The Department of Physics at MIT pushes back the frontiers of human understanding of space and time and of matter and energy in all its forms, from the subatomic to the cosmological and from the elementary to the complex.
First, an adjustable parallel-plate capacitor is held at a constant voltage. As the separation between the plates is widened, the electrometer shows charge (or current) flowing off of the plates, while the electroscope shows no change in voltage. Notice (by the deflection of the needle) that ...
A Silnikov attractor reconstructed from experimental data taken from a liquid crystal flow.
How do different air pressures effect how a balloon reacts? Does it matter what the balloon is filled with?
This demonstrates the ideal gas law (PV=nRT) which states that a drop in temperature with fixed mass and external pressure will result in a smaller volume, and vice versa.
Three segments of the Bell Labs Wave Machine are connected together. The points at which they are connected have the same impedance. Therefore, traveling waves will not be reflected at these boundaries. One can also observe the change in wavelength and velocity as ...
Two segments of the Bell Labs apparatus are connected. The segments have different impedance. When a pulse travels from high impedance to low impedance, it is reflected with positive polarity and transmitted with positive polarity. When a pulse travels from low ...
Pulses are created on the Bell Labs apparatus and reflections from the opposite end are observed. Initially, the ends of the apparatus are left open and the reflections have positive polarity. When one end is fixed, reflections have negative polarity.
Standing waves are created on the Bell Labs apparatus. The apparatus is "open" at both ends, therefore the number of nodes is equal to the number of overtones. For example, the fourth harmonic will have four nodes, the fifth harmonic will have five nodes, etc.
A single pulse creates two waves of one-half amplitude. When the waves pass each other they add constructively to create the original pulse.
Grounding rod tips of different sizes are used to discharge a large Van de Graaff generator. The larger the curvature of the tip, the more charge must build up to break down the air, resulting in longer sparks. The electricity ionizes air molecules, releasing quick flashes of light. A pointed ...
Rubbing the rim of a wine glass with a wet finger will cause it to resonate at its resonant frequency. The glass is placed in front of a speaker playing a sine wave, created by the function generator, of this same frequency. When the amplitude is turned up, we can see by shining a strobe ...
Center for Ultra-Cold Atoms Kids Day 2012, 1/1: Local youth visit the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultra-Cold Atoms for demos, lab tours, and talks as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. In addition to groundbreaking physics, the Center's mission includes ...
Odd-shaped objects with their centers of mass marked by orange paint are thrown. While the objects appear to follow very wobbly trajectories when viewed under bright lights, under black lights you can see that their centers of mass travel in smooth parabolas. Then center of mass is not ...
A conducting sphere is charged with a Wimshurst Machine. Charge is removed from the outside of the sphere and placed on an electroscope, which deflects outwards. When the procedure is done for the inside of the sphere, it is found that no charge resides there. ...
Subatomic particles such as cosmic ray muons, alpha particles, and high energy electrons are striking our bodies all the time. In the cloud chamber, these particles ionize air molecules, creating delicate cloud trails by condensing supersaturated alcohol vapor. This is similar to the way ...
Paper confetti is placed atop a Van de Graaff generator and flies off when the grounding rod is removed. When turned on, a Van de Graaff generator builds up lots of negative charge on its large metal sphere. A grounding rod is used to protect the demonstrator and control the amount of charge. ...
On April 4, 2012, Sebastian Seung, MIT professor of computational neuroscience and of physics, offered his thoughts on the brain's wiring and how it influences personality and answered questions from the worldwide MIT alumni community.
Two or more air carts are connected by springs on an air track. When this system is at resonant frequency, symmetrical patterns called normal modes appear. The normal modes are shown in both undriven and driven cases. In the undriven examples, the normal modes are found by placing the carts ...
Introduction video for Physics III: Vibrations and Waves In addition to the traditional topics of mechanical vibrations and waves, coupled oscillators, and electro-magnetic radiation, students will also learn about musical instruments, red sunsets, glories, coronae, rainbows, haloes, X-ray ...
Cutta Cutta drinking Cat fanciers appreciate the gravity-defying grace and exquisite balance of their feline friends. But do they know that those traits extend even to the way cats lap milk? Researchers analyzed the way domestic and big cats lap and found that felines of all sizes take ...