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We provide background theory with a selection of lesson plans and exercises.
Get involved with data collection and analysis for hands on learning If you'd like to use a spreadsheet to record and plot data but aren't sure how to do it, see our YouTube video guide to using Google Sheets.
Micrometers are used to measure the dimensions of objects with high precision. They are commonly used in laboratories. Here you can learn how to use micrometers to measure the widths of different samples.
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Measurement is the starting point of meaningful scientific understanding. Micrometers are common pieces of equipment used across science and engineering that allow object dimensions to be measured with a high degree of accuracy and precision. This can be vital for designing mechanical components or for experiments in which sample dimensions affect the outcomes, e.g. resistance or stress.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Micrometer experiment or follow these brief instructions:
You can also click ‘New’ for a fresh set of samples with different widths.
To read the micrometer scale (see full instructions for more details):
Download the file below for full instructions for the Micrometer experiment.
Callipers are used to measure the dimensions of objects with high precision and are often used in laboratories. Here you can learn how to use Vernier callipers to measure the widths of different samples.
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Measurement is the starting point of meaningful scientific understanding. Callipers are common pieces of equipment used across science and engineering that allow object dimensions to be measured with a high degree of accuracy and precision. This can be vital for designing mechanical components or for experiments in which sample dimensions affect the outcomes, e.g. resistance or stress.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Callipers experiment or follow these brief instructions:
To read the calliper scale (see full instructions for more details):
Download the file below for full instructions for the Callipers experiment.
Statistical analysis:
Structural materials are required to withstand a variety of applied loads in use. Understanding how these materials respond to applied loads is vital for informed materials selection. Here you can investigate how materials behave under tensile loading (loads applied along the length of a material to cause stretching).
This is only the LITE version, the full version (wtih all materials) is availabe via log-in.
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What is ‘Tensile Testing’?
The ‘tensile’ properties of a material describe its most basic mechanical behaviour – how much does a material stretch when it is pulled and how much of the stretching is permanent? ‘Tensile Testing’ is the process of measuring a material’s tensile properties.
Why are tensile properties important?
Understanding of tensile properties is vital for any application that uses materials structurally, i.e. to withstand or apply force. The range of uses this covers is enormous. Strong and stiff structures are used in vehicles (cycles, cars, trains, aeroplanes, spacecraft), bridges and buildings, sports equipment and bio-implants (e.g. hip joint replacements). Flexible materials are also used in many of these applications. Thin but robust materials are used in touchscreens. Hard materials are used in machines and robots that process and shape other materials and as durable coatings that improve the performance and lifetime of aerospace and bio-implant components. Elastic materials can be stretched enormously before any permanent change is made and are used in springs and high performance fabrics. And it’s not just how a component is used – many manufacturing processes involve changing a component’s shape or response to applied forces, e.g. extrusion to make tubes, beams and bottles; drawing to make springs or wires; or forging and rolling to shape and harden metals.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
To select a sample:
To set the strain increment:
To apply strain to samples:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login).
Structural materials are required to withstand a variety of applied loads in use. Understanding how these materials respond to the applied loads is vital for informed materials selection. Here we investigate how materials behave under tensile loading (loads applied along the length of a material to cause stretching).
The Tensile Test experiment allows a number of mechanical tests to be performed on materials, including:
Download the file below for activities for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
We have also provided a spreadsheet file to allow you to enter your SAMPLE WIDTH, STRAIN and APPLIED LOAD data and obtain stress-strain plots. (HINT: to investigate the general form of stress-strain curves with younger students, use a default sample width of, say, 7 mm)
Download: Tensile testing - Quick Activities Download: Tensile testing - Activity 1 - Elastic Deformation Download: Tensile testing - Activity 2 - Plastic Deformation Download: Tensile testing - Activity 3 - Fracture Download: Tensile Testing - Spreadsheet0 Download: Tensile testing - All Activities PDF Download: Tensile testing - All Activities Word fWatch the video above and download the file below for the background science behind the Tensile Testing experiment (requires log in).
Download: Tensile testing background
Ohm's law is a fundamental equation that shows how voltage, electrical current and electrical resistance are related in simple conductors such as resistors. This experiments allows you to explore Ohm's law and how the coloured bands on resistors codes their resistance. In doing this you will also learn how to use a power supply and 'digital multimeters'.
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Ohm’s law
Voltage, current and resistance are the most fundamental quantities for describing the flow of electricity. Ohm’s law shows how these three quantities are related and so is a powerful way of understanding the basic nature of electricity.
This is relevant to vast areas of technology today, including national electricity grids, power generation, design of all electronic devices and all electronic circuits, heating, electrical safety and understanding of natural phenomena such as lightning. This experiment will allow you to explore Ohm’s law by making measurements of voltage, current and resistance.
Resistors
Resistors are the simplest and most commonly used electronic component and almost all electronic circuits contain them. They can be used to change the properties of any circuit they are part of, such as current flow, how voltage is distributed across components, the speed of a circuit, the amount of amplification from a circuit, the response of a sensor or the amount of electrical heating from a circuit.
The simplest resistors are made of a thin film or wound wire of carbon or metal. They usually have a series of coloured bands that represents both their target resistance value and how much the actual value might vary from this (the ‘tolerance’). This experiment lets you practise selecting the appropriate colour bands on a resistor to achieve a certain resistance value.
Digital Multimeters
Digital multimeters (DMMs) are versatile pieces of equipment commonly found in electronics, physics and engineering labs. In this experiment you’ll learn how to use a DMM to measure voltage, current and resistance. You’ll see this piece of equipment in many other FlashyScience experiments!
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Ohm's Law experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
To measure resistance:
To change the resistor:
To use voltage and current:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Ohm's Law experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities for the Ohm's Law experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Ohm's Law experiment (requires log in).
Gravity is a fundamental force in nature, without which we would not have galaxies, stars, the Earth, oceans, life on Earth... or golf.
This experiment allows you to measure the acceleration due to gravity by measuring the time taken for a ball to fall through different heights. You can choose between two ways of timing the free fall, and you can even travel through space to measure the strength of gravity on different objects of the Solar system!
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It is safe to say that gravity is important to us! Without gravity there would be no life on Earth and, in fact, without gravity, the Earth would never have existed.
Gravity is responsible for stars forming in the first place, keeping the Sun from exploding from the heat it generates, and for the structure of galaxies. It also keeps the Earth in orbit around the Sun, keeps our atmosphere and oceans in place and means we don’t float off into space. Gravity even allows plants to detect which way is ‘up’ so they send their roots and shoots in the right directions. You can see more at this NASA web page.
So, why does it matter that we know how strong gravity is?
Well, for lots of reasons.
The strength of gravity is essential to know in Civil Engineering projects such as design of
buildings and bridges so we can calculate the stresses materials are under.
Aircraft and space rocket designers must know the strength of gravity that must be overcome and satellite technology is based upon a certain strength of gravity to maintain orbits at particular heights above the Earth.
Hydroelectric power generation also relies on gravitational potential energy, either through energy ‘storage’ in dams or from the water flow or tides in rivers or oceans.
Our quality of life would be very different too. Most sports rely on gravity (we’re not counting chess as a sport here!) and gravity even keeps food in a saucepan while it cooks!
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Free-fall due to Gravity experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
Measured Earth’s gravity? Click on the poster to explore gravity elsewhere in the Solar System too!
Download the file below for full instructions for the Free-fall due to Gravity experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities for the Free-fall due to Gravity experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Free-fall due to Gravity experiment (requires log in).
Gases are complicated. A typical experiment with gases involves billions of atoms and molecules that are all colliding with each other. It is impossible to calculate all of these interactions but the concept of an 'ideal gas' approximates how these collisions work and allows us to predict the behaviour of a real gas. In this experiment you can explore how gas temperature, volume and pressure are related and how you could use them to create a heat engine.
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Thermodynamics and engine cycles are relevant to most areas of technology and science.
The behaviour of gases is used directly in applications as diverse as compressors, refrigerators, power generation from steam-driven turbines (used in gas-fired, coal-fired or nuclear power stations), pumping of gases (from natural gas pipe networks to aqualungs), and transport vehicles using petrol and diesel engines (combustion engines), jet and rocket engines, high performance tyres (e.g. for F1 cars) and even hot air balloons!
Thermodynamics is relevant far more widely though and to any system in which there is a change in energy, volume or ordering. This is relevant to almost every process around us, from sub-atomic particles forming atoms to the expansion of the universe and taking in atoms bonding to make a molecule or crystal (Physics), molecules reacting with each other (Chemistry), all biological processes (Biology), the weathering of rocks and tectonic plate movement (Geology). Even your breathing while you read this and your eye converting light into electrical signals so you can read this are thermodynamic processes. All energy technologies, materials manufacturing or recycling, chemical processing, transport technologies and even information technologies rely upon the principles of thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics and gas laws are, therefore, incredibly important topics. The FlashyScience Gas Laws virtual experiment allows you to start to explore this fascinating area of science and engineering.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Gas Laws experiment (requires login).
Download the ‘How To’ attachments for step-by-step instructions on conducting experiments for:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Gas Laws experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities for the Gas Laws experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads and all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Gas Laws experiment (requires log in).
Structural materials are required to withstand a variety of applied loads in use. Understanding how these materials respond to applied loads is vital for informed materials selection. Here you can investigate how materials behave under tensile loading (loads applied along the length of a material to cause stretching).
Press GO to launch the experiment!
What is ‘Tensile Testing’?
The ‘tensile’ properties of a material describe its most basic mechanical behaviour – how much does a material stretch when it is pulled and how much of the stretching is permanent? ‘Tensile Testing’ is the process of measuring a material’s tensile properties.
Why are tensile properties important?
Understanding of tensile properties is vital for any application that uses materials structurally, i.e. to withstand or apply force. The range of uses this covers is enormous. Strong and stiff structures are used in vehicles (cycles, cars, trains, aeroplanes, spacecraft), bridges and buildings, sports equipment and bio-implants (e.g. hip joint replacements). Flexible materials are also used in many of these applications. Thin but robust materials are used in touchscreens. Hard materials are used in machines and robots that process and shape other materials and as durable coatings that improve the performance and lifetime of aerospace and bio-implant components. Elastic materials can be stretched enormously before any permanent change is made and are used in springs and high performance fabrics. And it’s not just how a component is used – many manufacturing processes involve changing a component’s shape or response to applied forces, e.g. extrusion to make tubes, beams and bottles; drawing to make springs or wires; or forging and rolling to shape and harden metals.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
To select a sample:
To set the strain increment:
To apply strain to samples:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login).
Structural materials are required to withstand a variety of applied loads in use. Understanding how these materials respond to the applied loads is vital for informed materials selection. Here we investigate how materials behave under tensile loading (loads applied along the length of a material to cause stretching).
The Tensile Test experiment allows a number of mechanical tests to be performed on materials, including:
Download the files below for activities for the Tensile Testing experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
We have also provided a spreadsheet file to allow you to enter your SAMPLE WIDTH, STRAIN and APPLIED LOAD data and obtain stress-strain plots. (HINT: to investigate the general form of stress-strain curves with younger students, use a default sample width of, say, 7 mm)
Watch the video above and download the file below for the background science behind the Tensile Testing experiment (requires log in).
Radioactive materials are used by us in lots of ways. This experiment allows you to explore alpha, beta and gamma radiation and how they are absorbed by various materials. You can also measure the change in radioactive signal with distance from the radiation source and even time travel to measure the halflife of radioactive decay for different elements!
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Radioactive elements (radionuclides or radioactive isotopes) produce high energy particles and are used in a huge range of applications. Most people know about nuclear power, which converts the energy of radiation from uranium-238 or plutonium-239 into heat and then electrical power, even in small-scale form for remote applications (e.g. spacecraft). There are far more widespread uses all around us though.
Radionuclides are used in many medicinal applications. They can be used as tracers to follow fluid flow inside the body by detecting the radionuclide emitted radiation (e.g. technetium-99, thallium-201, iodine-131 and sodium-24). Medical imaging can use radioactive elements that naturally collect in particular parts of the body and image the radioactive emission. For example, iodine-131 is used to image the thyroid and other isotopes can be used for other organs, such as bones, heart, liver and lungs. Larger doses of the radionuclides (e.g. cobalt-60) are used to create a targeted radiotherapy treatment of cancer in these organs. It is even possible to detect the presence of Heliobacter pylori (an unwanted bacterium that can be in stomachs) with a simple breath test that uses carbon-14.
You may have radioactive materials in your home, school or workplace. Smoke detectors use alpha radiation from americium-241 to ionise smoke particles for detection. Glow-in-the-dark inks on clocks, watches and emergency signs that convert radioactive particle energy from promethium-147 into light.
You may also have food that has been treated with radiation. Many foods (including tomatoes, mushrooms, berries, cereals, eggs, fish and some meat products) are irradiated with gamma rays from cobalt-60 to kill micro-organisms and improve the food’s shelf life (without making the food radioactive!). Similarly, gamma radiation from caesium-137 is used to sterilise medical products such as syringes, heart valves, surgical instruments and contact lens solutions.
Radioactive elements are used in industry too. For example, the absorption of different types of radiation mean it can be used to monitor the thickness of manufactured components and sheets. Radionuclides are also used for detecting leaks from pipes, the direction of underground pipes and waste dispersal in the environment. Radioactive sources are also used in industrial imaging, with the sample placed between the radiation source and a detector. Certain isotopes are used as chemicals in order to trace chemical reaction routes, e.g. carbon-14 in photosynthesis. Similar approaches are used in biology to test when proteins undergo important ‘phosphorylation’ reactions (using phosphorus-32) to learn when their function is activated by other proteins or small chemicals.
Radioactive elements can also be used for historical dating of objects, e.g. carbon-14 dating for estimating the age of organic matter and uranium-238 for rocks. Similarly, radioactive decay from vintage drinks such as wine can be used to prove their age, since radionuclides were released into the atmosphere by nuclear explosion tests after World War II and are present in all food and drink produced since then.
With so many uses, it’s no wonder that radioactive decay is an important aspect of science and engineering!
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Radioactivity experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
Select the radiation source:
Detecting radiation:
Changing the filter material and thickness:
Change the source-detector separation:
Time travel!
Download the file below for full instructions for the Radioactivity experiment (requires log in).
Download the file below for activities for the Radioactivity experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Or see if you can do some of the following:
Download the file below for the background science behind the Radioactivity experiment (requires log in).
A potential divider is a simple circuit that uses resistors to supply a variable 'potential difference' (i.e. voltage).This can be used for many applications, including control of temperature in a fridge or as audio volume controls. Understanding how the resistors in the circuit allow this is important for designing many electronic circuits. Here you can investigate how changes in the two resistors can lead to different voltages across them.
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Most electrical or electronic circuits use the voltage across the circuit components to perform some task. This includes motors, sensors, speakers, computer chips, LEDs and diode lasers, communications antennas (e.g. in mobile phones), heaters, turbines, and mains electricity delivery to houses and industry.
It is important to know how to control the voltages in these circuits to make the applications work! The simplest circuit to start to understand this is the potential divider, which is made up of two resistors in series. Other circuits may be made of more advanced components but often use the same principles of voltage (i.e. ‘potential’) division. For example: two transistors in opposite high or low resistance states and connected in series are used to define whether a ‘logic gate’ is set to a digital (Boolean) value of 1 or 0, and are a fundamental building block of how a digital computer processor works.
Sensors can be made from a fixed resistor and a component that has a resistance that depends on whatever is being sensed connected, e.g. a thermistor for sensing heat or a light-dependent resistor for sensing light. A voltage applied to the two components in series allows the voltage across the fixed resistor to be a measure of the resistance of the sensing element’s resistance. This approach can avoid some difficulties of just using the single element, such as high power consumption.
Electrical heaters (including room heaters, cookers and hair dryers) use a fixed resistance heating element (e.g. a coil of wire) and a variable resistance transistor in series. The resistance of the transistor then controls how much voltage is across the heating element and, therefore, how much electrical heating is produced!
This experiment allows you to gain a good understanding of the potential divider. It also allows you to reinforce your understanding of Ohm’s law, how resistor coloured bands code for resistance, and how to use digital multimeters (DMMs), which you may have already met in the FlashyScience Ohm’s Law experiment.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Potential Divider experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
To measure resistance:
To change a resistor:
To measure voltage and current:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Potential Divider experiment (requires log in).
Download the file below for activities for the Potential Divider experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Potential Divider experiment (requires log in).
The electrical resistivity of a wire tells us how well the wire material conducts electricity. This is crucial information for any application that involves conducting electricity, including wind turbines, electric vehicles, household electrical goods and computers. Here you can measure the resistivity of wires of different materials and widths, and consider which would be best suited for conducting electricity.
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Electronic materials are crucial to our life today, and electrical ‘resistivity’ tells us how good or poor a material is at conducting electricity.
We use materials with low electrical resistivity to transmit electrical power from generators, across grid distribution networks, and to homes and workplaces for use. Designers of electrical devices rely on knowing the resistivity of wire used in order to calculate the resistance of components.
These devices range in size from enormous machines such as wind turbines or industrial lifting equipment; motors or engines in electric vehicles and all-new electric aircraft; consumer products such as washing machines, hair dryers and ovens; and the nanoscale components within the computer chips found in smart devices, laptops, and mobile phones.
In fact, modern computing is based on controlling the resistivity of semiconductor materials in a type of transistor (known as ‘field effect transistors’ using ‘CMOS’ technology).
Measuring electrical resistivity helps us to understand the properties of materials, to monitor manufacturing processes, and to select the best material for an application.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Resistivity of a Wire experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Resistivity of a Wire experiment (requires log in).
Download the file below for activities for the Resitivity of a Wire experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Resitivity of a Wire experiment (requires log in).
An 'IV characteristic' of a device shows how the electrical current in the device changes with applied potential difference. The IV characteristic is linear for some devices and nonlinear for others. This experiment allows you to explore the IV characteristics of resistors, a filament lamp and diodes by changing and measuring potential difference and current.
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Electricity powers the modern world. It is essential for electronic devices, home appliances, travel and school, work and leisure.
The widespread use of electricity is because we can make so many components that have different electrical behaviours, and then combine them to make all sorts of devices and machines. These behaviours can be seen most easily by creating a graph of the electrical current (I) through a component against the potential difference (V) placed across it. This graph is known as a component’s IV characteristic.
The simplest component is the electrical resistor. These have fixed electrical resistance, which means the electrical current is proportional to the potential difference and the IV characteristic is linear. Resistors are vital to almost all electrical devices, from a mobile phone to the world’s most powerful supercomputer, a flashlight to electric vehicles, an electric toothbrush to a medical scanner, your internet router to a communications satellite, or a vacuum cleaner to air-conditioning.
Diodes are made of two different semiconductor materials joined together and only allow electricity to flow in one direcion through them. They are hugely important in electronics and electrical engineering. They are most often used to convert alternating current (AC) electricity to direct current (DC), for example to convert mains electricity into 12 V DC used for charging mobile devices. They are also widely used to protect electronic circuits by preventing unwanted currents.
Filament lamps might not be used for lighting as much as they once were but they show interesting electrical effects. They contain a long, thin metal 'filament' that heats up when high electrical current is flowing, which results in it starting to glow and give off light. The heating also changes the filament's electrical resistance, which results in a non-linear IV characteristic.
This virtual experiment will allow you to explore the electrical behaviour of resistors, diodes and filament lamps. You can take measurements of current and potential difference, plot a graph of their IV characteristics, and find their resistance values.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the IV Characteristics of Devices experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the IV Characteristics of Devices experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities for the IV Characteristics of Devices experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the IV Characteristics of Devices experiment (requires log in).
Hooke's law describes how springs respond to having forces applied. This experiment allows you to apply force using weights and measure how springs of different stiffness extend in response. You can calculate the stored elastic potential energy in the springs and even go to different parts of the Solar System to see how changing the strength of gravity changes the weight applied to the springs!
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Stretching – the truth!
You may wonder why we study springs and why questions about stretching springs appear on exams. Sure, springs are used in the world, but are they really so important? Why is it important to know how springs stretch when they are pulled?
Well, first, springs are incredibly useful. When made from elastic materials, such as most metals, springs stretch when pulled and return to their original size when released. They can also be compressed and, again, return to their original size when released. The stretching or compression stores energy that is then returned when the spring is released. This energy storage and return is the key reason springs are useful. Springs use this capability in all sorts of applications, including in high tech areas such as automotive, industrial tools and robotics, to more everyday items such as trampolines, mattresses, children’s play equipment, door handles and retractable pens.
The second reason is that the way that springs respond to force being applied to them (i.e. being pulled or mass added to one end of them) is identical to how materials in general behave. If materials are pulled, then they stretch. The coiled shape of a spring, though, means that the ends tend to move large distances compared to a regular shape of the same material (e.g. a simple rod). This means that studying what happens to springs when they are pulled allows simple measurements to be performed that give us understanding of how all materials behave when they are pulled. Materials behave this way in any application where they have force applied to them, e.g. in construction, vehicles, heart valves, body implants, plants, rocks, furniture, tools, footwear – the list goes on and on. And don’t forget this includes your body too!
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Hooke's Law experiment (requires login) or follow these brief instructions:
5. To change to a different part of the Solar System:
6. Click the Information button to see the controls.
Use this experiment to:
Download the file below for full instructions for the Hooke's Law experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Hooke's Law experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Hooke's Law experiment (requires log in).
Specific heat capacity of solids is important to understand in lots of applications that deal with heat energy and changes in temperature. This experiment allows you to control the electrical heating power applied to a choice of six different materials and measure the rate at which the sample temperature changes. You can then calculate the specific heat capacity of the chosen material. Compare the different materials, investigate the effect of having thermally insulated or uninsulated samples, and see if different heating powers change the measurements.
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There are lots of ways that we use materials that see them change temperature. Some examples include heating systems in buildings (especially storage heaters), simple household appliances such as an iron or an oven, combustion engines in cars, jet engines in aircraft, high speed machines such as drills, and industrial furnaces; however, examples also include applications where the temperature is reduced, for example in refrigerators, freezers and heat sinks, which are used to help cool another component.
A change in a material’s temperature will also result in a change in its heat energy. Different materials, however, will have a different change in heat energy for a given change in temperature.
The material's property we use to show this difference is called specific heat capacity. This property is key to allowing us to understand how components will perform in thermal applications and help us to choose the most appropriate material. If you go to study Physics or Engineering at university you will probably also learn how specific heat capacity values depend on a material’s types of atom, atomic bonding and electrical properties.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Specific Heat Capacity: Solids experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Specific Heat Capacity: Solids experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Specific Heat Capacity: Solids experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Specific Heat Capacity: Solids experiment (requires log in).
Understanding the relationship between force, acceleration and mass is key to starting to understand the physics of changing motion. This experiment allows you to change the mass of a tabletop car and the force applied to it before timing how long it takes the car to move various distances. Analysis of your results will allow you to see the relationship between acceleration and force.
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The FlashyScience Acceleration and Force experiment might use a toy car on a table top but the science you can learn from it helps us to understand the world around us, to design all sorts of new vehicles and machines, and even to understand our bodies better.
At the largest of scales, knowing the huge forces involved with galaxies, stars and planets show us how these huge objects move and even how they form. We use our knowledge of force and acceleration to launch objects into space using rockets and to put satellites into stable orbits. This knowledge also allows us to calculate the acceleration of high performance cars (e.g. F1 cars) and aircraft, to design and build machines with moving parts, and to understand the forces parts of our bodies experience through an area of science called biomechanics. Force and acceleration can even be used to measure the mass of atoms and molecules through scientific techniques called mass spectrometry, and help us to understand how atoms interact in gases.
You can see that knowledge of force and acceleration is essential to lots of areas of science, engineering and our lives in general.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Acceleration and Force experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Acceleration and Force experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Acceleration and Force experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Acceleration and Force experiment (requires log in).
Density is an 'intrinsic' property of materials and liquids, which means its value doesn't change when the amount of material or liquid changes. This experiment allows you to find the density of various materials with regular and irregular shapes, as well as several liquids, using three methods of determining mass and volume.
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Density is a basic property of materials and liquids. It is important in all sorts of areas of science, engineering and medicine. Density (mass per unit volume) is related to the type of atoms within the material or liquid and how they are arranged. Changing the temperature of a solid or liquid often changes its volume, which also changes its density. Different processing treatments of materials can lock in some of these changes, resulting in materials made of the same atoms but with different densities. Many materials can be ‘porous’ (contain lots of holes) and being able to measure density is a simple way of finding the level of porosity of a material.
The buoyancy of a solid in a liquid depends upon the density of the solid and liquid. Ice floats in liquid water because ice molecules are more widely spaced than those in water, and so the density of ice is lower than that of water.
The density of solids and liquids is also related to a substance’s refractive index and how it interacts with X-rays. For example, your bones are denser than your muscle tissue and so absorb X-rays more; this allows medical images to be created that show the different regions inside your body.
Density is vital to the efficient design of physical objects, particularly for structural and transport applications. There is a huge demand for engineers and materials scientists to create lighter vehicles and aircraft to reduce their power requirements and help reduce our use of fossil fuels.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Density of Solids & Liquids experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Density of Solids & Liquids experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Density of Solids & Liquids experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Density of Solids & Liquids experiment (requires log in).
Understanding the electric resistance of metal wires is fundamental to being able to design electrical machines and electronic devices. In this experiment, you can vary the effective length of a wire by moving an electrical contact and then go on to measure the wire's electric resistance by measuring potential difference and electric current on analogue dials.
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Electricity powers so much of our life today. We use metal wires to transmit electrical power from power generators, such as power stations, ‘PV’ (photovoltaic) devices and wind turbines, to our homes and workplaces.
We use ‘resistance’ to measure how easily materials allow electrical current to flow. It is vital to the design of power distribution networks over long distances to understand how the length of a metal wire affects its resistance.
On smaller scales, it is important to know how the length of a conducting wire changes its resistance for applications that use motors, from washing machines through to electric cars and industrial machines. Electricity is also used in heaters, from industrial furnaces for large-scale materials processing through to ovens, underfloor heating and kettles, and in all sorts of electronic devices, such as computers, screens and sensors.
Designing any of these applications to be efficient and effective requires understanding how electricity flows through the materials in the various devices.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Resistance (of a wire) experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Resistance (of a wire) experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Resistance (of a wire) experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Resitance (of a wire) experiment (requires log in).
Heat is transmitted by conduction, convection or radiation. This experimental allows you to investigate thermal conduction by measuring the time for thermal energy to pass through different materials.
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The thermal conductivity of materials is hugely important for how we live today.
Thermally-insulating materials are found in lots of places around the home. This includes safety items such as oven gloves or fire blankets and inside ovens and refrigerators to stop them heating or cooling the rest of your kitchen! Your hot water pipes and water heating system will probably have thermal insulation around them to stop unwanted heat loss. Houses and other buildings usually have thermal insulation around them to reduce heat loss when it is cold outside and reduce heat entering when it is very hot outside. This is important as we try to reduce CO2 emissions from energy use as part of our fight against climate change. Insulating materials are also used around industrial furnaces, in refrigerated vehicles and packages (e.g. for transporting food or medical supplies) in aircraft to keep crew and passengers warm in the cold air, and in spacecraft to stop the insides reaching temperature extremes and protecting the spacecraft itself from burning up if it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.
Thermally-conducting materials are also very important to heating and cooling systems, such as heating elements in kettles and furnaces, radiators, high speed industrial machines and heat-sinks found in electronic devices.
Heat conduction is also really important in many renewable energy technologies, such as solar cells (photovoltaics), which work less efficiently if they heat up, and ‘thermoelectric generators’ (TEGs), which are most efficient if they conduct electricity well but conduct temperature weakly.
This huge range of applications means there is a lot of research and development of materials with new thermal conduction properties. How materials conduct heat is also related to their atomic-scale structure – this means that we can learn about the materials from how they conduct heat and change their structure in order to create new properties that are better suited for particular applications.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Thermal Insulation experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Thermal Insulation experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Thermal Insulation experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Thermal Insulation experiment (requires log in).
This experiment allows you to measure the infrared emission from the four different surfaces of a Leslie cube. You can choose which surface to measure, see what happens as temperature changes, and adjust the signal strength by changing the detector position and the level of signal amplification. Advanced activities involve calculations of emissivity, how signal varies with source-detector separation, and the temperature-dependence of infrared emission.
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Any object emits electromagnetic radiation due to having a temperature above absolute zero (about -273.15°C), although different surfaces emit the radiation to different levels. This might seem like a curiosity created just for lab measurements but it has lots of real-world relevance.
The hotter an object is, the stronger this thermal emission is. Objects with different temperatures emit different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum too. Objects close to room temperature (like us!) only emit infrared radiation (‘IR radiation’), which we feel as warmth. Objects at hundreds of degrees Celsius start to emit visible radiation (wavelength from 400 – 700 nm), those at thousands of degrees Celsius emit ultra-violet (UV) radiation (wavelength from 100 – 400 nm), while the hottest objects in the galaxy (e.g. regions around black holes) emit X-ray radiation (wavelengths shorter than 100 nm).
The most important aspect of thermal emission is that life on our planet would not exist without it! Our nearest star, the Sun, is so hot its IR emission reaches across over 140 million kilometres (that’s over 90 million miles) of space to warm our planet. The Sun’s visible light also allows us to see. The Earth’s ozone layer plays an important role in absorbing most of the UV light from the Sun, which would otherwise reach us at harmful levels.
Astronomers also use the thermal emission from other stars and astronomical objects to learn about how they were formed, their lifecycle, and the processes that go on within them.
Climatologists and meteorologists (scientists who study the Earth’s climate and weather) use satellites to map the IR emission of the Earth’s atmosphere and land to help predict future weather events and trends. The surface of the Earth can also be imaged to locate underground heat sources, objects and water flows.
In smaller-scale applications, surface materials are often chosen to help either cool or insulate an object by either maximising or minimising IR emission, depending on what is needed. IR emission is used in some household or industrial heaters and to measure temperature in areas such as industrial manufacturing processes and medical applications, e.g. measuring the temperature of a patient.
‘Thermal imaging’ cameras create images from IR emission for a huge range of applications, including night vision (e.g. for security systems or non-invasive imaging of wild animals), analysing heat sources in electronic circuits, industrial monitoring (e.g. web servers, aircraft engines), and analysing the thermal efficiency of objects from miniature devices to houses.
Use this experiment to find out more!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Leslie Cube (IR emission) experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Leslie Cube (IR emission) experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Leslie Cube (IR emission) experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Leslie Cube (IR emission) experiment (requires log in).
Use either a prism or a hemicylinder of material to discover how light interacts with materials when it pass through of reflects off of materials. You will be able to measure the refraction index of materials along with the angle requried for total internal reflection.
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We use light in all sorts of ways. You are probably using a screen that emits light to read these words now and might be in a room that is lit by artificial light from a lightbulb.
This experiment deals with how light interacts with transparent materials. The fact that you can read this is down to how transparent materials in your eyes interact with and redirect light to create images. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, you are relying on these effects even more!
In fact, there are lots of types of imaging systems that work by redirecting light. These include a wide variety of microscopes and telescopes for making the very small or very large parts of our world and universe visible to us. These work by refracting light through lenses or by reflecting light from mirrors, or a combination of both.
Light scanners use light refraction or reflection in all sorts of applications, from barcode readers to laser display systems to laser machining tools used to process materials.
Vast amounts of information are sent worldwide every minute of every day using packets of light travelling down transparent fibre optic cables. This vital technology depends on how light interacts with interfaces between two types of material. The future might see super-fast all-optical computers that use light to process information.
The way light interacts with a material can also tell us a lot about the material. Lots of scientific techniques use light to probe the nature of all sorts of materials.
The FlashyScience Reflection & Refraction of Light experiment allows you to learn about the way light behaves at surfaces and through transparent materials – this is a great starting point to understanding many of the ways we use light in the world around us!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Reflection & Refraction of Light experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Reflection and Refraction of Light experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Reflection and Refraction of Light experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Reflection and Refraction of Light experiment (requires log in).
Waves are incredibly important across science, engineering, technology, and medicine. Learning about them from waves on the surface of a liquid is a great way of starting to understand them. Here, you can change the frequency of waves on water and measure their wavelength, and then change to different liquids, use different depths of liquid, and even perform the experiment around the Solar System!
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Most people are familiar with waves on the surface of water from looking at ripples created by, for example, dropping stones into the water. This might seem to have little to do with how we live but this couldn’t be further from the truth – waves are essential for our existence and there is a huge range of applications of them in our world.
Understanding waves on water Is essential for understanding important topics like coastal erosion and how to reduce it, using renewable electricity from wave poower, designing ships, and even calculating the speed of tsunami events.
We find all sorts of other waves, too, though. Light is a kind of electromagnetic wave, together with all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultra-violet, X-rays, and even gamma rays. The range of applications from these is immense, and includes, among many other areas, optics (do you wear glasses or contact lenses?), communications, displays, sensors, telescopes and microscopes, imaging techniques, medical diagnostics and therapies, radar, cooking, heating, energy applications, and manufacturing techniques (e.g. laser-selective melting 3D printing), and all sorts of scientific methods of measurements or controlling matter, e.g. measuring the distance between atoms in a material, finding the structure of a protein molecule, or even laser-cooling and trapping of atoms.
The vibrations in materials are waves, too, and these allow us to make all sorts of musical instruments with different sounds. Sound then travels through the air and materials as a wave, and this allows us to design soundscapes and tones using acoustics. These effects also allow sonar to map below the surface of the sea, acoustic imaging to visualise underground structures, and ultrasound imaging to show us inside the human body, for example, to check the health and development of a growing foetus through to visualising damage to a bone joint.
At a larger scale, seismology uses how wave vibrations travel through the Earth to understand its structure and why events like earthquakes happen. Understanding waves then also helps us to design buildings that can withstand earthquakes. Seismology is now even being applied to other planets in the Solar System to understand their structures, too. Believe it or not, the Sun’s surface shows ripples due to pressure waves inside it, and scientists study these to learn more about what happens inside the Sun. And, within the last few years, scientists have detected gravitational waves that travel through the universe!
Zooming back to the smallest scales, atoms and subatomic particles such as electrons often behave like waves (if you continue to study science will learn more about this in the coming years). These properties have been incredibly important for us to understand fundamental physics and have given us new areas of science such as ‘quantum mechanics’. This helps to explain the nature of atoms, how they interact, and why different elements have such different properties – these were huge questions for humankind for centuries. Indeed, all chemistry comes from electrons having wave properties, while the electrical properties of metals, semiconductors, and insulators, as well as most magnetic properties of materials, come from the wave properties of electrons. Today, we’re seeing new technologies based on quantum mechanics, such as unbreakable codes (cryptography) and super-powerful ‘quantum computing'. These same wave properties of electrons lie behind crucial biological processes such as photosynthesis, without which there would be no life on Earth.
What’s great news is that waves have many common properties, whatever type they and wherever they are found.
The FlashyScience Properties of Waves experiment will help you on the first steps of the journey to understand how waves travel and can be used!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Properties of waves (Ripple tank) experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Properties of waves (Ripple tank) experiment (requires log in).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Properties of waves (Ripple tank) experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Properties of waves (Ripple tank) experiment (requires log in).
Use either a prism or a hemicylinder of material to discover how light interacts with materials when it pass through of reflects off of materials. You will be able to measure the refraction index of materials along with the angle requried for total internal reflection.
Press GO to launch the experiment!
We use light in all sorts of ways. You are probably using a screen that emits light to read these words now and might be in a room that is lit by artificial light from a lightbulb.
Use this experiment to find out more!
This experiment deals with how light interacts with transparent materials. You can explore the nature of the refraction of light by taking measurements using four different materials and applying Snell's law. Refraction is an important optical effect. The fact that you can read this is down to how transparent materials in your eyes refract light to create images. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, you are relying on refraction even more!
In fact, there are lots of types of imaging systems that work by refracting light. These include a wide variety of microscopes and telescopes for making the very small or very large parts of our world and universe visible to us. These work by refracting light through lenses or by reflecting light from mirrors, or a combination of both.
Light scanners use light refraction or reflection in all sorts of applications, from barcode readers to laser display systems to laser machining tools used to process materials.
This experiment also allows you to investigate total internal reflection with the various materials provided. Vast amounts of information are sent worldwide every minute of every day using packets of light travelling down transparent fibre optic cables. This vital technology depends on total internal reflection of light at the interface of two types of material to direct the light with minimal loss of intensity. The future might see super-fast all-optical computers that use light to process information.
The way light interacts with a material can also tell us a lot about the material. Lots of scientific techniques use light to probe the nature of all sorts of materials.
The FlashyScience Reflection & Refraction of Light experiment allows you to learn about the way light behaves at surfaces and through transparent materials – this is a great starting point to understanding many of the ways we use light in the world around us!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Reflection & Refraction of Light (Advanced) experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Reflection & Refraction of Light (Advanced) experiment (requires login).
Download the files below for activities and associated worksheets for the Reflection & Refraction of Light (Advanced) experiment (requires login).
(Available as separate downloads or all activities/all worksheets)
*NEW* Now also available in editable Microsoft Word format
Download the file below for the background science behind the Reflection & Refraction of Light (Advanced) experiment (requires login).
Measuring the Young Modulus of a piece of wire made from steel, aluminum, copper or nylon. NOTE: This is a beta version that is currently being tested but feedback is very welcome!
Simple Harmonic Motion using a Pendulum - early release.
Simple harmonic motion (SHM) is a type of oscillating motion. It is used to model many situations in real life where a mass oscillates about an equilibrium point.
Early release - while the experiment is fully functional not all documents and supporting material is available just yet.
Simple harmonic motion can be seen all around us in objects and applications that improve our lives. However, it is also seen in the fundamental behaviour of molecules and materials, although this usually occurs at frequencies and length scales that require scientific instruments for us to observe them.
A child on a park swing will just be enjoying the ride, probably unaware that the swing’s movement is an example of simple harmonic motion, or SHM.
The same child might go on a larger ride, such as a Pirate Ship, at an amusement park. The ride’s designers will have used simple harmonic motion principles to calculate the frequency of the Pirate Ship, its maximum speed, and the forces involved, and use this to specify the construction materials and the electric motor that should be used.
Musical instruments often use simple harmonic motion. For example, the strings of stringed instruments such as a guitar or violin vibrate back-and-forth in a way that obeys simple harmonic motion.
Our understanding and measurement of time has been affected by simple harmonic motion. Pendulum clocks use the regular, simple harmonic motion of a pendulum mass to determine how fast the clock hands move, while this is done in quartz clocks and watches using the simple harmonic vibrations of a quartz crystal.
Shock absorbers, including those in cars, use springs in an oil that move with ‘damped’ harmonic motion to reduce vibrations and give the vehicle passengers a smoother ride.
Simple harmonic motion is important for hearing too. The cochlea in our ears is lined with hairs called stereocilia just 0.01 – 0.05 mm in length. These hairs vibrate when particular frequencies of sound are transmitted through the cochlea and give us our sense of hearing.
The electronic bonds that hold atoms together in molecules and solids create forces that try to return atoms to equilibrium positions. This results in simple harmonic motion, even at this atomic scale.
Different molecules have atoms and groups of atoms with different masses bonded in different ways (e.g., single or double bonds) that can also vibrate in different ways (e.g. three atoms bonded along a single axis can all vibrate along the axis or laterally to it). This means that molecules have different sets of vibrational frequencies that absorb light of the same frequencies, usually infrared light. Forms of infrared spectroscopy are therefore used to find what molecules are in a measured sample.
These vibrations are one of the main ways molecules and solids absorb thermal energy, and increasing the temperature of molecules or solids will increase the amplitude of their simple harmonic vibrations.
There are also some sophisticated scientific effects that show simple harmonic motion. One example is electrons at the surface of some metals. A sea of conduction electrons can form, which then acts as a single object. This sea of electrons, known as a surface plasmon, can be made to oscillate across the metal using light. The simple harmonic motion of surface plasmons is currently being developed in research labs to create high sensitivity detectors (e.g., of molecules, proteins, and bacteria), computer chips thousands of times faster than those we have today, and even improved makeup!
Download the file below for the quick guide for the Simple harmonic motion (Pendulum) experiment (requires login).
Download the file below for full instructions for the Simple harmonic motion (pendulum) experiment (requires log in).
Download the file below for the background science behind the Simple harmonic motion (pendulum) experiment (requires log in).
