Smartphones as experimental tools: Different methods to determine the gravitational acceleration in classroom physics by using everyday devices

摘要

New media technology becomes more and more important for our daily life as well as for teaching physics. Within the scope of our N.E.T. research project we develop experiments using New Media Experimental Tools (N.E.T.) in physics education and study their influence on students learning abilities. We want to present the possibilities e.g. of smartphones as special new media devices serving as tools for conducting experiments in classroom physics and in daily life as well. In this paper, we give an overview about different methods for determining the gravitational acceleration as one of the most fundamental parameter in physics by using these easy-to-have and easy-to-use everyday tools. The theoretically backgrounds of the experiments range from the simple use of the law of gravitation to the coefficient of restitution and refer to different physical concepts (mechanics and acoustics). So each of these experiments requires different pre-conditions and it’s possible to conduct these experiments and determine this most fundamental parameter in classroom physics by completely different types of learners (high-school as well as college level).