry. General-purpose instruments are used for maintenance of electronic equipment and laboratory work. Special-purpose oscilloscopes may be used to analyze an automotive ign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heathkit
Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateur radio equipment, robots, electronic ignition conversion modules for early model cars with point style ignitions, and the influential Heath H-8, H-89, and H-11 hobbyist computers, which were sold in kit form for assembly by the purchaser. Heathkit manufactured electronic kits from 1947 until 1992. After closing that business, the Heath Company continued with its products for education, and motion-sensor lighting controls. The lighting control business was sold around 2000. The company announced in 2011 that they were reentering the kit business after a 20-year hiatus but then filed for bankruptcy in 2012,Swindwa, Julie"Disassembly complete: Heathkit is no more" ''The Herald-Palladium'', 19 July 2012 and under new ownership began restr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
