Parker Moreland, Danbury, CT, has come up with many clever uses of our products over the years. This time, he performed a simple experiment using Logger Pro, LabPro, and four temperature probes. It is a study of how well various insulated tumblers keep a liquid warm. The best was an expensive, vacuum tumbler, followed by an inexpensive, polystyrene double-walled tumbler, then a polypropylene double-walled mug, and finally a thin, glass tumbler. Eight ounces of hot water was poured into each tumbler and a temperature sensor was placed in each. Parker says a surprise was that the double-walled tumblers and mugs that are so popular now are only a little better than glass.

Data Collection in Elementary School
Keith F. Forton (Traverse City Central HS, MI) has had great success using our data collection equipment in elementary schools. He has done studies using Thermoses ® (similar to the one above), batteries, and a sound meter. He has found elementary students to be very excited about studies like these. Here is a sample student graph showing four different batteries used under the same load conditions.

Juggling with Logger Pro
Check out www.jug.net/wt/jgpl.htm for a remarkably complete collection of information about the science of juggling. William V. Thayer, (St. Louis CC at Meramec, Kirkwood, MO) even includes this sample graph made with Logger Pro showing the position of the balls during a juggling session. He made this graph using special gloves with aluminum-foil strips wired so that if adjacent strips were shorted out, the voltage goes to five volts. He then juggled metal-coated balls, reading the voltage from each glove using Logger Pro. From the information in this graph, you can find the time that the ball stays in the hand, the height of each toss, and lots of other interesting information.