Using Android Mobile Device for Physics Experiments and Inquiry

Abstract

This article proposes to use a smart phone as a data recording and acquisition device in some physics experiments. First, its came ra can be used to capture the motion of a moving object and a student can record the time and displacement of the object. This idea was tested in experiments of projectile motion and slope motion. Second, the cell phone can be used as a data acquisition de vice measuring angular displacement in an experiment where the cell phone was the weight of a swinging pendulum. With the recorded data, students can explore and hypothesize a quantitative relationship between some variables, similar to what a scientist do es in a real experiment. Instead of following prescribed steps in traditional physics experiment with completely predictable reults , students can now “rediscover” physical laws. With this training in scientific inquiry, students might develop better induct ive skills in pattern finding, hypothesis generation and hypothesis testing.