Physics Experiments


Mechanics

Measurement procedures

Spherometer (UE1010100) ― Determine the radius of curvature of watch glasses
Measurement of an irregularly shaped body (UE1010200)
Measure the gravitational force and determine the gravitational constant using a Cavendish torsion balance (UE1010300)

Forces

Hooke’s Law (UE1020100): Confirm Hooke’s law for coil springs under tension
Verification of the law of the lever (UE1020200)
Experimental investigation of the vector addition of forces (UE1020300)
Determine the forces acting on an inclined plane (UE1020400)
Measurement of friction forces (UE1020500)
Determining buoyant updraught as a function of immersion depth (UE1020850)

Translational motions

Measurement of instantaneous velocity as a function of distance covered (UE1030250)
Record and evaluate motion with uniform acceleration on a roller track (UE1030260)
Laws of Collisions (UE1030280): Investigate uni-dimensional collisions on an air track
Determine the acceleration due to gravity (UE1030300)
Plotting the “parabolic” trajectories point by point (UE1030400)
Investigate elastic and inelastic collisions between two objects on a plane (UE1030600)
Confirm the law of equal areas for central force motions (UE1030700)

Rotational motions

Confirm Newton’s equation of motion (UE1040101)
Determine the moment of inertia of a horizontal rod with additional weights attached (UE1040201)
Determine the moment of inertia for various test bodies (UE1040205)
Maxwell’s Wheel (UE1040320): Confirm the conservation of energy with the help of Maxwell’s wheel
Precession and Nutation of a Gyroscope (UE1040500)

Oscillations

Measuring the period of oscillation of a string pendulum with bobs of various masses (UE1050101)
Description of elliptical oscillations of a string pendulum as the superimposition of two components perpendicular to one another (UE1050121)
Measure the period of an oscillating pendulum as a function of the effective acceleration due to gravity (UE1050201)
Kater’s Reversible Pendulum (UE1050221): Work out the local acceleration due to gravity with the help of a reversible pendulum
Demonstrate the rotation of the earth with a Foucault pendulum (UE1050250)
Measure the oscillations of a coil spring pendulum using an ultrasonic motion sensor (UE1050311)
Measurement and analysis of simple harmonic rotary oscillation (UE1050500)
Measurement and analysis of forced harmonic rotary oscillation (UE1050550)
Record and evaluate oscillation of two identical coupled pendulums (UE1050600)
Investigate standing waves along a stretched coil spring and a taut rope (UE1050700)

Acoustics

Measuring the propagation time of sound pulses in Kundt's tube (UE1070310)
Generate and measure standing sound waves in Kundt’s tube (UE1070320)
Propagation of Sound in Rods (UE1070410): Investigation of longitudinal sound waves in cylindrical rods and determination of propagation velocity for longitudinal sound waves
Determine the speeds of sound propagated by longitudinal and transversal waves in solids (UE1070530)
Determine the velocity of ultrasonic waves in liquids (UE1070550)

Mechanics of Liquids and Gases

Determine the dynamic viscosity of an aqueous solution of glycerine (UE1080350)
Measure the surface tension by the “break-away” method (UE1080400)

Deformation of solid bodies

Bending of Flat Beams (UE1090200): Measurement of deformation of flat beams supported at both ends and determination of modulus of elasticity
Torsion on Cylindrical Rods (UE1090300): Determination of torsional coefficients and shear modulus

Heat

Thermal expansion

Determine the coefficients of expansion for brass, steel and glass (UE2010130)
Determine the temperature where water reaches its maximum density (UE2010301)

Heat transport

Measure conduction of heat in metal bars (UE2020100)
Measure the heat radiated by a Leslie cube (UE2020200)

Internal Energy

Increase of internal energy by mechanical work (UE2030300)
Increase internal energy by means of electrical work (UE2030400)

Gas laws

Measuring at room temperature in air as an ideal gas (UE2040100)
Amontons’ Law (UE2040120): Verify the linear relationship between the pressure and temperature of an ideal gas
Determine the adiabatic index for air using Rüchardt’s method (UE2040200)
Quantitative analysis of a real gas and determining its critical point (UE2040300)

Thermodynamic cycles

Operate a functional model of a Stirling engine as a heat engine (UE2060100)
Record a p-V diagram (UE2060250)
Record and analyse the pressure-enthalpy diagram for a compression heat pump (UE2060300)

Electricity

Electrostatics

Measure the electric field in a plate capacitor using the electric field meter (UE3010700)
Measure the electrostatic voltage as a function of the distance between the plates (UE3010800)

Charge transport and current

Demonstrate the electric current generated by the motion of charged droplets of water (UE3020100)
Determine the electrical conductivity of copper and aluminium (UE3020200)
Determine the value of certain resistances (UE3020200)
Verification of Ohm’s law (UE3020320)
Measure voltage and current in circuits featuring resistors in series and in parallel (UE3020330).
Measure the voltage and current for a voltage divider with and without a load (UE3020340)
Determine the Faraday constant (UE3020700)

Magnetic fields

Measure the force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field (UE3030300)
Electric Balance (UE3030350): Measurement of the force exerted on a current-carrying conductor located inside a magnetic field
Determine the magnetic field generated by coils of various lengths (UE3030500)
Determine the horizontal and vertical components of the earth’s magnetic field (UE3030700)

Induction

Generating a voltage pulse in a conducting loop by the motion of a permanent magnet (UE3040100)
Measure the induced voltage in a conductor made into a loop as it moves through a magnetic field (UE3040200)
Induction Through a Varying Magnetic Field (UE3040300): Measuring the voltage induced in an induction coil
Demonstrate and investigate how an eddy-current brake works (UE3040400)
Make measurements on a transformer with and without load (UE3040500)

Direct and alternating current (DC and AC)

Investigation of how the voltage across a capacitor changes over time when the capacitor is charging or discharging (UE3050101)
Determine the charging and discharging times (UE3050105)
Determine the impedance of a capacitor as a function of capacitance and frequency (UE3050111)
Investigation of how the current through a coil changes over time when the DC supply is turned on and off (UE3050201)
Determine inductive impedance as a function of inductance and frequency (UE3050211)
Determine the AC resistance in a circuit with capacitive and resistive loads (UE3050301)
Determine the AC resistance in a circuit with inductive and resistive loads (UE3050311)
Determining impedance in a circuit with an inductive and a capacitive reactance (UE3050321)
Investigate the resonance response of a series LC resonant circuit (UE3050400)

Electromagnetic oscillations and waves

Demonstrate and investigate the phenomena of interference, diffraction and polarisation using microwaves (UE3060300)

Electron tubes

Record the characteristic for a thermionic diode (UE3070100)
Record the characteristics for a thermionic triode (UE3070200)
Demonstrate the straight-line propagation of electrons in the absence of any field (UE3070300)
Determine the polarity of the charge-carriers (UE3070400)
Investigate the deflection of electrons by electric and magnetic fields (UE3070500)
Determine the specific charge of an electron (UE3070700)
Study the physical principles of the time-resolved display of electrical signals using an oscilloscope (UE3070800)
Demonstrate the superposition of magnetic fields in a vacuum (UE3070850)

Components and basic circuits

Measure the characteristic curves relevant to an npn transistor (UE3080200)
Measure the characteristics of a field effect transistor (UE3080300)

Optics

Geometric Optics

Reflection in a Mirror (UE4010000): Investigate reflection from a plane mirror and a curved mirror
Refraction of Light (UE4010020): Investigate refraction of light by various optical components
Determine the focal length of a lens using the Bessel method (UE4010100)

Colours

Record and interpret transmission spectra of transparent bodies (UE4020400)

Wave optics

Diffraction by a Single Slit (UE4030100):Demonstrate the wave nature of light and determine the wavelength
Demonstrate the wave nature of light and determine the wavelength (UE4030200)
Generating interference between two beams using a Fresnel biprism (UE4030300)
Observe Newton’s rings in monochromatic light (UE4030350)
Demonstrate and investigate how a Michelson interferometer works (UE4030410)
Demonstration of “quantum erasure” in an experiment by analogy (UE4030520)

Polarisation

Verify Malus’ law for linearly polarised light (UE4040100)
Investigate the rotation of the plane of polarisation by sugar solutions (UE4040300)
Pockels Effect (UE4040500): Demonstration of Pockels effect in a conoscopic beam path
Demonstrate the Faraday effect and determine the Verdet constant for flint glass (UE4040600)

Intensity of Radiation

Verify the inverse square law for the intensity of radiation from a source of light (UE4050100)
Verify that intensity of radiation is proportional to the fourth power of the temperature (UE4050200)

Velocity of light

Determine the velocity of light from the transit time of short light pulses (UE4060100)

Laser

Set up and optimise an Nd:YAG laser (UE4070310)
Q-switching circuit for Nd:YAG laser with Cr:YAG module (UE4070320)
Frequency doubling inside the resonator of a Nd:YAG laser (UE4070330)

Spectrometry

Prism Spectrometer (UE4080100): Set up and calibrate a prism spectrometer

Atomic and Nuclear Physics

Fundamentals of Atomic Physics

Determine Planck’s constant using the decelerating voltage method (UE5010200)
Viewing the atomic structure on the surface of graphite and gold (UE5010300)
Millikan’s Experiment (UE5010400):Carry out Millikan’s experiment to onfirm the value of the elementary charge with the help of charged oil drops
Observe the diffraction of electrons on polycrystalline graphite and confirm the wave nature of electrons (UE5010500)

Atomic shells

Record and interpret the Balmer series of lines for hydrogen other line spectra in the visible region (UE5020100)
Carry out high-precision measurements of absorption and emission lines (UE5020150)
Record and evaluate the Franck-Hertz curve for mercury (UE5020300)
Record and evaluate the Franck-Hertz curve for neon and observe emission of light (UE5020400)
Determine the critical potentials of a helium atom (UE5020500)

Magnetic Resonance

Demonstrate electron spin resonance in DPPH (UE5030100)
Demonstrate and compare nuclear magnetic resonance in glycerine, polystyrene and Teflon (UE5030200)

Solid-State Physics

Conduction Phenomena

Determine band separation in germanium (UE6020100)
Investigating electrical conduction mechanisms in doped germanium with the Hall effect (UE6020200)
Photoconductivity (UE6020400): Record the characteristic curve for a photoresistor
Record characteristics for various thermocouples and determine their sensitivity (UE6020500)

X-Ray Physics

Diffratrometry

Determine the lattice constants for crystals with a structure similar to salt (NaCl) (UE7010100)

Energy spectroscopy

Non-destructive analysis of chemical composition (UE7020100)

Energy and Environment

Photovoltaics

Photovoltaic Systems (UE8020100): Record the characteristics of a photovoltaic module (solar cell) as a function of the luminosity
Photovoltaic Systems (UE8020200): Investigate how partial shading affects photovoltaic systems
Photovoltaic Systems (UE8020250): Investigation of an island grid or microgrid used to generate and store electrical energy