Physics 208 Lecture Demonstrations

Monday, January 24 (Electric Fields)

• Handouts
• Benchtop PC with LCD displays
• Pith balls
• Rods and fur
• Plastic rod and stirrup
• 2 1-kg masses and meter stick

Wednesday, January 26 (Gauss's Law)

• Pith balls (again)
• Rods and fur (again)
• Toepler-Holst (or Wimshurst) with irregular conductors
• Conductor with pith balls in and out
• Overhead projector with E and phi pictures

Friday, January 28 (Electrostatic Accelerators)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Hugh Richards for any required demos

Monday, January 31 (Electric Potential)

• Hair in E-field on overhead projector
• Van de Graaff generator and stool
• Electroscope
• Rubber ball

Wednesday, February 2 (Capacitance and Dielectrics)

• Sample capacitors
• Exploding wire
• Variation of voltage with plate separation
• Table of dielectric constants
• Jacob's ladder

Friday, February 4 (Tour of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Hugh Richards for any required demos

Monday, February 7 (Current and Resistance)

• Sample batteries
• Table of resistivities
• Ohm's law demo
• Light bulb and coil in liquid nitrogen
• Sample resistors

Wednesday, February 9 (Direct Current Circuits)

• Ohm's law board
• RC circuit with square wave on scope (exponential decay)
• Sample galvanometers

Friday, February 11 (Atmospheric Electricity)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Hugh Richards for any required demos

Monday, February 14 (Catchup Lecture)

• Demos to be determined

• No demos

Friday, February 18 (Exam #1)

• No demos

Monday, February 21 (Magnetic Fields)

• Benchtop PC with LCD displays
• Two bar magnets
• Compass needle
• Field patterns of magnets on overhead projector
• Force on wire carrying a current in magnetic field
• Sample galvanometers (again)
• Horseshoe magnet and CRT

• Oersted demo (current in wire and compass needle)
• Magnetic field of wires on overhead
• Force between parallel currents

Friday, February 25 (Plasma Physics)

• Attendance computer
• My laptop PC with LCD displays
• Inner tube
• Plasma discharge tube with horseshoe magnet
• Levitated ball

Monday, February 28 (Faraday's Law)

• Magnet and solenoid with electrometer
• AC and DC generators
• Jumping ring
• Can Crusher
• Induction demo
• Transformer
• Eddy currents (with big electromagnet)
• Large Tesla coil with Faraday cage

Wednesday, March 1 (Inductance)

• Sample inductors
• Big electromagnet (to show switch opening arc)
• RL circuit with square wave on scope (exponential rise)
• RLC circuit with square wave on scope (ringing)

Friday, March 3 (Tour of the Plasma Laboratory)

• Attendance computer
• My laptop PC with LCD displays
• Inner tube

Monday, March 6 (Alternating Current Circuits)

• Light bulb with inductor and movable iron core
• RLC circuit with sine wave on scope (resonance and phase)

Wednesday, March 8 (Electromagnetic Waves)

• Chart of EM spectrum
• Hertz experiment
• Small Tesla coil and oscilloscope with antenna
• Old radio set transmitter
• Microwave source with polarizers
• Radiometer

• Attendance computer
• My laptop PC with LCD displays
• Chart of EM spectrum

Monday, March 20 (Catchup Lecture)

• Demos to be determined

Wednesday, March 22 (Review for Exam #2)

• No demos

• No demos

Monday, March 27 (The Nature of Light)

• Benchtop PC with LCD displays
• Table of indices of refraction
• Plane mirrors
• Candle under water
• Prism rainbow
• Light guides and fiber optics
• Total internal reflection

Wednesday, March 29 (Geometric Optics)

• Plane, concave, and convex mirrors
• Convex and concave lenses
• Light source
• Optics board

Friday, March 31 (Rainbows, Halos, and Glories)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Hugh Richards for any required demos

Monday, April 3 (Interference of Light Waves)

• Film loop showing water wave interference (Byron 8560)
• Young's double-slit experiment on optical bench
• Soap-film interference
• Newton's rings
• Optical flats with sodium lamp

Wednesday, April 5 (Diffraction and Polarization)

• Optical bench with laser and apertures and gratings
• Poloroid sheets

Friday, April 7 (Cosmology)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Don Cox for any required demos

Monday, April 10 (Relativity)

• Clock and meter stick
• 1-kg mass
• Flashlight

Wednesday, April 12 (Quantum Physics)

• Blackbody curves on overhead
• Blackbody radiation
• Franck-Hertz experiment
• Photoelectric effect
• Line emission sources and hand-out gratings

Friday, April 14 (More on the Theory of Relativity)

• Attendance computer
• Demos to be determined (minimal)

Monday, April 17 (Atomic Physics)

• Periodic table

Wednesday, April 19 (Nuclear Structure)

• Geiger counter with radioactive sources
• Periodic table
• Overhead projector

Friday, April 21 (No Class - Good Friday)

Monday, April 24 (Catchup Lecture)

• Demos to be determined

Wednesday, April 26 (Review for Exam #3)

• No demos

Friday, April 28 (Exam #3)

• No demos

Monday, May 1 (Fission and Fusion)

• Benchtop PC with LCD displays
• Mousetrap chain reactor

Wednesday, May 3 (Particle Physics and Cosmology)

• Slides of accelerators
• Balloon

Friday, May 5 (History of the Atomic Bomb)

• Attendance computer
• Consult Prof. Hugh Richards for any required demos

Monday, May 8 (Catchup Lecture)

• Demos to be determined

• Overhead projector (front screen)
• Teaching evaluations