Physics II: Electricity, Magnetism and Waves
Phys 133, Fall 2016
Resources and Demos Page
Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042
Phone: (610) 330-5207
Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu
Other Phys 133 Course Pages
- Course Web Page
- Course Moodle
- MasteringPhysics Site
In-Class Activities and Worksheets
- Coulomb's Law
Further Reading
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HyperPhysics home page
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NIST reference on constants, units, and uncertainty
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List of relevant distance scales in physics
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PhET interactive simulations for physics
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University of Buffalo Physics Department electricity and magnetism demos
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Advice on solving physics problems (by Dan Styer, Oberlin College)
Video Demos
- Electrostatics
- Faraday's Cage: A statuette inside a wire cage is shielded from the ambient electric field.
- Adjustable Capacitor with Dialectric: An electroscope and an electrometer are used to illustrate the effect of varying the distance between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor, as well as the effect of inserting a dielectric between the plates.
- Currents and Circuits
- Exploding Wire:
A capacitor is charged until a potential difference of 3 kV is established across the plates. It is then discharged through a high-resistance steel wire. A related video, which provides a little bit more background as to the physics of what's happening, can be found here.
- Magnetism
- Jumping Wire:
A wire suspended between the poles of a magnet "jumps" when a substantial current is made to flow through it.
- Forces on a Current-Carrying Wire: Two long current-carrying wires repel when they are connected in series with each other and attract when they are connected in parallel.
- Electromagnetic Induction
- Faraday's Law: A permanent magnet is dropped through a solenoid, and a plot of the potential difference between the wires at the ends of the solenoid as a function of time is generated as
it falls.
- Jumping Ring: An iron ring files off the top of a iron rod which forms the core of an electromagnet when an alternating current flows through the wire.
- Lenz's Law: A bar magnet falling through a metal tube falls more slowly than one falling through a glass tube due to induced currents in the metal tube.
- Pendulum and Magnet: A pendulum swinging between the poles of a magnet stops as a result of induced eddy currents.
- Resonant RLC Circuit: By adjusting the inductance of the inductor in an RLC circuit, a renonance condition is achieved in which the maximum power is supplied to the light bulb for a number of different capacitance values.
- Oscillations, Waves, and Sound
- Spray-Paint Oscillator:
A can of spray paint attached to a pair of springs oscillates up and down and traces out a sine wave on a roll of
paper.
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Resonant Tuning Forks: Demonstrating resonance behavior and beat frequencies using a pair of tuning forks.
- Microwave Interference: A receiver mounted on a sliding track records the interference pattern produced by the interference of microwaves produced by a pair of sources a few centimeters apart.
PhET Interactive Simulations
- Electrostatics
- Charges and Fields
- Electric Field of Dreams
- Capacitor Lab
- Circuits
- Oscillations, Waves, and Sound
