Demonstrations for Mechanics
Each demo item has a brief description and some include pictures. After reviewing the description, you may order the item for your lecture from the Lecture Demonstration Lab by e-mail
, making a phone call (8-8192), or going directly to the lab.
Vectors and Statics
- XYZ Coordinate System
- Ellipse Drawing Tool
- Vertical Force Tables
- Free Body: Equilibrium of Forces
- Meter Stick Balance
- Center of Mass: Irregular Body
- Center of Mass Demonstration--High Wire Cyclist
- Stacking Meter Sticks
- Leaning Tower
- Stability Blocks
- Torque on a nut
- Truck on a Bridge
- Friction Ladder
Moment of Inertia
- Torsion Balance with Variable Moment of Inertia
- Torque and Moment of Inertia Wheel
- Stool with Dumbell, Pole
- Inclined Plane with Disk, Ring, and Ball
Inertia and Kinematics
- Air Track: Constant Acceleration
- Monkey and Hunter
- The Projectile Motion Timer
- Slug Gun
- Feather and Coin Tube
- Galilean Relativity
- Ball and Cardboard
- Ball Drop Apparatus
- Inclined Plane with Frets
- Center of Mass: Painted Hammer
- Center of Mass: Wacky Ball
Dynamics
- Air Track: Newton's First Law
- Atwood's Machine
- Bathroom and Spring Scales with Weights
- Force Plate
- Tennis Ball on String
- Fast Slow String Break
- Large Spring Hanging from Ceiling
- Bicycle Wheels Held by String
- Precessing Wheelchair Wheel
- Gyroscope
- Bicycle Wheel and Stool
- Train Set
- The Water Pail
- The Cavendish Balance
- Rotating Turntables and Reference Frames
- Parabolic Water Surface
- Inclined Plane with Friction Blocks
- Push Broom
- Racing Slick
- Rolling Disk with Cord
- Orrery and Earth Globe
Momentum and Angular Momentum
- Air Track: Elastic and Inelastic Collisions, Fan
- Newton's Third Law--Cannon
- Third Law: Jumping off Cart
- Third Law: Water Rocket
- Third Law: Pasco Dynamics Cart
- Conservation of Momentum Using Pasco Dynamics Cart
- Educated Balls
- Basketball and Tennis Ball
- Train Set
- Dumbbell and Stool
- Rotating Spheres
- Bicycle Wheel and Stool
- Whirlygig
Work and Energy
- The Peg and the Pendulum
- Loop the Loop
- Conservation of Energy with Giant Pendulum
- Hooke's Law
- Ballistic Pendulum
- Double Inclined Plane
- Egg Drop
Oscillations and Harmonic Motion
- Simple Harmonic Motion Rack
- Simple Pendulum
- Meter Stick Pendulum
- Tennis Ball on String
- "Physical Pendulum" (Irregular Body)
- Circular Motion and Simple Harmonic Motion
- Air Track: Coupled Oscillators
- Coupled Simple Harmonic Oscillators
- Damped Driven Oscillator
- Wine Glass Resonance
- The Oscillating Disk
- Simple Harmonic Motion, Coupled Oscillators Using Pasco Dynamics Cart
- Tuning Forks
- Large Spring Hanging from Ceiling
- Chaotic Motion
- Chladni Plates
Mechanical Waves and Sound
- Bell Labs Wave Machine
- Slinky
- Longitudinal Wave
- Standing Wave on a String
- Dominoes
- Ripple Tank
- Music Box Mechanism
- Bell in Evacuated Chamber
- Acoustic Interferometer
- Doppler Buzzer
- Audio Generators with Speakers
- Musical Instruments: Guitar, Cello, Clarinet, Kazoo, Glockenspiel, Organ pipes, Trumpet, Recorder
- Mac Audio Software
- Fourier Synthesizer
- Speaker as Microphone
- Dissected Speaker