The Caliper

Innovative Uses

If you use ultrasonic motion detectors, you should definitely read the article "Physics and Technical Characteristics of Ultrasonic Sonar Systems," in the January 2002 issue of The Physics Teacher. Dan MacIsaac (Northern Arizona University) and Ari Hämäläinen (University of Finland) do a great job explaining how these complex sensors work. Understanding how the sensor works can help you avoid some of the pitfalls of using it.

Speaking of motion detectors, the December 2001 issue of The Physics Teacher described a unique way to use them. In "Obtaining the Length and Width of a Rotating Box with a Motion Detector," Tom Lough (Murray State University, Murray, KY) describes placing a cardboard box on a turntable and having it rotate. Aim a motion detector at it and then graph distance vs. time as the box rotates. You get some interesting results, and there is a lot of geometry and trigonometry to be learned in the process of determining the box?s dimensions from these graphs.

Marvin Giesting (Connersville HS, IN) arranged to have one of his former students, Rusty Ammerman (who works for "Jumpin' Indiana"), skydive with our LabPro, 3-Axis Accelerometer, and Barometer. Graphs of a sample jump are shown below.

In "Simple-Pendulum Lab with a Twist" in the March 2002 issue of The Physics Teacher, Ben Szapiro, University of the South (Sewanee, TN) uses our force sensor to do a different study of a pendulum. Instead of just measuring the vertical pull on the pendulum string, he measures the horizontal force.

The use of LabVIEW in physics teaching is gaining in popularity. The January 2002 issue of American Journal of Physics included an article by T.D. Usher and P.K. Dixon (California State University San Bernardino) entitled "Physics Goes Practical," in which they discuss using LabVIEW as part of a new applied physics course.

Check our web site for more details and free programs for using LabPro with LabVIEW.

Internet Data Collection

Kyle Forinash and Raymond Wisman (Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN) describe their use of LabPro and other interfaces in the article "Simple Internet Data Collection for Physics Laboratories" in the April 2002 issue of The American Journal of Physics. The web site for their software is http://Physics.ius.edu/~kyle/K/DataCollect/LabPro.html.

We borrowed their Linux C++ code and have been experimenting with data collection over the internet. If this is of interest to you, open a Telnet session to host www1.vernier.com and port 1088. This will display the data streaming out of the LabPro in our classroom that is reading the light level, air temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity at half-second intervals.

We have also been experimenting with LabVIEW 6.1, which supports Remote Panels. Remote Panels makes sharing data, and even controlling data collection, over the internet very easy. For more details on remote data collection with LabPro, go to our remote data collection page.

Stevie Steiner, a former student of Earl Feltyberger (Nicolet HS, WI) and currently a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, has been studying the formation of aerogels in microgravity conditions. He has been able to get NASA to fly him and his equipment, including our 3-Axis Accelerometer, aboard the "vomit comet." Here is a sample graph showing acceleration during several parabolic flight paths. A typical parabola is 23-30 seconds of 0 g followed by 45-90 seconds of 1.8 g. (They say too many people pass out at 2 g.) The last two parabola were done to get lunar gravity (1/6 g) and Martian gravity (1/3 g). You can see these on the graph.

Jake Niemand, a high school student from Montevideo, MN, has used LabPro and some of our sensors for some remarkable data collection. He constructed TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory) II. TOTO II is loaded into a pick-up truck and driven to a location where severe weather is approaching. It can be left at the location to record data and then picked up after the storm. Jake hopes the data collected will help engineers and architects design houses with a "tornado-proof" room for safety and help give meteorologists an idea of the complexity of a storm. Here is a photo of TOTO II. For more info on this project and sample data, go to www.kramfm.com/samlab.