cell phone science experiments

10 Fun Science Experiments You Can Conduct Using Your Phone

Did you know your smartphone is packed full of useful instruments you can actually use for scientific experiments.

Christopher McFadden

1 ,  2

Did you know your phone, especially if it’s an up to date model, is packed full of little instruments you can actually use to perform some basic experiments?

Many of these tiny instruments are used by the phone’s basic software, and third-party apps, to act as data collectors to help with some of its features, like GPS etc. 

For instance, most can now be used to measure:-

– Acceleration;

– Magnetic fields;

– Sound;

– Geospatial location and;

– Some can even measure atmospheric pressure.

Isn’t that interesting, if perhaps, a little worrying?

Of course, you will also need some specialist applications to ‘unlock’ your phone’s inner scientific potential. A great example of just such an app is called  Phyphox .

This application has been developed by the 2nd Institute of Physics at RWTH Aachen University and was developed by Dr. Sebastian Stacks (Development and Concept), Professor Christoph Stampfer (Concept), Frank Posthoff (Design) and Camilla Lummerzheim and Jomes Gessner (Programming). 

It is free to download and is also cross-platform – so that’s handy. They also have a big selection of DIY science experiments on their YouTube channel and we’ll be selecting a few of those, and others, to describe below.

Any and all data recorded using this app can be shared as screenshots, accessed remotely or you can export the data in a variety of formats from excel to CSV files – which is pretty handy. 

However, if your phone lacks some equipment (like a barometer) some of the experiments/features will be greyed out. 

There are other data collection/science apps out there (like Google’s Science Journal App ) but this article will focus on those provided by Phyphox. 

Experiment #1 – Measuring the duration of freefall

This interesting experiment will let measure the duration of a freefall using your humble smartphone. 

If you’ve downloaded the app this experiment requires the use of the “Acoustic Stopwatch” function. This experiment will time the elapses between two loud acoustic events. 

You will need to enter a few parameters before you start. First and foremost set the threshold value to enable you to tweak a trigger noise that is louder than the ambient noise levels.

This will take some trial and error, as you can imagine, so keep changing the value until the ambient noise doesn’t trigger the stopwatch.

There is also another parameter to set – the minimum delay. As any noise tends to have a duration this prevents the same ‘sound event’ from stopping and starting the timer multiple times and spoiling your experiment.

As you can imagine the delay must always be smaller than the total freefall time.

A simple setup would be some object to drop, a ruler (metal is best) and another long object like a pen. Now balance the ruler and object over the edge of a flat surface like a table. 

With the acoustic stopwatch activated strike the ruler on the edge so that the object falls off the ruler and drops to the floor. The stopwatch should trigger when the ruler ‘rings’ from the impact (if metal) and stop when your phone’s microphone detects the impact of the object on the floor.

Clearly, this will not work well in a noisier environment so you can experiment with ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ apparatus. For instance, you could use a balloon (held in a metal hoop on a pole) to suspend the weight and have a metal target underneath.

Popping the balloon acts as the initial trigger and the object hitting the metal plate on the floor should generate enough noise for the stopwatch to detect in noisier environments (like a classroom say). 

 Give it a go!

Experiment #2 – Measure the length of a pendulum from pivot to center of mass

Here’s another fun experiment using your phone you can easily perform at home. Once again make sure you have the app open and go find yourself some string. 

Then open the Phyphox app (or alternative) and find the pendulum experiment from the menu. Before you start swinging your phone around like ‘it’s no-one’s business’ you’ll need to make some preparations first. 

On the pendulum app’s menu, you’ll need to tap on the length tab on the top. You’ll then need to select the “timed run” box on the menu. Now you’ll need to set the start delay as well as experimental duration.

For best results, you should set these to 3 and 10 seconds respectively. This means the app will wait 3 seconds before running and will automatically switch off 10 seconds after that.

Now for the fun bit. Attach some string to your phone, press start and set you phone pendulum “a-swinging”. If the experiment went well the app should have determined the length of the string of the pendulum from a pivot point to the phone’s center of mass. 

To prevent the phone swinging during the experiment you could build a simple cradle out of a toilet tissue tube or come up with your own solution. 

Experiment #3 – Use a Magnetic Ruler to measure the speed of things

This is another cool experiment you can run using your phone (and data collecting app of course). For this, once again, you’ll need the Phyphox (or equivalent) application and a couple of magnets. 

Decide what you want to measure the speed of but it must be something big enough to carry the phone. Then place the magnets along the length of the path at regular intervals in preparation – obviously not too close together.

Also, make sure the magnets are all aligned in the same polarity.

Your choice of magnets will depend completely on the setup of your experiment and the length of the distance between the magnets and your phone. For instance, if you wanted to use a train set with height from magnet to phone being around 7 cm small rare earth metal ones should work fine.

But be warned very strong magnets can, and will, damage your phone especially its compass functions. If between 1 micro- to 1 milli- Tesla it should be fine (yes there is an app to measure that too). 

Now strap your phone with the application activated and select the “Magnetic Ruler” experiment. Now enter your pre-determined magnet spacing and off you go. 

The app will count the number of magnets it passes as well as simultaneously measuring the travel time. 

Experiment #4 – Calculate the speed of a rolling object

This fun phone experiment will let you measure the speed of a rolling object. For this experiment, apart from the app, you’ll need a second device to receive and display data remotely.

You’ll also need some form of container to house your phone as it rolls around. Cardboard tubes are ideal and you should try to find one roughly the same width as your smartphone.

The second device, whether it be a tablet, PC or another phone, will need its most up to date web browser but other than that it doesn’t need to be anything too fancy. It will also need to be on the same network as your to-be smartphone rolling sensor. 

Now to prepare the experiment. If you are using Phyphox open the app and select the “Rolling Experiment” under the mechanics heading. You will be asked to enter the radius of the tube (or other roller apparatus).

Measure it and enter the result in the application. You will also need to activate the remote access setting in the main menu (top right menu icon). 

You will be provided with a URL to enter into your second devices web browser. Now place your smartphone (with the activated app) inside the roller and use some padding to wedge it as close to the center as possible – obviously be careful not to turn off/close the app or change any settings – the display will remain open throughout.

The app will now make use of your phone’s inbuilt gyroscope to calculate the rollers tangential velocity and share the information on your second devices monitor. 

Experiment #5 – Turn your smartphone into a SONAR device

Using a data collecting app, like Phyphox, you can actually turn your phone into a rudimentary SONAR device . With the example app provided, it uses your speaker to send out a series of ‘chirps’ and ‘listens’ for the reflection off a target using the phone’s microphone.

To conduct controlled experiments you will need to insulate your phone from all other directions apart from the target direction to try to attenuate as much ‘noise’ as possible. After all, the phone will receive signals from all directions (walls, ceilings and pretty much everything around it) without some form of insulation. 

You can use foam sections to create a container to fit the phone in and then select a target to measure the distance of it from the phone. Anything will do but flat metal objects tend to work great. 

Like previous experiments, you can use the second device to receive and display the information remotely for ease of access. 

With your insulated container built activate the application and get ‘SONAR’ing’. You might want to also set up a ruler or tape measure to verify the results provided. 

The application will use the speed of sound to calculate the distance of any reflections it receives. You should see a distinct spike at the distance the target object is set, for instance, 1 meter away. 

Experiment #6 – Measuring the speed of an elevator

Phyphox, and other data collection apps can allow you to measure the speed of an elevator – if you’ve ever wondered about that of course.

As you’d imagine you’ll need an elevator to conduct this experiment but beyond that, all you need is your phone and app in hand. There is one catch, however.

Your phone will need to come equipped with a barometer. If you aren’t sure if your phone has this built-in piece of kit the app will soon you let you know when you try to activate the “Elevator” experiment in the Phyphox app menu.

If you have a barometer then great. To run this experiment turn on the app and select the elevator experiment from the menu.

Then place your phone on the floor of the elevator then select the floor you wish to travel to. For best results, you should try to travel at least three floors.

The application then records the changes in atmospheric pressure as the lift ascends or descends in the lift shaft. Using the barometric formula the app is able to determine the distance of travel, vertical velocity and can record the acceleration of the lift using your phone’s accelerometer.

You can adapt the experiment for pretty much anything that can carry your phone too. If you have a strong enough drone, like a quadcopter, you can perform the same experiment on those devices. 

Of course for this, you might want to share the data remotely, as above, on a second device. 

Experiment #7 – Measure the speed of sound (almost)

This is one of the simpler experiments you can conduct on your smartphone. As you’d expect you’ll need to have a data recording app like Phyphox installed on your device before conducting this.

You will also need two phones with the same app installed, somewhere to conduct the experiment and a tape measure to set the two phones a set distance apart. As with other acoustic based experiments on the list, you’ll need to fiddle with the threshold values to make sure ambient noise is canceled out.

Open the apps on both phones (with the same settings) and place them at a set distance apart. Now all you need to do is to clap directly next to one of the phones. 

Then have a colleague (or walk between the two very quietly) and clap next the second. The first clap will trigger the app’s stopwatch closest to you almost instantaneously and trigger the second phone a little later in time. 

When you then clap next to the second phone the stopwatch will stop immediately on the second phone and after a short delay on the second as sound travels to the other phone. 

The speed of sound should be then be ‘easily’ found using the following formula:-

  v = 2 x d / ( Δt)

v = speed of sound

d = distance between phones

Δt  =  time delay difference between the two phones results.

Of course, given the relatively simple setup, you will likely get varying results depending on air temp and other variables. The accepted value for the speed of sound should be around 343 m/s  at 21 degrees centigrade FYI.  

Experiment #8 – Measure the rotation rate of a fidget spinner

Here is another simple, yet fun, experiment you can conduct using your phone (and app of course). If you have ever wondered about the rotation frequency of a fidget spinner now is your chance to find out.

All you need is a smartphone (iOS or Android) with a data collection app like Phyphox installed and a fidget spinner  (of course). To do this experiment we will need to magnetize part of the fidget spinner so that your phone’s magnetometer can detect its magnetic field.

Of course, this depends on whether your smartphone has this kind of sensor built into it. If not you’re out of luck. 

You will need to take a permanent magnet of some kind and rub it against the metal rings in one of the arms. Do this for a few seconds and it should be enough to induce a small magnetic charge that the app can detect to measure the spin speed.

Now activate the app and select the magnetometer experiment. Get it started and begin to spin the fidget spinner slowly to make sure it’s detecting the magnetized arm.

If not you might need to magnetize the arm again. You should be able to a noticeable spike as the magnetized arm passes close to the phone. 

Now for the fun bit. Close the experiment and find the magnetic spectrum experiment under the ‘tools’ heading (in Phyphox). 

Fire this experiment up, start spinning your magnetized spinner and watch the app calculate the fidget spinner’s frequency in front of your eyes. It should appear as a noticeable peak.

Experiment #9 – Build and ‘speed test’ your own balloon powered car

Unlike other experiments on this list, you will need a fair amount of materials to perform this experiment. You might have a few of the necessary items lying around the house but it might be necessary to spend just a few bucks at your local hardware shop.

What materials you will need will depend on your final design of ‘car’ but in general you will need something like the following. Remember the design will need to be strong enough to actually ‘take the weight’ of your phone:-

– Something to build four wheels (CD’s, bottle caps or anything else round will do);

– Something to build the axles (wooden skewers, toothpicks, chopsticks etc);

– Something to form the chassis (cardboard, plywood plastic bottles etc);

– Balloons – obviously;

– Tape and/or glue to stick everything together;

– Straws to allow you to inflate the balloon/control the deflation of the balloon to generate thrust direction;

– Things to cut with – scissors etc and;

– Other than that anything goes.

There is a challenge you can take part in here if you want to enter your design (but it does have strict material requirements). You can either follow instructions like this to build one of these cars or devise your own and experiment to find which offer the best acceleration. 

Whatever design you go for you will want to quantify the performance of the final vehicle. This is where your smartphone and app comes into play so make sure you make allowance for the phones size and weight into your design.

With your very own balloon-car built its time to see how fast it can go. Activate your app and find the accelerometer function.

Start it up, strap your phone onto the chassis (if you haven’t already), inflate your balloon(s) and let it go. You can play around until you get the acceleration up to a rate of your liking. 

Experiment #10 – Build and test an Earthquake proof model building foundation

And last, but by no means least, is an experiment that will test your civil engineering skills (if you have any). This experiment will once again utilize your phone’s accelerometer to build the most efficient earthquake attenuation system you can think of.

As the experiment above the material, you’ll need will depend on your design of earthquake-proofing but you’ll be using your smartphone (and app) to gather data on its performance.

in general, you will likely need:-

– Some form of building model – you can use a simple cardboard box or build your own elaborate alternative

– A base to shake by hand – a large sheet of cardboard is usually fine

– Materials for your earthquake foundations – pens for rollers, springs, elastic bands, slinkies

– Adhesive materials to stick things together – tape, glue, elastic bands etc

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

– Things to cut with – scissors etc

Once you are happy with your ‘earthquake-simulating ‘ by moving the cardboard base from side to side. 

Your phone will then access the maximum and minimum movement and provide you with reference data from which to improve your design to reduce this to the lowest possible value.

The Blueprint Daily

Stay up-to-date on engineering, tech, space, and science news with The Blueprint.

By clicking sign up, you confirm that you accept this site's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Christopher McFadden Christopher graduated from Cardiff University in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Geology. Since then, he has worked exclusively within the Built Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Consultancy industries. He is a qualified and accredited Energy Consultant, Green Deal Assessor and Practitioner member of IEMA. Chris’s main interests range from Science and Engineering, Military and Ancient History to Politics and Philosophy.

POPULAR ARTICLES

Rocket-equipped storm chasers: inside the dominator 3’s quest for tornado secrets, cryogenic hydrogen-electric propulsion could lead to net-zero air travel, dog chews battery, sparks fly out of lithium device, sets house on fire in us, 100% charge in 5 minutes: chinese firm to unveil super fast charging breakthrough, related articles.

Nuclear fusion game-changer: New method can cut reactor design time by decade

US takes lead in quantum security, set to unveil new cryptography standards

Crossing the line? Meta’s AI training sparks worldwide privacy concerns

Robot with thermal camera, smoke detector douses fires, locates trapped people

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• The Big Story
• Newsletters
• Steven Levy's Plaintext Column
• WIRED Classics from the Archive
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

Three Science Experiments You Can Do With Your Phone

Everyone already knows that you are carrying around a computer in your pocket. But your smartphone is more than just a computer—it's also a data collector. I'm going to guess that yours can measure acceleration, magnetic field, sound, location, and maybe more. Many phones also can measure pressure. Oh, and some phones can even make phone calls.

With all of those sensors available, I'm going to go over three fun experiments you can do with your phone. These will probably work on just about any smartphone—and you can probably use a variety of apps to collect the data. For these examples, I'm going to stick with phyphox (http://phyphoxorg) . There have been lots of data collecting apps—but this one is the best I've seen lately. Also, it's free and runs on both iOS and Android. Check it out.

Get a small ball—actually, the size doesn't really matter. There are only two things that the ball needs to do for this experiment: It needs to bounce and it needs to make a noise when it hits the table (or whatever surface it hits). That's it. Now start up your phyphox (pronounced fi-fox) app and open up the experiment file "(In)elastic collision." Place your phone near the location that the ball will hit the surface so that the microphone can pick up the sound. Start recording and drop the ball.

The app then records all of the times the ball hits the ground. It's pretty cool. The app also uses the time between bounces to calculate the bounce height (I suppose the calculation assumes you are on the surface of the Earth with a vertical acceleration of 9.8 m/s 2 ).

Just for fun, here is a plot of bounce height vs. bounce number for a small metal ball bouncing on my lab table.

But now that data is super simple to collect—you can explore the relationship between initial drop distance and bounce height for a wide variety of balls. What changes for each successive bounce? Does it lose the same height or the same energy? In case you are curious, this is something I looked at some time ago (more details) .

Although it's fun to come up with your own experimental method to determine the speed of sound—here is a method that works fairly well using two smartphones. You need to run something that will act as an acoustic stop watch (phyphox has one). The acoustic stop watch is just like a normal timer. The only difference is that it starts and stops the timing based on a loud sound—like a clap.

So here is how this experiment works. Take two phones and put them a known distance apart—I used my 12 foot tape measurer to set the distance (further is better, but both phones need to be able to hear the same sounds). Let's call these two phones phone-A and phone-B. Next, someone needs to clap next to phone-A to start both timers. Of course since phone-B is a little farther away, it will start slightly later. After some short time interval (doesn't really matter), someone claps next to phone-B stopping both phones but stopping phone-B first.

Here's how it works. Phone-B starts a little bit later—as I said. Now when the clap is near phone-B it essentially stops right on time. However, phone-A starts late because of the distance sound has to travel. The two phones record two different time intervals. The difference between these time intervals is the time for sound to travel from A to B and back from B to A.

Now for the calculation. The speed of sound will just be twice the measured distance between the two phones (for there and back sound) divided by the difference in time intervals.

Now for my data. With a distance of 12 feet (3.66 meters) and the two time intervals of 2.047 seconds and 2.029 seconds, I get a sound speed of about 407 m/s. This is wrong—but only slightly wrong. The accepted value for the speed of sound should be around 343 m/s (depends on temperature of the air and stuff). But I'm OK with my value—it was just a quick setup. I think you could play around with this and see if you could get an even better answer. What if you did it outside with a greater distance (and louder noise)? That would be fun to try.

Yes, I know the previous two phone experiments used the microphone—and even a traditional analog phone has a microphone. But what about a barometer that measures the atmospheric pressure? Yes, many smartphones now have this sensor—the reason is probably to help the GPS to get a better location. The GPS doesn't do as well with altitude, so the barometer gives a little better reading based on the change in air pressure.

But this change in air pressure can also be used while you take ride up (or down) in an elevator. I've done this before in a nice elevator , but I decided to do it in a crappy two-story elevator too. Using the phyphox app, it records the change in pressure and with that calculates the height as a function of time. It also records data from the accelerometer to calculate the velocity as a function of time (assume the elevator starts from rest).

Here is the data from the crappy elevator run.

Just knowing the height of the building is pretty cool—but how about a homework problem for you? Use the position-time data to calculate the elevator velocity and compare that to the velocity from the acceleration data. They probably won't give the same results since the barometer doesn't give pressure readings super fast—but it will still be fun.

Are there more experiments? Of course! But that's enough to get you started for now.

• Behind The Meg , the movie the internet wouldn't let die
• Simple steps to protect yourself on public Wi-Fi
• How to make millions charging prisoners to send an email
• Who's to blame for your bad tech habits ? It's complicated
• The genetics (and ethics) of making humans fit for Mars
• Looking for more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss our latest and greatest stories

12 famous experiments to recreate with your smartphone

Updated: May 17

Did you know that you can recreate the groundbreaking experiments of famous scientists using just a smartphone? In this article, we present 12 fascinating experiments designed by legendary figures like Pythagoras, Robert Boyle, and Albert Einstein. These experiments are accessible to everyone and don't require complex equipment apart from a smartphone. Whether you're a student, educator, or curious mind, get ready to dive into the rich history of scientific discovery with just your smartphone!

Table of content

Pythagore and the Music Scale - Galileo's Pendulum - Toricelli and the Foundation of Fluid Dynamics - Newton and the Theory of Gravitation - Leibniz and Energy Conservation - Boyle and Sound Waves - Einstein and the Elevator's Thought Experiment - Doppler and the Dopller effect - Nollet and the Measurement of the Speed of Sound - Young and the Theory of Colors - Delambre and the Measurement of the Meridian - Von Helmholtz and the Resonator

Pythagore and the Music Scale

One day, while walking near a forge, it is said that Pythagoras was struck by the harmonious sounds produced by the hammers hitting the anvil. Intrigued, he noticed that the pitch of the sounds depended on the size and weight of the hammers. He then conducted experiments by suspending different weights on strings and striking them, discovering that specific weight ratios produced harmonious sounds. Pythagoras identified three fundamental musical intervals: the octave (ratio 1:2), the fifth (ratio 2:3), and the fourth (ratio 3:4). These intervals formed the basis of the Pythagorean diatonic scale.

Pythagoras, one of the greatest geniuses of ancient Greece (570-495 BC), was a mathematician, philosopher, musician, and mystic. Founder of the Pythagorean movement, he emphasized mathematics, music, and universal harmony. His contributions include the famous Pythagorean theorem, and his interest in music led him to explore musical intervals and the concept of the "harmony of the spheres."

To conduct an analysis similar to Pythagoras and rediscover his insights, we suggest using the sound synthesizer of the app FizziQ , available for free an Android or iOS store. The goal will be to experimentally determine mix of frequencies that seem harmonious to you. For example, choose a frequency of 600 hertz on the first track, and add a frequency on a second track that seems sounds pleasing to the ear. Are the ratio of these two frequencies the same as those found by Pythagoras? Do Pythagorean intervals sound different from other frequency mix? Analyze these sounds with the application's oscilloscope to understand why they are pleasing to the ear. For more information on sound waves and harmonic chords, you can consult our article : Can you see a sound ?

Galileo's Pendulum

Everyone knows the anecdote about Galileo and the falling weights from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a structure that is part of the architectural ensemble of the Pisa Cathedral, a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture built between the 11th and 12th centuries. Another lesser-known anecdote takes place inside this cathedral. While he was a medical student at the university, Galileo noticed a hanging lamp swinging during a religious service. Intrigued by the lamp's regular movement, he used his pulse to measure the time between oscillations and found that, regardless of the swing's amplitude, the oscillation period remained remarkably constant. This observation marked the beginning of his experiments with pendulums, significantly contributing to classical physics, notably the precise measurement of time and the development of mechanics theory.

A hundred years later, Christian Huygens would confirm Galileo's hypothesis and model the simple pendulum, showing that the oscillation period depends only on the string's length and gravity. For small oscillations: T = 2π * √(l/g), where T is the period in seconds, l is the string's length in meters, and g is the acceleration due to gravity in meters per second squared.

You can experimentally demonstrate this relationship with a smartphone. Attach a hook to the ceiling and tie a long string with a smartphone at the end, secured in a plastic pouch, then set it swinging. The period can be measured in various ways using the smartphone's sensors, such as measuring acceleration, magnetic field variations relative to a magnet on the floor, or luminosity by placing the smartphone on the floor and using a ball at the pendulum's end to cover the detector. If you have a Newton's cradle, verify the oscillations' regularity by measuring the time between impacts using sound level measurements.

Toricelli and the Foundation of Fluid Dynamics

Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) was an Italian mathematician and physicist, primarily known for his invention of the mercury barometer. A student of Galileo Galilei, Torricelli continued his work on atmospheric pressure and fluids, developing fundamental principles of fluid dynamics. At the time, scientists did not understand why water pumps could not lift water above 10 meters. Torricelli hypothesized that the air pressure exerted on the water in the tank counterbalances the water column. To test this idea, he filled a tube with mercury, which is denser than water, and inverted it into a basin of mercury. A column of mercury 76 cm high remained, creating a vacuum in the upper part, and this was equivalent to a 10 m column of water, considering the density of mercury (13.6). This experiment proved the existence of atmospheric pressure and the vacuum, thus laying the foundations of modern meteorology and fluid physics.

Another significant contribution from Torricelli is Torricelli's law, which explains that the velocity of fluid flowing out of an orifice under a reservoir is proportional to the square root of the height of the fluid above the orifice. Torricelli's law states that the velocity v v is given by v=2gh v =2 gh ​, where g g is the acceleration due to gravity and h h is the height of the fluid column. This law derives from the principles of energy conservation and fluid dynamics, illustrating how pressure and height influence flow rate.

To replicate this experiment, you can perform a simple demonstration: choose a water bottle and pierce a hole near its bottom. Then, film the bottle with a smartphone as it empties. This video can be analyzed using kinematic analysis to observe the relationship between the water height and flow velocity.

Newton and the Theory of Gravitation

The discovery of gravity by Isaac Newton is one of the most famous moment in the history of science, often embellished by the anecdote of the apple falling from a tree. Although this story is popular, the true manner in which Newton formulated his theory of universal gravitation is more complex and relies on years of meticulous research and observations. By the mid-1660s, Newton was already deeply engaged in the study of physics and mathematics at the University of Cambridge. When an epidemic of plague forced the university to close in 1665, Newton returned to Woolsthorpe, his hometown. It was during this period of enforced retreat, known as his "annus mirabilis" or "miraculous year," that he began developing his revolutionary ideas in physics.

The famous apple story suggests that Newton was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation after seeing an apple fall from a tree. According to accounts by William Stukeley, a friend of Newton, and John Conduitt, his son-in-law, Newton told them that the apple incident made him ponder the nature of the force that made the apple fall straight to the ground. However, Newton's real breakthrough was not just realizing that objects fall towards the Earth but generalizing this attraction to understand that all bodies in the universe attract each other. Newton began to think that the same force that made the apple fall was also responsible for keeping the planets in orbit around the Sun. He formulated his law of universal gravitation, which states that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. These works were published in 1687 in his major work, "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which laid the foundations of classical mechanics.

To better understand gravity, you can drop your smartphone instead of an apple. Such an experiment will quickly allow you to estimate g g by measuring the duration of the fall from a certain height. Of course, ensure the smartphone falls onto a soft surface and measure the height and time of the fall accurately. Follow the activity protocol below that describes the procedure: Estimating g.

Leibniz and Energy Conservation

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German polymath, recognized for his significant contributions to philosophy, mathematics, logic, theology, and the sciences. Born in Leipzig to a family of jurists, Leibniz showed remarkable intelligence and an insatiable curiosity for various fields of knowledge from a young age. A polyglot, he mastered several languages, including Latin, Greek, French, and German, and had a working knowledge of English, Italian, and Dutch. This interest in languages led him to propose ideas for improving human communication efficiency, notably by developing a universal language, or "characteristica universalis," based on a logical system of symbols to represent concepts. He believed this universal language could not only facilitate communication between different peoples but also help resolve philosophical or scientific disputes by clarifying concepts. Despite his efforts and extensive research, he never succeeded in implementing this idea.

Leibniz was not convinced by the Cartesian view that the quantity of motion (the product of mass and velocity) was conserved in collisions. He observed that this theory did not account for all experimental observations, particularly in elastic collisions, where the sum of the products of mass and velocity seemed to vary. To resolve this inconsistency, Leibniz proposed the concept of "vis viva" (living force), which he defined as the product of mass and the square of velocity (mv²). He demonstrated that in an isolated system, the sum of these vis viva was conserved, even if the quantity of motion was not necessarily conserved. This innovative idea laid the foundations for our modern understanding of kinetic energy, highlighting the importance of energy conservation in mechanical phenomena.

Many experiments can be conducted with a smartphone to illustrate energy conservation during collisions. To study this concept effectively, use the kinematics module of the FizziQ application. With a smartphone, film an elastic collision and then an inelastic collision, and study the conservation laws of momentum and energy. On the fizziq.org website, you can find a video that will help you make precise measurements: Collision.

Boyle and sound waves

Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an Irish chemist and physicist, is considered one of the founders of modern chemistry. He is best known for Boyle's Law, which describes the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at a constant temperature. His experiments with a vacuum pump demonstrated the importance of atmospheric pressure and laid the foundations of physical chemistry. One of his most famous experiments involved placing a turtle in a vacuum chamber to observe the effects of a vacuum on a living organism. Boyle and his assistant, Robert Hooke, noted that as they removed the air from the chamber, the turtle became increasingly inactive. They quickly reintroduced the air before the turtle suffered any permanent damage, dramatically demonstrating the importance of air for the survival of living beings.

Following this observation, Boyle conducted numerous experiments, notably on the propagation of sound. He demonstrated that sound cannot travel through a vacuum by placing a ringing alarm clock inside a glass bell jar connected to a vacuum pump. As the air was gradually removed from the jar, he observed that the sound of the clock became fainter until it was almost inaudible in a near-vacuum. This experiment proved that sound requires a material medium, such as air, to propagate, confirming that a vacuum is an effective acoustic insulator and illustrating the principles of sound wave transmission.

You can replicate this experiment using a container in which you can reduce atmospheric pressure, such as those used to preserve food, or better yet, a laboratory vacuum bell jar. Place a smartphone emitting a constant sound inside the container, which can also measure atmospheric pressure (Apple smartphones have atmospheric pressure sensors). Outside the jar, measure the sound intensity with another smartphone. As you gradually reduce the pressure in the jar, measure the decrease in sound intensity. You will observe that the sound intensity diminishes logarithmically as the pressure in the jar decreases.

Einstein and the Elevator's Thought Experiment

A thought experiment is a hypothetical scenario used to explore the consequences of a principle or theory without real physical experimentation. It involves reasoning through a problem using only imagination and knowledge of physical laws, without requiring empirical evidence or practical execution. Thought experiments are employed in various fields, including physics, philosophy, mathematics, and ethics, serving as powerful tools to conceptualize ideas, challenge existing notions, and stimulate intellectual exploration. Albert Einstein, one of the most eminent users of thought experiments, widely utilized them to develop his revolutionary theories in physics, particularly the theories of special and general relativity. These experiments allowed him to visualize complex problems and paradoxes in physics that were difficult or impossible to test with the technology of his time.

One of Einstein's most famous thought experiments concerns the theory of general relativity: the elevator experiment. Einstein imagined being inside a closed elevator in deep space, accelerating upward. A ball dropped inside the elevator would appear to fall toward the floor similarly to how it would under Earth's gravity. In contrast, a stationary elevator near a planet would experience a similar effect due to gravity. The essence of this experiment is that, within the confines of the elevator, one cannot distinguish between the effects of gravity and pure acceleration.

To recreate this experiment, place a smartphone on a table and open the Absolute Acceleration instrument in the FizziQ app. You will see the value of 9.80 m/s², corresponding to gravitational acceleration. Next, place a mattress on the floor or use a soft bed, press the record button, and then throw the smartphone so that it describes a parabola and lands on the mattress. After stopping the recording and adding the data to the experiment log, you will observe that during the entire period in the air, the measured acceleration is zero. Although the smartphone is in free fall, causing its vertical speed to vary for an observer on the ground, the smartphone itself perceives no force and is in a state of weightlessness.

This experiment exactly reproduces Einstein's elevator thought experiment. The smartphone is equivalent to an elevator falling with the same acceleration as gravity. Inside the smartphone, the accelerometer cannot detect whether it is in free fall or if gravity is absent. For it, as for a person in the elevator, gravity is equivalent to acceleration.

For more information, you can consult our two articles on the subject: one dedicated to gravity and another explaining how an accelerometer works .

Doppler and the Doppler effect

In 1842, Christian Doppler, an Austrian physicist, proposed a new theory about the shift in frequency of a wave when the source moves relative to the observer. His theory was met with great skepticism by the scientific community, mainly because the means of transportation at that time did not allow for a clear demonstration of what the theory predicted. However, an irrefutable proof of Doppler's theory was provided in 1845 by meteorologist Buys-Ballot. He organized a spectacular experiment by placing musicians on a platform of a train moving at 70 km/h, having them play a constant note. People along the track observed the change in frequency of the sounds emitted by the orchestra as the train passed by, confirming that the Doppler effect was not an illusion.

The frequency of a wave, whether sound or light, is affected by the movement of the source relative to the observer. This frequency shift is directly proportional to the speed, according to the equation: Δf = f * Vmobile / Vonde, where Vmobile is the speed of the mobile and Vonde is the speed of the wave.

Today, the Doppler effect is used in many technologies, such as weather radar, medical imaging, and for control and security. It has proven to be a valuable tool for astronomers, allowing them to understand celestial movements and discover new objects like exoplanets. From its humble beginnings in Doppler's laboratory to modern observatories scanning the depths of space, the Doppler effect has shaped our understanding of the universe, offering insights into the movement and composition of celestial bodies.

Many experiments can be conducted with a smartphone to highlight and experimentally verify the Doppler law. For this, the smartphone's sound synthesizer can be used to generate sounds and measure the frequency of the sounds with the microphone. These experiments concretely demonstrate the frequency shift observed when the sound source moves relative to the observer. You can find five experiments to conduct on this topic by following this link: https://www.fizziq.org/post/experiment-doppler-effect .

Nollet and the Measurement of the Speed of Sound

Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700-1770), also known as Abbé Nollet, was a renowned French physicist and priest noted for his contributions to the study of electricity and acoustics. Born in Pimprez, Nollet began his career in theology before turning to natural sciences. He became a member of the Académie des Sciences and taught experimental physics at the Collège de Navarre in Paris. Nollet is best known for his work on electricity. He was one of the first to demonstrate the effects of static electricity and popularize electrical experiments across Europe. He invented the electrometer, a device for measuring electrical charge, and conducted public demonstrations that captivated the imagination of his era.

In 1738, the Académie des Sciences tasked Nollet with accurately determining the speed of sound. Utilizing the topography of the Paris basin, Nollet placed a cannon on the Montlhéry tower, with observers stationed on Montmartre hill, 28 kilometers away. At night, they timed the interval between seeing the flash and hearing the "BANG" of the cannon. Since the light from the cannon was perceived almost instantaneously, they measured the time required to hear the sound. Nollet calculated the speed of sound by using the distance and the measured time, reporting a speed of 337.2 meters per second to the Académie des Sciences. This value, very close to the modern measurement (about 343 m/s at 20°C), demonstrated the precision and rigor of his scientific method. His experiment marked a turning point in the study of sound waves and remains a notable example of the practical application of scientific principles.

You can easily replicate this experiment in class or at home with two smartphones equipped with the FizziQ application. Use the application's acoustic chronometers, which measure the time between two sound events. Place the two smartphones side by side and start the chronometers by clapping your hands. Then, move one of the phones at least 5 meters away and clap your hands again near the other phone. The chronometers stop, and the speed of sound can be calculated by dividing the distance by the time difference between the two chronometers. To conduct this experiment, follow this link: measure the speed of sound .

Young and the Theory of Colors

Thomas Young, a British physicist and polymath, is famous for his revolutionary work on color theory and trichromatic vision. In the early 19th century, Young was intrigued by how the human eye perceives colors. In 1801, he proposed that color vision relies on three types of receptors in the eye, each sensitive to one of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue. To test his theory, Young used colored filters and light sources of different wavelengths. He demonstrated that the combination of these three base colors could reproduce all other colors perceptible to the human eye. For instance, combining red and green light produces yellow; combining blue and red light produces magenta; and combining all three produces white.

It took over 150 years for the existence of cells sensitive to three different wavelength ranges (most sensitive to green-yellow, green-blue, and blue – not red, green, and blue) to be confirmed. These cells were identified in 1956 by Gunnar Svaetichin. In 1983, this discovery was validated in human retinas during an experiment conducted by Herbert Dartnall, James Bowmaker, and John Mollon, who obtained microspectrophotometric readings of individual cones in human eyes. This discovery profoundly influenced the science of optics, the understanding of visual perception, and was fundamental to the development of modern technologies such as television and computer screens, which use red, green, and blue pixels to display a full range of colors.

To experimentally replicate Young's experiment with a smartphone, follow these steps: Using the Color instrument in the FizziQ app, aim at a color and add this measurement to the experiment notebook. This measurement will give you the amount of primary colors red, green, and blue that make up the color. Using the Color Synthesizer in the Tools section with the quantities determined by the spectrum, you can then reconstruct this color. Any color can be recomposed from the three primary colors. The three primary colors, mixed, are sufficient to create any color we perceive.

Delambre and the Measurement of the Earth

In 1790, the French National Assembly decided to establish a single measurement system using the Earth as a reference. The meter was then defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along a meridian. Pierre Méchain and Jean-Baptiste Delambre, astronomers and mathematicians, were tasked with measuring this meridian in 1792 to establish the most precise possible estimate of the distance between Dunkirk and Barcelona.

This led to a seven-year adventure for the two scientists. The revolutionary Terror period made travel perilous, especially with an unusual measuring device, the repeating circle. Delambre often had to deal with suspicious and uncooperative national guards, preventing him from working for an entire year. Méchain, initially more fortunate, faced complications in 1793 when Spain declared war on France. This tense political situation hindered his work and travel. Furthermore, Méchain discovered an anomaly of a few seconds of arc in his measurements, which led him to hide his results for fear of discredit. These logistical, political, and personal challenges seriously complicated the mission of defining the meter as one ten-millionth of the meridian's quarter. In 1799, they finally determined the length of the meter to be 0.513074 toise. Confronted with an anomaly in his measurements, Méchain chose to conceal them. Their work laid the foundation for the modern definition of the meter.

Triangulation is the basic mathematical tool used by the two scientists. It is a geometric method used to determine the precise position of a point by measuring angles from two fixed and known reference points. This process involves creating triangles whose distances between points can be calculated using trigonometry laws. In practice, one starts by measuring a baseline between two fixed points, then measures the angles between this baseline and a third visible point. From these measurements, the distance to the third point can be calculated. By repeating this process, a series of triangles is formed, allowing large areas to be mapped with great precision.

A triangulation exercise can be simply performed using the FizziQ app's theodolite. This exercise allows, for example, to calculate distances that are too great or have obstacles preventing direct measurement. For more information on triangulation with FizziQ, you can watch the video: triangulation with FizziQ.

Von Helmholtz and the Resonator

Hermann von Helmholtz was a renowned German scientist known for his contributions in various fields, including physics, physiology, and psychology. An interesting anecdote about Helmholtz relates to his invention of the Helmholtz resonator, developed to identify different frequencies of sounds produced by various musical instruments.

In his quest to understand how humans perceive sounds, Helmholtz designed a series of spheres of different sizes with narrow openings. These spheres, called Helmholtz resonators, were intended to vibrate in resonance with specific frequencies. Helmholtz used these resonators by placing them near his ear to listen to the sounds produced by different instruments. Each resonator was calibrated to amplify a particular frequency, allowing Helmholtz to precisely analyze the sound spectrum of music.

You can easily construct a Helmholtz resonator using a test tube. By blowing over the top of the tube, a sound is produced whose frequency is unique to the tube's geometry. For a closed tube, the fundamental resonance frequency is: f₀ = c/(4L+1.6D), where L is the tube's length and D is the tube's diameter. Using the FizziQ app's frequency meter, you can verify that the sound's frequency corresponds to the tube's calculated resonance frequency.

Another fun experiment involves measuring the frequency of the "pop" sound when opening a bottle of wine. This frequency depends on the cavity between the liquid and the cork. The theoretical frequency of the sound can also be calculated and verified with the appropriate tools. Try it with the following video: Opening a bottle of wine.

Thanks to technological advances, it is possible to recreate iconic scientific experiments with a simple smartphone. Whether you are a teacher, student, or simply curious, these experiments allow you to delve into the history of science and understand the fundamental principles that have shaped our understanding of the world. By exploring the works of legendary figures like Pythagoras, Galileo, Torricelli, and many others, you will discover how seemingly complex concepts can be studied and understood using accessible modern technologies. These activities not only enrich your scientific understanding but also make learning interactive and engaging. So, grab your smartphone and start your journey through the history of science.

Recent Posts

Seven Experiments to Understand the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming

Mastering Video Analysis in Physics: A Comprehensive Guide

15 Awesome Science Projects from the "Physics and Sports" Competition

Engineers Garage

The Four Incredible Science Experiments You Can Do With Your Phone

By Engineers Garage August 31, 2018

You definitely think that the phone you are carrying in your pocket is a feature loaded gadget that allows you not just to make calls, but to play games, watch videos, listen to music, make video chats, and download innumerable apps that further enhances its functionality.

But how you would feel if I tell you that you can actually do some really cool science experiments with your phone? Sure, you would be amazed!

Your smartphone is not just a device to fun, entertainment, and communication, but a mobile mini-computer that lets you do stuff, which you might have not even thought. It is almost like a computer and a data collector. While some phones are limitedonly to make phone calls, the modern smartphones allow their users to perform various science experiments as well.

Want to know about such science experiments that you can do with your phone? This post is going to tell you the same!

If your smartphone incorporates those sensors, then let me tell that you can do three fun experiments with it. These experiments would work on most of the smartphones and would work amazingly if you can probably use varieties of apps to gather the data. Also, doing these experiments is free!

So, let’s get started!

Bouncing Ball

Though the size of the ball does not matter, it would be better if you pick a small sized ball. To ensure that the experiment runs successfully, the ball must bounce and at the same time must make some noise.

The bouncing ball must bounce,and it must make a noise when it hits any surface. Now, the next step is to download the ‘ phyphox ’ app and open its experiment file. Place your smartphone close to the location that the ball will hit the surface. This will allow the microphone to pick the sound. The next step is to drop the ball and start recording the sound.

While the app records the sound all the times, you can enjoy throwing it on different surfaces. This app uses the time between bounces to estimate the bounce height, assuming that you are throwing the ball from the Earth’s surface with a vertical acceleration.  Once the data is collected, you can explore the relationship between the initial drop distances and bounce height for a range of balls. You can measure the successive bounce changes, the height, and energy taken by the ball during each throw.

Measure the Speed of Sound

You must be having your own method to determine the speed of sound; this one will let you know the method to measure the sound’s speed via your phone.  You need to have an app that can function as an acoustic stopwatch so that it can start and stop on the bases of sound noise.

Now, you need two phones to perform this experiment. Keep the two phones at a distance apart so that both the phones are able to hear the same sound. While you will play a sound close to the first phone, the next phone will definitely listen to it a little late and vice versa. It is because of the difference that the sound takes to travel to each of the devices.  Now for calculation, the speed of sound will be twice the measured distance between the two devices divided by the difference in time intervals.

So, here goes the equation,

Identify the Height of the Building

While the previous two experiments using a microphone, there is still one experiment that can be performed with the barometer that measures the atmospheric pressure. Yes, if you are using a modern-day phone, then it would have a sensor. The sensor is usefulnot just to use GPS to get the location, but it can also be used for more high-end functionality.

With the barometer in there, it is possible to measure the change in pressure or while taking a ride in an elevator. You can again use the phyphox app as it allows you to record the change in pressure and even allows you to calculate the height as a function of time. Additionally, you can record data from the accelerometer to measure the velocity as a function of time.

This way, you can know the height of every building you move through. Even the position-time data can be used to estimate the elevator velocity and compare it to the velocity from the acceleration data. Probably, they would not offer you the same results, but it is still great fun.

Predict Upcoming Earthquake

Every smartphone incorporates an accelerometer that is being used to determine seismic disturbances. This helps to predict an upcoming earthquake as well as enable individuals to evacuate the space in danger easily and in time.  You can download the ‘ MyShake ’ app and let it run in the background in your smartphone. The mini-computer within your smartphone will then differentiate between real movements and normal seismic disturbances and ultimately define conclusions.

This way, it is possible to use your smartphone frequently for science in Earth observations. You can collect data about the Earth’s chemical, physical, and biological systems. The sensors in phones are ideal for making measurements near the surface of ground, things that can be conveniently misses due to obstructions like clouds, trees, or low vegetation, or because they are small.

You must be wondering that are there any more experiments that you can perform with your phone? And the answer is yes, there are! But for now, you must proceed to perform these experiments as they are enough to get started for now.

Just try these experiments,and sure you will love exploring these amazing used of your smartphone!

Questions related to this article? 👉Ask and discuss on EDAboard.com and Electro-Tech-Online.com forums. Tell Us What You Think!! Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Search Engineers Garage

• Raspberry pi
• 8051 Microcontroller
• PIC Microcontroller
• Battery Management
• Electric Vehicles
• EMI/EMC/RFI
• Hardware Filters
• IoT tutorials
• Power Tutorials
• Circuit Design
• Project Videos
• Tech Articles
• Invention Stories
• Electronic Product News
• Business News
• Company/Start-up News
• DIY Reviews
• EDABoard.com
• Electro-Tech-Online
• EG Forum Archive
• Cables, Wires
• Connectors, Interconnect
• Electromechanical
• Embedded Computers
• Enclosures, Hardware, Office
• Integrated Circuits (ICs)
• LED/Optoelectronics
• Power, Circuit Protection
• Programmers
• RF, Wireless
• Semiconductors
• Sensors, Transducers
• Test Products
• eBooks/Tech Tips
• Design Guides
• Learning Center
• Webinars & Digital Events
• Digital Issues
• EE Training Days
• LEAP Awards
• Webinars / Digital Events
• White Papers
• Engineering Diversity & Inclusion
• Guest Post Guidelines

Cell Phone Miniscope

Open your eyes to the amazing world of the ultra-tiny when you convert your cell phone into a portable, picture-taking Miniscope using a simple plastic lens from a laser pointer.

• Small piece of poster tack or removable adhesive putty
• Laser-pointer lens—also known as a laser collimating lens—with a diameter of between 6 and 8 mm and a focal length as short as possible (that is, having as much curvature as possible); alternatively, you can remove the lens from an existing (preferably nonfunctioning) laser pointer
• Cell phone with built-in camera
• Interesting objects to look at
• Optional: printout of this metric ruler (or similar ruler with millimeters marked) 
• Optional: flashlight and partner

• Turn on the cell phone, and put it in camera mode.
• Tear off a piece of poster tack about the size of a pea and roll it into a cylinder approximately 1 inch (2 to 3 cm) long.

Your Miniscope is ready; now find an interesting object to photograph!

Put your cell phone in camera/photo mode and bring it very close to an object you want to photograph (click to enlarge the photo below). If you’re unsure where to start, try fabrics (denim, cotton shirts, synthetic fibers), flowers, insects, electronic screens, and kitchen spices (salt, pepper, sugar, dried herbs). Adjust your distance until the object is in focus, and then take your photo.

Most microscopes have built-in lights to illuminate your view. If your photos aren't bright enough, ask a partner to shine a light on an object you’re photographing. You can also shoot illuminated videos by turning on your camera’s flash.

As you can see, adding a laser-pointer lens dramatically increases the magnification capabilities of a cell-phone camera lens.

Although the exact details vary, most cell-phone cameras share attributes with a familiar vision system: an eye! Your eye contains a lens, and a light-sensitive surface (the retina) records an image of what you see.

In a camera, the light-sensitive surface is an electronic screen called a detector. Adding another lens to the cell phone (here, the small but powerful convex lens found in a laser pointer) magnifies everything that’s close to the phone’s camera, similar to the way a magnifying glass works when you look through it. It’s this magnification that makes your Cell Phone Miniscope so mighty.

To explore the optics of your Cell Phone Miniscope, try reversing the orientation of the laser-pointer lens by flipping it over, so the side that was against the phone is now facing outward. Take another photo of something you photographed earlier. Did flipping the lens change the magnification and/or quality of the photo? Try putting the laser-pointer lens onto the camera lens on the screen side of your cell phone. How do the images compare?

For another optics experiment, try adjusting the zoom on your cell phone’s camera. Does changing the zoom change the magnification and/or the quality of the photo? You can also experiment by switching to video mode. Does this affect the magnification or quality of the images?

To measure your Cell Phone Miniscope’s field of view, zoom out as wide as you can and focus your camera on a metric ruler. How many millimeters fit across the screen? This measurement is the diameter of your field of view. Zoom in halfway. How many millimeters fit across the screen now? Finally, zoom in all the way, and determine the width of your field of view at this setting.

When you know the fields of view for your Cell Phone Miniscope, you can estimate the sizes of the things you see. For example, if your whole screen’s field of view is 4 mm wide, and 8 salt crystals fit across the screen, then the size of a salt crystal can be found by dividing 4 mm by 8 salt crystals, for an estimated size of 0.5 mm/salt crystal (see photo below).

For an engineering challenge, try designing and building a light box to use as a platform for viewing slides with a light source shining from below, similar to the setup of a typical compound light microscope. Some additional supplies that may be helpful include a push-button night light or small flashlight, popsicle sticks, straws, a take-out container with a clear lid, paper, tape, and other materials.

You can also challenge your estimation skills using data gathered from your Cell Phone Miniscope. For example, how many sugar granules cover a piece of sugar-coated candy?

Cell-phone use may be restricted in some school settings. While we believe that use of a cell phone in this Snack is appropriate—especially in classrooms with limited access to microscopes—we encourage teachers to work within their school’s expectations.

Related Snacks

• Our Purpose
• Our Science and Technology
• Join Our Team
• Partner with Us
• Community and Education

Physics with Phones

The sensors that are part of almost every mobile phone provide a great opportunity to improve students’ experiences with physics. Making measurements with high-quality sensors enables them to engage in science and engineering practices as they learn core disciplinary ideas. 

Physics with Phones is a series of presentations outlining a wide range of experiments that are well-aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. These were being developed for the classroom, but many can be done by students in their own homes. Some have been successfully piloted in high school physics classes.  Click on the titles below to download the presentations.

Interested in having an LLNL scientist lead a virtual Physics with Phones activity in your classroom?

Submit a request

Introduction and Applications

Smartphones are a powerful educational tool and a low-cost complement to traditional physics teaching methods to reinforce students’ interest in learning. By making physics experiments more engaging with built-in phone sensors, students can quickly attach real-world experiences to abstract concepts.

• Understanding Motion

Life depends on motion over a wide range of scales, for example, the pulsing of blood through veins and arteries, the movement of people and vehicles from place to place, the migration of wildlife. Use the phone to measure and analyze distance, speed, and acceleration.

• Exploring Acceleration

The velocity of objects often changes over time which we refer to as acceleration.  Learn how to measure acceleration as you move your body and how to use your phone to determine the acceleration due to Earth’s gravitational field. 

• Exploring Friction & Mechanics

The force of friction makes it possible for people to walk and cars to move, but it also causes our machines to wear down, and some of the energy we generate to be wasted as heat. Learn how to measure friction on different kinds of surfaces using your smartphone and understand its physical effects.

• The Physics of Rotational Motion

Navigational devices like the GPS system in your phone depend on gyroscopes to analyze the rotational motion of moving objects. Your phone contains a very sensitive gyroscope that determines how it moves along three axes of rotation. Learn how your phone uses this data to figure out how and where you’re moving through space as you carry it.

• Moment of Inertia

How something moves through space depends on its mass, shape, velocity, and other factors. Analyzing the flight of a jet or orbit of a satellite requires understanding its moment of inertia. Analyze the moment of inertia of your smartphone in this unit.

• Investigating Impulse and Momentum

Objects move and halt when forces are applied. Mass, velocity, and time define the physical quantities of impulse and momentum. Understanding them is crucial to designing safer products like cars, shoes, sports equipment. Engineer shock-absorbing solutions and use the smartphone to measure how well your designs worked.

• The Science of Collisions

Collisions are all around us. Analyzing them can help us understand such phenomena as the flight of a golf ball when it’s hit by a club, or the behavior of the particles that form matter. Learn how to analyze the motion of bouncing balls on flat surfaces using your smartphone.

• Measuring the Pressure Around Us

The pressure of fluids like air and water regulate many natural processes from those in living organisms to the weather. Changes in pressure drive many industrial, medical, and technological applications from jet engines to building heating and cooling systems. Learn how to measure and understand pressure differences using your smartphone.

• A Foundation for Understanding Waves

Understanding waves is fundamental—through them we see, communicate, transmit energy, probe the universe. Experimenting with harmonic oscillators, such as a mass on a spring, is a great way to understand how waves work. Use your phone to make measurements of a simple spring oscillator.

• Mechanical Waves and Sound

The spoken word, music, earthquakes, vibrating equipment: the physics of mechanical waves, including sound, govern what we hear, their use in technology, and their effect during such events as earthquakes. In parts 1 and 2, you will use your phone to measure the speed of sound.

• Experimenting with Electromagnetic Waves

We see, communicate, manufacture, and explore using the waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, including those in the visible, microwave, radio, and x-ray frequencies. Using your smartphone, you will explore how colors combine, and measure: the absorbance and reflection of light; your pulse using light: and the strength of microwaves that carry Wi-Fi signals.

• Exploring Magnetic Fields in the World Around You

Magnetic fields make motors, electrical generators, home appliances, tools, and many other technologies work. The Earth is surrounded and protected by a magnetic field from radiation. Learn how to use the magnetometer in your phone to measure the strength and direction of Earth’s magnetic field, and more.

• Making Digital Measurements and Quantifying Uncertainty

In today’s technologically advanced world, scientific measurements are often converted into digital representations to enable processing and storage. You can use built-in sensors in your smartphone to understand the principles of digital measurement science and assess the quality of large data sets.

Physics with Phones in the News

• Core Competencies
• Unique Facilities
• Lab Directed Research and Development
• Institutional Initiatives
• Research Integrity
• S&T Highlights
• Recognition
• Director's Awards
• Journal Covers
• A Look Back
• LLNL Institutes/Centers
• Current and Former Lawrence Fellows
• Lawrence Fellowship: Learn more and apply
• Career Development & Network Activities
• Life Around the Lab
• Lawrence Livermore Postdoc Association
• Research SLAM!
• Internally Sponsored Internships
• Externally Sponsored Internships
• Fun with Science
• Application Process
• Camp Activities
• Biotech Summer Experience
• Manufacturing Workshop
• STEM with Phones
• STEM San Joaquin
• Science on Saturday
• Teacher Research Academy
• Physics with Phones Introduction and Links
• Virtual Discovery Center
• Virtual Tours and Class Visits
• Ambassador Lecture Series
• Faculty Sabbatical Program
• Science Education
• Postdoc Opportunities
• Student Opportunities
• About Us: Academic Engagement Office
• Innovation and Partnerships Office
• Research Library

Your smartphone knows physics: The science inside mobile devices

• November 26, 2020

• Science & Environment

Ryan is an Associate Professor of Physics at California State University - East Bay, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ryan’s lab group researches nanoscale-sized semiconductor materials using short pulses (less than a billionth of a second in duration!) of laser light. Such materials may become building blocks for future computing and renewable energy applications. Ryan is also a musician, outdoors enthusiast, rock climber, and beekeeper.

Physics is the reason computers shrunk from building-size to ones that fit in your pocket. We explore how the smartphone celebrates a variety of scientific and technological advancements: semiconductor nanotechnology, sensors, fiber optics, satellites, and atomic clocks are some of the puzzle pieces that have conspired to make such a useful (and distracting!) device. Upon exploring some of the technologies used by your phone, you may not be able to look at your phone in the same way and may even think that your phone is sort of smart.   While it may not feel like an inspiring moment each time you pull out your smartphone to check your email, there is a lot of fascinating physics going on inside your device. Smartphones are a rich showcase of many of the triumphs of modern physics. This article is intended to give some framework for understanding smartphone technology, and hopefully leave the reader with a sense of wonder, and maybe even some curiosity about future technologies that may soon make ‘smartphones’ antiquated technology.  

The physics of using an app

Let’s take a look at some of the physics involved in an example of everyday use of a rideshare app on your phone. Turning on your phone screen, you are presented with approximately 3 million individually controlled microscopic light emitters that convince your eye that it is seeing images made up of reds, greens, and blues. Your finger applies a small amount of pressure on a glass screen, which electrically senses the pressure and converts this into meaningful information: you want to open an app. After collecting time-encoded radio signals from several orbiting satellites that allow the pocket computer to determine its position within a couple meters, it then relays its position information through a variety of electromagnetic waves (Wi-Fi and cellular signals, usually then encoded into fiber optic signals – all three of these examples are electromagnetic waves at different frequencies) to another computer that then collects position information from various drivers in your area. After some negotiation, another packet of waves is sent to a driver, who at some point will also have a payment be directed to their bank account after providing the service. A combination of continuous measurement of radio waves from satellites and nearby cell towers helps the driver, the company, and you, to know the constantly changing locations of both client and driver. The fact that this all works consistently and with very few glitches may feel like a miracle or something futuristic from this perspective, but this is the reality of the capability of the little devices we each have in our pockets.  

Smaller means faster

To give a little perspective on how the technology has evolved, let’s look at a typical smartphone today and compare it with the IBM System/360 Model 75 mainframe computer (1) that was used to help send NASA astronauts to the moon. A smartphone with 4 GB of RAM (memory) has 500 times the memory, a cost ($800) that is 30,000 times cheaper (adjusted for inflation) and is 3,000 times faster than the IBM mainframe. Not to mention, compared with taking up a large room’s worth of space, just a bit smaller as well…

A smartphone is a miniature computer.  So how did we move from expensive, inefficient, building-sized computers to more powerful ones that fit in a pocket and have access to a global network of information? A big part of this story is the innovation of smaller transistors.

The driving force behind smaller devices has been shrinking the transistor , the basic building block of computation. A transistor, a controllable valve for electrons, can be assembled with other transistors to make a logic operation based on inputs. As an example of such an operation: if my two friends choose coffee, I will too; otherwise, I’ll choose tea. Put together billions of such logic operations and we are talking about the level of complexity of running an application or calculating the trajectory of a spacecraft. Remarkably, every two years for the last five decades, researchers have been able to nearly double the number of transistors that fit on a computer chip (mostly by shrinking the size of the transistor) (2) . This strange phenomenon, predicted by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, is known as Moore’s Law .

Why should we be motivated to shrink these building blocks to be smaller and smaller? For one, the speed of a computer fundamentally depends on its size. Nothing can travel faster than light and since it takes light a nanosecond to travel 30 cm (1 foot), a larger computer can be limited by the time it takes for a signal to travel through it. So, computer research has been motivated to miniaturize computers. Another important benefit of a smaller computer is that it produces less heat in making a calculation, which means lower consumption of energy and less need for fancy cooling solutions. Lastly, smaller features in computers mean making more efficient use of limited silicon ‘real estate,’ resulting in lower overall cost of making a computer chip while more logic operations can be made. Thus, smaller transistor size is simultaneously a necessary condition for having a miniature, portable, and low-cost device, and it helps to make a faster computer.  

From sand to semiconductors

Most transistors are made from semiconductors , the materials at the backbone of the computer industry. The “semi-”, meaning “half” in Latin, implies that such a material can be made to sometimes behave as a conductor of electricity (like a metal) and other times be made to behave as an electrical insulator (such as plastic). Silicon has been the material of choice for decades now because it is abundant (28% of the earth’s crust) and cheap to produce – it is literally extracted from sand, which is a silicon atom bonded with two oxygen atoms – i.e., SiO 2 . Additionally, there is a convenient process for making parts of the material conducting or insulating by adding impurity atoms in a process called doping , thus allowing precise control of the flow of electrons in a circuit. The process for transferring an image of a circuit onto a silicon crystal wafer is called photolithography – for more on how this works, check out the semiconductor physics chapter in the book referenced below (2) . Breakthroughs in photolithography have allowed nanometer-scale circuit features such as transistors to be routinely constructed in silicon.  

Quantum world effects at small scales

Can transistors be made tinier without any limit? Gordon Moore also predicted, “One day transistors will be so small that they become affected by the bizarre reality of the quantum world and will thus have reached their smallest usable size.” Transistors have shrunk near this limit to several nanometers in size (that’s less than a thousandth the thickness of a human hair, and just a few atoms thick!), yet industry keeps finding creative ways to fit more transistors on a chip, including building three-dimensionally instead of only on a flat surface.

What are the ‘quantum world effects’ that become tricky for small sizes? When electrons are confined to small spaces around a few nanometers in size, they begin to exhibit a wave nature clearly. This behavior includes electrons oscillating at specific frequencies and interfering with other electrons. Both effects present difficulties to control of electron flow, a task at the heart of a computer.

While quantum effects can present challenges, some quantum effects can be useful for constructing computing components. One example is quantum tunneling – particles like electrons have the possibility to penetrate thin walls even when they don’t have the energy required to break through. This effect is used in transistors and flash memory (such as in a USB thumb drive) (2) . Another use of the quantum effects is the development of a quantum computer, which could in principle perform calculations in hours that would take today’s best computers thousands of years. Viable quantum computers are a topic of active research.  

On-board sensors

Besides receiving information through radio waves, a phone has many on-board sensors that continuously update the computer with information. These sensors include accelerometers and gyroscopes (e.g., to detect if you are making a turn when in navigation or the device has been dropped), magnetic sensors (sensing the Earth’s magnetic field and thus acting as a compass), and temperature sensor (tells phone to turn off if it gets too hot, keeping sensitive components from melting), and more recently pressure sensors (detecting your altitude and weather conditions).

Interleaved forks as an analogy for how an accelerometer works

The sensors in smartphones are like a pocket science lab, and indeed smartphones are being integrated into science education. Many educators are making use of the on-board sensors to allow students to explore physics ideas such as motion and magnetic fields by using the devices already in their pockets (3) . This turns out to be an exciting way for students to perform experiments, learning physics concepts and cultivating curiosity around what is happening inside their phones.  

From phone to fiber

When we bring up a webpage on a smartphone, we are making use of a communication network which can involve cell phone towers, ‘telephone wire’ lines, and optical fibers. An optical fiber is a hair-thin tube of glass, encased in a thin plastic sheath, that guides light, as in the image above. When you send some communication, packet of information, a long series of 1’s and 0’s, encoded into long or short Morse-code-like pulses, is initially sent from your phone via radio waves. These waves cannot travel more than a few kilometers and so are converted at network nodes either into voltages to travel in wires, or a series of short bursts of infrared light through an optical fiber. Optical fiber is becoming the most common way to send information, as it can send enormous amounts of information over long distances very rapidly. Compared with AM radio, a single optical fiber can carry millions of times more data per second (2) ! Light in an optical fiber can travel hundreds of kilometers with minimal losses. Many fibers are usually bundled together and buried as cables underground or ocean. On the other side of a long fiber, a network node converts this signal into electrical signals, and then sends this new signal into a radio wave or electrical signal, relaying your communication to a receiver. Another interesting sort of physics that plays an important role in the way smartphones function is related to Einstein’s theory of relativity.  

Connecting time and space with satellites

A Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite with solar panels transmits a radio wave packet to your phone that signals when the packet was sent. Creative Commons: NASA / Public domain.

Our initial example of using a rideshare app involved frequent use of determining locations of users. Smartphones don’t typically use satellites to communicate (e.g. internet, phone calls, text messages) but do receive radio signals from satellites as part of the global positioning system (GPS) . The key to accurately knowing your physical position turns out to be connected to timekeeping.

To know your position, you must also know the time very well . Your phone needs to know a distance from several GPS satellites to determine its position. The distance to each satellite is figured by the time it takes for a radio signal to arrive at your device. GPS satellites orbit 20,000 km above the surface of the earth, meaning it takes about 70 milliseconds for each radio signal to reach you. The delay time for each satellite signal reaching you tells you how far away it is since the speed of light is fixed (about 1 billion kilometers per hour). The better you know this time delay exactly, the better you know your distance from each satellite. The time is kept by an average of several laboratories around the world that use lasers to create rapid oscillations of electron energy levels in atoms of elements such as Cesium. These ‘atomic clocks’ are so accurate that they would neither gain nor lose a second in 100 million years! This accurate timekeeping is radio broadcast to satellites and to you in order to determine the distance that each satellite is from you. By accurately knowing your distance from three satellites (there are 24 in total which are in orbit and available for public use), you can determine your position on earth. If you know your distance from four or more satellites, you can also know your altitude as well as your location even more accurately.

It turns out that clocks moving fast or experiencing a different gravitational field (both conditions are true for GPS satellites) will experience time differently. These differences, predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity, have been precisely measured and are routinely incorporated into GPS protocol.  His theory predicts that clocks moving fast run slower compared with a stationary frame of reference. He also determined that a clock in a weaker gravitational field will run faster compared with a clock in a stronger gravitational field.  This relativistic effect is very strong near a black hole and may not seem to have any consequence for life near earth, which has a comparatively weak gravitational field.  However, GPS satellites are experiencing 17x weaker gravitational force than we are on earth, and they are also traveling at 14,000 km/hour around the earth. This means that in a year, without including the effects of relativity, my clock would disagree with the clock on a satellite by 20 minutes. Corrections from Einstein’s theory of relativity must be included into the system to reduce errors in determining your position. Without these relativistic corrections, our determination of position on earth would have errors between 10-20 meters (4) .  

Smartphones: a symbol of our changing civilization

In this short exploration of the physics behind smartphones, we traced through a few examples of the sorts of physics going on behind the gadget. We saw myriad physics effects in the use of a single app, the value of miniaturizing transistors, sensors that work with the phone, the role of fiber optics, and how atomic clocks and relativity play roles in GPS. The technology is evolving quickly, and new paradigms are being tested out.

How will the technology transform in the years to come? How will the ways that we communicate with each other continue to morph? Some of the trends we have seen will likely continue – e.g., more transistors fitting into smaller spaces, and reliance on satellites and atomic clocks for determining location. Will ‘phones’ continue to be items that we carry in our hands? Visions of sci-fi cyborgs may scare some from becoming physically connected to an electronic system, but ongoing experiments with ‘wearable’ technologies such as watches, and glasses offer new ways to interact with devices. On the software side, developments in natural language processing (NLP), eye tracking technology, and recommendation engines make interacting with a screen often unnecessary for carrying out tasks such as navigation or sending an email.

Some technologies will be enabled by developments in fundamental research. Studies of various ‘2D materials’ such as graphene (a sheet of single carbon atoms) permit the stacking of atomically thick layers (analogous to Lego blocks) to construct precise circuits (5) . Devices made from such circuits could be smaller than a pinhead and consume very low amounts of energy, conceivably being charged either by body heat using thermoelectrics or through motions such as walking using piezoelectric energy harvesting .

The story of the smartphone is a human story of where we have come from and what we have discovered along the way. The smartphone is an interesting symbol of modern civilization, representing individuality alongside global interconnectedness, the capacity to gain knowledge about the world around us, and the level of convenience and efficiency we seem to value as a society.  It will be interesting to see developments in the coming years as the science – and society’s communications needs – continue to evolve.

References: Cortada, J.W., “IBM: The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon”, The MIT Press, 2019. Raymer, M.G., “The Silicon Web: Physics for the Internet Age”, Taylor & Francis, 2009. Wright, K., “Smartphone Physics on the Rise”, Physics, 2020. Faraoni, V., “Special Relativity (illustrated ed.)”, Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. Geim, A., Grigorieva, I. “Van der Waals heterostructures.”, Nature, 2013.

Received: 10.09.20, Ready: 02.11.20, Editors: Laura Mariotti, Omaina H. Aziz.

Share this:, share this post, 3 thoughts on “ your smartphone knows physics: the science inside mobile devices ”.

• Pingback: The cultural role of individuals in the new millennium – Culturico

We need an engaged tone when ringing mobile to mobile incase the other person is making a call

• Pingback: Physics in Everyday Life - A Practical Approach to GCSE Prep - In The Playroom

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

• Guidelines for Authors
• Science and Environment
• International Relations
• Society & Culture
• Microstories

Culturico. 2034 33rd Ave, San Francisco CA 94116-1127, United States of America. Non-profit 501(c)(3).

Discover more from Culturico

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Subscribe to our newsletter

Fill in your details to be always updated.

• svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900">

Eight science apps that turn your phone into a laboratory

By David Nield

Posted on Nov 15, 2018 7:30 PM EST

7 minute read

Your smartphone is packed with sensors and miniaturized equipment. Instead of using them to snap photos or message friends , harness those instruments for the sake of science. Software can turn a phone into a mobile science laboratory, letting you make research observations, track earthquakes, study birds and stars and the elements, and even project a virtual particle accelerator. Here are some of our favorite apps for doing science on your smartphone.

Many of these apps let users take part in publishable research and conservation efforts. For example, amateur bird-watchers should download eBird . The app, managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, not only lets you identify and log bird sightings, but also makes it easy to share those findings with others—including scientists who plot bird populations around the globe.

First, install the free app. Then use its friendly, intuitive interface to plot your location and mark the birds you spot in the area. In addition to observing and sharing, the app also helps you identify puzzling species, provides data on common sightings in your locale, directs you toward nearby bird hotspots, and flags you when the opportunity arises for a potentially rare sighting. If you go birding in more remote regions, don’t worry—eBird also works offline.

eBird is free for Android and iOS

2. Star Walk

Is that bright dot overhead a star or a planet? Ask your phone. Star Walk will use the sensors in your device to figure out where you are—and which celestial objects your camera has in its sights. Then it tells you a little about the stars and planets you’re looking at.

Even if you’re not currently gazing at the stars, the app will offer information about the night sky—it can even track the ISS across space. From sunset times to the geological make-up of Mars, you’ll find a ton of scientific content to explore. The app is free—if you don’t mind putting up with ads. For an ad-free version, you’ll have to pony up $3.

Star Walk is free for Android and iOS with ads, $3 for Android and iOS without ads

3. NASA Globe Observer

The NASA Globe Observer is another app that relies on your findings to inform official scientific research. Currently, you can use it to collect data in three areas: cloud cover, land cover, and mosquito habitats. In each case, you snap photos and observe conditions, then submit this information to NASA.

For example, say you decide to help out with clouds. With the app, you can snap shots of the sky, identify the types of fluff you see, and log your location using your phone’s GPS sensors. Then NASA can compare what you’ve recorded with satellite imagery. This lets scientists build up a better picture of weather conditions and systems, which is invaluable for future research.

NASA Globe Observer is free for Android and iOS

Researchers at the University of California – Berkeley’s Seismological Laboratory want to use smartphones to build up a global picture of seismic activity. That’s why they developed MyShake . This app relies on your phone’s sensors to gather data, but it does so in the background, without affecting your device’s usual activity. Then researchers can use that information to improve their models of earthquake activity and refine their prediction systems.

The app itself is simple to use—it runs silently in the background, logging seismic activity and identifying genuine earthquake tremors (as opposed to jolts from your morning jog). However, you can use it for more than mere data collection. MyShake also lets you view recent seismic movements nearby or anywhere in the world, and it provides advice on what to do in the event of an earthquake. Ultimately though, the main purpose is research—research that could end up saving lives down the line.

MyShake is free for Android

5. The Elements

The periodic table is full of fascinating elements, and yet somehow, it remains lamely two-dimensional. Flesh it out with The Elements, an interactive digital resource for iOS devices. (Disclosure: Popular Science contributor Theodore Gray created this app.) It displays each of the elements in its physical form, alongside information about it.

For every element, you can zoom in to the object and rotate it in three dimensions. This comes with quick facts as well as more in-depth background details, such as properties, how it was discovered, its applications, and even its current price on the open market. The app also informs users about the periodic table as a whole. Although it has a steeper price than many on this list, this is a fantastic educational app—you’ll keep coming back to it.

The Elements is $9 for iOS

6. AcceleratAR

Ever wanted to build a particle accelerator in your spare room? This intriguing app lets you do just that—virtually—through the magic of augmented reality. The app lets your phone’s camera overlay digital graphics of a rudimentary particle accelerator on top of the physical world. It’s not quite the Large Hadron Collider, but it’s still impressive.

You do need some physical markers, in the form of paper cubes, to make this work. Once you’ve downloaded the app, access these instructions on the AcceleratAR website . As you set things up, you’ll learn about the physics of particle accelerators and electromagnetic fields—even if the particles whizzing around your coffee table are only virtual.

AcceleratAR is free for Android

7. Wolfram Alpha

Forget your graphing calculator. Wolfram Alpha (which you can also access through its website ) is a supercharged search and calculation engine. This app can chart physics and chemistry formulas, list the properties of materials, display information on Earth’s geological layers, produce detailed star maps, and much more.

Need to know how several metallic alloys compare, or analyze the motion of a spring pendulum, or compare the energy production of two countries? Wolfram Alpha can toss out the answer in seconds. It goes way beyond scientific data too—this tool will solve complex math equations, convert between units of measurement, and even help you access weather data.

Wolfram Alpha is $3 for Android and iOS

8. Science Journal

Google’s Science Journal app gives you tools to record data about the conditions around you. It can, for instance, harness the sensors in your phone to take light, sound, pressure, and motion readings. It can also connect with external sensors over Bluetooth to gather data through those instruments. Within the app, you can supplement your observations with notes and photos.

The neat, well-designed interface makes it easy to log data manually or have the app gather it automatically. You can also revisit your previously-recorded logs and export this data to other apps, such as spreadsheet programs. This lets you keep working from your phone, your computer, or a web browser on any device.

Science Journal is free for Android and iOS

Latest in Tech Hacks

7 tips to make the most of using a vpn 7 tips to make the most of using a vpn, proton docs vs google docs: should you switch proton docs vs google docs: should you switch.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

• FREE Experiments
• Kitchen Science
• Climate Change
• Egg Experiments
• Fairy Tale Science
• Edible Science
• Human Health
• Inspirational Women
• Forces and Motion
• Science Fair Projects
• STEM Challenges
• Science Sparks Books
• Contact Science Sparks
• Science Resources for Home and School

DIY Phone Speaker

July 2, 2020 By Emma Vanstone Leave a Comment

I can’t promise great sound quality, but this DIY phone speaker will make your phone sound louder and a bit less tinny!

This easy science project is a great for older children and useful too!

You’ll Need

Cardboard tube

2 plastic cups

Phone with a speaker at the bottom

How to make a DIY speaker

Carefully cut a hole in the side of each plastic cup so the cardboard tube fits inside tightly.

Attach a cup to each end of the tube.

Cut a thin slit in the top of the cardboard tube just big enough to hold your phone.

Choose some music and listen to the sound in and out of the speaker.

It should sound louder when the phone is inside the tube.

Why does it work?

When the phone plays music outside the tube the sound spreads out all around, but when you put the phone inside the cardboard tube the sound is directed down the tube towards the plastic cups and out from there! The cups focus the sound waves pointing them in one direction rather than scattered all around.

A megaphone works in a similar way. When a person speaks normally the sound scatters immediately, but a megaphone channels the sound towards the subject instead. This is why people sometimes cup their hands around their mouth to shout! Find out more about megaphones with Wonderopolis.

Print Instructions for DIY iPhone Speaker

Extension tasks for the DIY Phone Speaker

Experiment with different sized tubes and cups to find the best speaker. Does it matter if you use paper cups instead of plastic?

Last Updated on July 2, 2020 by Emma Vanstone

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Choose an Account to Log In

Notifications

Science project, texting versus talking: the effects of cell phones on reaction time.

Grade Level: 9th to 12th; T ype: Social Science

This experiment will evaluate which type of cell phone usage has the most impact on reaction time.

Research Questions:

• How does talking on a cell phone influence reaction time?
• How does texting affect reaction time?

Texting and talking on cell phones distract users and can lead to injuries while walking and driving. This experiment will evaluate how these two types of cell phone usage influence reaction time. Is texting more dangerous?

• Meter stick
• Test subjects with cell phones (approximately 10 males and 10 females)
• Notebook for recording results

Experimental Procedure:

• Place your thumb and index finger above the 100 centimeter mark on the meter stick. For each test subject, perform the following steps:
• Ask the test subject to place his or her thumb and forefinger on either side of the meter stick at the 0 centimeter mark. When you drop the stick, the test subject will attempt to catch it by closing his or her thumb and forefinger.
• Test baseline reaction time first. Drop the meter stick and record the distance (in centimeters) that the stick falls before the test subject is able to stop it.
• Perform five trials and calculate the average score.
• Repeat the test. This time, ask the test subject to speak to someone on a cell phone while you conduct the experiment.
• Repeat the test. This time ask the test subject to send a text message (with one hand) while you conduct the experiment.
• Repeat steps 2-8 for many male and female test subjects.
• Evaluate your data and calculate each participant’s average reaction time for each experiment. Use the formula: d=0.5a*t2 Solve for t when d equals distance traveled by the meter stick and a equals the acceleration due to gravity constant (9.8 meters per second squared).
• Evaluate your results. Which type of cell phone usage affects reaction time most? How much is reaction time changed by texting? By talking?

Terms/Concepts: cell phones and reaction time

Reference: Life Responds: Reaction Time Experiment

Related learning resources

Add to collection, create new collection, new collection, new collection>, sign up to start collecting.

Bookmark this to easily find it later. Then send your curated collection to your children, or put together your own custom lesson plan.

Tin Can & String Telephone: A Simple STEM Experiment

What transmits sound better: recycled soup cans or plastic party cups.

Experimenting with tin can or plastic cup telephones can be a great boredom buster for kids! Kids growing up in the smartphone generation will be amazed at how something as simple as STRING can transmit sound.

Granted, tin can phones aren’t the most practical communication device. Since the line between cans needs to be held taut to transmit sound, you’re unlikely to “place a call” farther than down the hall or across the back yard.

Unless…

Worlds Longest Tin Can Phone

The Guinness Book of World Records says the worlds longest FUNCTIONING tin can phone was made in Japan in August 2019. It went 242.626 meters, or 796 feet! That’s almost three football fields long! Sadly, there’s no details on how the phone was made or what materials they used.

If you want a little inspiration before setting up your own backyard experiment, check out this video from 2013 when a few friends set up a tin can phone between two houses over 650 feet apart! Not only is their experiment amazing, but the video is well made and entertaining.

Lots of YouTubers have tried their own tin can phone experiments. Spoiler alert: the Danocracy might SAY they made the world’s longs phone at 1000 feet …but it didn’t work. Does that make it click bait? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Supplies for a String Telephone Experiment

First…I want to point out that “tin cans” these days are actually made of steel. Steel cans are lined with either tin or plastic to prevent rust and keep your food tasty. But we still call them “tin cans” out of habit.

A basic string phone can be made with supplies you’re likely to have around the house. If you want to get really scientific, try out a variety of “receivers” and types of string.

You’ll need two cans or cups. These can be recycled soup cans, plastic party cups or paper cups. The cups will help transmit the sound — keep notes and find out which cup works best!

Note: We found Styrofoam cups to be pretty horrible. The material is too fragile when you pull the string tight. Little kids are likely to rip a hole in them.

You’ll also need string, and lots of it! The guys in the 2013 video used nylon twine, which is pretty stout. Of course they were also running their line over 650 feet. Cotton string, fishing line and ordinary twine also work. What else can you try out? Yarn? Dental floss? Sewing thread?

Make a String Telephone for Kids

Conduct an experiment in SOUND with this old school craft!

• 2 Clean Cans or Disposable Cups
• String (at least 25 feet)
• Washer or Paper Clip (optional)

Instructions

• If using a recycled can, work on a a sturdy surface, like a work bench if you have it or a thick plastic cutting board. (Don't hammer on your nice kitchen table!)

• If using a disposable cup, you should be able to poke a hole in the bottom of the cup without a hammer!
• Repeat for both cans or cups. You'll need two!

• Pull the string through the can. Tie a large knot in the string. It needs to be big enough to prevent the string from coming out.
• If your hole is too big, or the string too narrow, tie the string to a washer or paper clip to keep it in place.
• Repeat for the other can or cup.

If you're running this as an experiment, make several phones at once with a variety of materials. You can also try a can on one end and a cup on the other. Which work best? Record your results!

How to Use Tin Can or Cup Telephones

Once you’ve made your telephone, you’ll need two people to run the experiment. Have each person take an end and walk apart until the string is TIGHT. One person then holds the can or cup to their ear while the other talks into their can or cup.

Ideally, you’ll want to stand far enough apart that you can speak normally into the phone and not be heard by the other person. If you can’t get THAT far apart, try a whisper!

Pet Peeve: A lot of stock photos (and blogger photos!) of people using tin can phones are misleading. They show people with the string dangling loosely between the two ends. This WILL NOT work. No wonder that guy looks confused.

They also show people standing right on top of each other. You need a bit of distance for this experiment to really work.

Record Your Experiments

Level up your tin cans from “just another craft” to a fun STEM event by making several phones or swapping out materials. Record your results!

How far did you get? How clearly did you hear the words? Which one was easier to make?

Jot down your findings on a scrap of paper, or use the free printable below. You can also record your experiment using a Voice Recorder app on your smart phone for later comparison.

• How Do Antibiotics Work to Kill Bacteria?  Class Notes article from  Science Prof Online .
• Can Changes in the Weather Make a Person Sick? , SPO article
• Why Do People Catch Cold Viruses in Summer? , SPO article
• Is It a Common Cold or the Flu? Comparison of Symptoms , SPO article
• Microbial Control Laboratory Exercise  Main Page from the  Virtual Microbiology Classroom . 
• Testing for Bacteria on Food Laboratory Exercise  Main Page.

• Petri dishes
• sterile TSY agar bacterial growth media
• sterile swabs
• sharpie marker
• plastic bags with zip seal (quart or gallon)
• phone screen after cleaning with one wipe and letting it dry 
• phone case after cleaning with same wipe and letting it dry
• phone screen after cleaning a second time with a new wipe and letting it dry
• phone case after cleaning with same second wipe, and letting it dry
• The screen of the phone had much more bacterial growth than the case.
• Although cleaning with one wipe still left many bacteria, a second cleaning, with a second wipe, destroyed nearly all bacteria.

• 1 black permanent marker
• 6 sterile swabs
• 6 Petri dishes with 1/4" TSY bacterial growth medium 
• before the phone was cleaned (and not cleaned previous 4 days)
• after cleaning with disinfectant wipe, and allowing to dry
• after cleaning again with a second disinfectant wipe, and allowing to dry
• Wear safety goggles and protective gloves when handling plates that are growing bacteria.
• Never open the plates after placing the sample on the agar .  Bacteria will be present in large numbers. Some can become airborne and be breathed in or land on areas of the body close to an open plate. 
• Keep plates out of the reach of small children and pets.Talk to children about these safety precautions and make sure they know not to ever handle the plates without adult supervision. 
• You may place a rubber band around the plates to reduce the likelihood that they will accidentally fall open. 
• The top of the refrigerator can be a good place to store incubating plates, as it is up high and usually a bit warm. 
• Placing incubating plates in open plastic bag (so  aerobic  bacteria can get oxygen) is a good measure to keep them safer and reduce odor (bacteria are stinky).​
• When the experiment is finished, and you are done with the plates, place them in a zipped up plastic bag (Zip-loc) in the trash. They will run out of food and water eventually and die, but not before generating a lot of stink.

What Happens to Plant and Animal Cells When Placed in Hypertonic, ...

Cell experiments are fascinating because most people don’t often get to see cells at work. Conduct fun experiments using plant cells that demonstrate osmosis and how vital water is to cell growth. Using bacteria, we can demonstrate how unicellular organisms reproduce differently than multi-celled organisms like plants and animals.

Plasmolysis

Peel a layer of skin from an onion. Place a drop of water on a slide and place the onion tissue in the water. Add another drop of water and a drop of iodine over the onion and cover with a glass slip. Examine under a microscope. Add 5 grams of salt to 100 milliliters of water. Place few drops of the solution to one side of the microscope slide. It will mix with the fluid on the onion. Observe the differences in the tissue. Repeat with 10 grams of salt mixed with the same amount of water on a new slide. The salt causes the protoplasm in the cell to shrink in a process called plasmolysis, creating clear differences in the slides.

Shrinking Cells

Fill two glasses half full with warm water. Dissolve three tablespoons of salt into one of the glasses. Break a carrot in half and place the cut end of each piece into each glass. Leave overnight and then check the size of the carrots. One will shrink and the other will bloat. Plant and animal cells are like tiny water balloons. The cells balance the saltiness by releasing cell water through the cell wall to the salt water surrounding them. The cell lost water it needs to live and it collapsed and died. The carrot in plain water absorbed the water into the cells and expanded.

Fill three bowls with room temperature water. Add salt to one bowl, sugar to the second and nothing to the third. Place one slice from the center of a potato in each bowl. Remove the slices after 30 minutes to examine them. The salt water slice will become soft and flexible. The sugar water slice will be less flexible. The plain water slice will be more rigid. Cells allow water to pass in and out, but because the cell water tends to move toward dissolved chemicals, in the salt water it moved from the inside of the potato’s cells to the outside causing the potato’s cells to collapse. The same happened with the sugar water, but because potato cells contain more sugar than salt, the potato didn’t lose as much water. In plain water slice, water moved from the outside in, causing the cells to swell and become stiff.

Growing Bacteria

Prepare two Petri dishes of agar, which can be purchased at grocery stores or from scientific supply companies as agar plates. Swab a surface in your home with a cotton swab and use a second swab under your fingernails or between your toes. Rub each swab over the agar in each dish and seal with the lids. Place the dishes in a warm area for two to three days, observing changes each day. The bacteria you collected should grow steadily because of the ideal conditions given with agar and warm temperatures, showing visible results in a short time. Observe the differences between the bacteria in the dish containing a swab of a surface in your home and the swab from your body. Wrap the dishes in newspaper and throw them in the garbage when finished. Do not open the lids.

Related Articles

Sugar & salt crystal science projects, osmosis experiments with potatoes for kids, how to use a microscope to see cells, what happens after you put a carrot in saltwater, what happens to your cells when you are dehydrated, which organs or parts of the plant are involved in..., how to observe human cheek cells under a light microscope, how to make a paper mache cell, how to make a human cell for a science project, why are agar plates kept inverted whenever possible, what do volvox eat, contents of the potato that can conduct electricity, the effect of salt & sugar on dehydrated cells, how does alcohol kill bacteria, why salt kills leeches, how to make crystals with epsom salt, how do sponges breath, why does drinking salt water dehydrate you, science projects on dish detergents.

• World Carrot Museum: Kids Experiments
• The Teachers Corner: Experiment of the Week: Osmosis #231
• Science Kids: Grow Your Own Bacteria

About the Author

Renee Miller began writing professionally in 2008, contributing to websites and the "Community Press" newspaper. She is co-founder of On Fiction Writing, a website for writers. Miller holds a diploma in social services from Clarke College in Belleville, Ontario.

Photo Credits

Chad Baker/Photodisc/Getty Images

Find Your Next Great Science Fair Project! GO

How to take a stunning photo of the Milky Way with your smartphone: a beginner's guide

Science How to take a stunning photo of the Milky Way with your smartphone: a beginner's guide

In just 30 seconds I captured the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way, glowing brightly behind a dark wispy haze of cosmic dust.

Deep inside that glow lies a supermassive black hole 4 million times the mass of our Sun.

And stretching out on either side is a smattering of stars: pinpricks of photons that may have travelled millennia before reaching Earth.

It's a stunning shot, but it wasn't taken with a telescope or fancy camera.

I used my smartphone. And it's not even a top-of-the-line one.

It was a chilly winter evening outside Cohuna, Victoria, on Barapa Barapa country, where astrophotographer Shayne Mostyn showed me the ropes.

He has taken many first-timers like me out for smartphone astrophotography workshops, and says everyone reacts in wonder when they snap their first photo of the Milky Way.

"It would be pitch black and then all their faces would start lighting up … and you could hear the whole group go 'wow!'"

Winter in Australia is the best time to take wow-worthy photos of the Milky Way. The cold, crisp night air holds less water vapour than it does during the warmer, more humid summer, so skies at the moment look particularly clear.

And Earth's current position on its orbit around the Sun means we can now look into the heart of our galaxy at night.

Smartphones, with their wide field of view, are ideal for taking photos of big celestial objects such as the Milky Way.

This is how a beginner like me took these photos.

Smartphone astrophotography basics

First up, the obvious: you need a smartphone .

I won't go into step-by-step set-up details for each make and model — you can look that up online — but you might be surprised at what your phone can do.

And there are a few things to keep in mind, regardless of the phone you use.

For most, Shane says, the camera app that comes with the phone is fine. They usually come with a night mode, which lets you shoot a longer exposure time than a daytime snap, and lets you capture all those tiny dots of starlight.

Some models have special astrophotography settings that let you increase exposure time. Others automatically realign the stars so you don't end up with star trails, where the stars look like streaks in the sky.

But even if you don't have these options, you can still snap fab photos.

I used an iPhone 14 and its default camera app.

The other piece of must-have equipment is a tripod . This is not negotiable, and is necessary regardless of the phone you use.

For some phones, the long-exposure option only becomes available when your phone is held completely still in a tripod.

It doesn't have to be expensive either. Just needs to be able to point the phone in a bunch of different directions and hold it still.

Third: you need a dark, clear sky . This means as little light pollution as possible, so get away from towns which might light up the horizon.

Online light pollution maps can help you find suitably dark skies.

Also choose a night when the Moon is either absent or a tiny crescent, otherwise it's like a giant spotlight that washes out the stars.

And … that's it. Put your phone on the tripod, open the camera app, point it towards the most star-packed part of the sky, and hit the shutter button.

"That's how good the tech is in these things — you set it up under a dark sky, hit the shutter, then wait," Shayne says.

"It's not rocket science."

#ABCmyphoto does the night sky Are you a keen to give this a go? Show us your best shots and you could be featured in a special Science Week Picture of the Week gallery. Use #ABCmyphoto on Instagram or tag @abcaustralia , or upload your photos here and show us what the night sky looks like in your part of the world!

Time to experiment

Once you have the basics down pat, start experimenting with what's around you.

The best astrophotos usually feature the landscape in the image too, Melbourne astrophotographer Markus Stone says.

"An old hut on a hiking trail, a lake at a campground reflecting the stars above, or even a friend's house in the sticks can all be great subjects, as long as it's fairly dark."

Timing a shot when the galactic core is not too high above the horizon, or tilting a lowered tripod to look up at an object, can create dramatic silhouettes against the Milky Way backdrop.

Then there's "light painting", which illuminates objects in the foreground of a photo.

For this, you'll need another piece of equipment: a torch.

As a photo is being taken, briefly shine a light on the objects you wish to have illuminated in the final image.

A second or less is usually all you need, and diffuse light tends to give better results than a spotlight-like torch. Shayne uses a palm-sized panel of LED lights which can be adjusted for brightness and warmth.

He also recommends setting up your shot to have the Milky Way's tail "pointing" at an object.

In winter, as the Earth spins, the Milky Way appears to rise in the evening and move across the sky during the night.

So if you don't want to stand outside all night, there are apps that let you plan your astrophotography excursion to make sure you're in the right place at the right time.

Those apps can also help you include other items of interest, such as the International Space Station traversing the sky.

Editing and extras

As this is a beginner's guide, I won't go into much more detail. But after getting the perfect shot — or shots — you might want to dip your toe in editing.

Apps can let you:

• stitch photos together to make a panorama
• remove haze and noise
• increase clarity
• adjust colour, exposure, contrast etc

To get an extra-wide-field view, you can buy lenses to put over your phone lens, but, Shayne says, this starts moving away from the simplicity of a smartphone-plus-tripod (and maybe torch) set-up.

And when should you invest in more gear, such as actual, proper cameras?

"[Using a smartphone] is a way to dip your toe in the water to see if you want to do astrophotography," Shayne says.

"It's the easiest and cheapest way to do it because you probably already have the phone.

"I tell people if you're happy to get out here at 2 o'clock in the morning, multiple times through the week, and then do it again next week, and then do it again next month and so forth, then go ahead and upgrade."

Science in your inbox

• X (formerly Twitter)

Related Stories

Australia gets a front-row seat to some of the best night skies in the world in winter.

Galaxies, planets, and new discoveries: Here are the winning images from Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Science Week at the ABC

• Astronomy (Space)
• Mobile Phones
• Photography
• Science and Technology

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Have you entered our back-to-school giveaway? ✨

72 Easy Science Experiments Using Materials You Already Have On Hand

Because science doesn’t have to be complicated.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get your students excited, it’s a good science experiment! While some experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, there are plenty of cool projects you can do with regular household items. We’ve rounded up a big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids are going to love them!

Easy Chemistry Science Experiments

Easy physics science experiments, easy biology and environmental science experiments, easy engineering experiments and stem challenges.

1. Taste the Rainbow

Teach your students about diffusion while creating a beautiful and tasty rainbow! Tip: Have extra Skittles on hand so your class can eat a few!

Learn more: Skittles Diffusion

2. Crystallize sweet treats

Crystal science experiments teach kids about supersaturated solutions. This one is easy to do at home, and the results are absolutely delicious!

Learn more: Candy Crystals

3. Make a volcano erupt

This classic experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid), which produces carbon dioxide gas, water, and sodium acetate.

Learn more: Best Volcano Experiments

4. Make elephant toothpaste

This fun project uses yeast and a hydrogen peroxide solution to create overflowing “elephant toothpaste.” Tip: Add an extra fun layer by having kids create toothpaste wrappers for plastic bottles.

5. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Add a few simple ingredients to dish soap solution to create the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Soap Bubbles

6. Demonstrate the “magic” leakproof bag

All you need is a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and water to blow your kids’ minds. Once they’re suitably impressed, teach them how the “trick” works by explaining the chemistry of polymers.

Learn more: Leakproof Bag

7. Use apple slices to learn about oxidation

Have students make predictions about what will happen to apple slices when immersed in different liquids, then put those predictions to the test. Have them record their observations.

Learn more: Apple Oxidation

8. Float a marker man

Their eyes will pop out of their heads when you “levitate” a stick figure right off the table! This experiment works due to the insolubility of dry-erase marker ink in water, combined with the lighter density of the ink.

Learn more: Floating Marker Man

9. Discover density with hot and cold water

There are a lot of easy science experiments you can do with density. This one is extremely simple, involving only hot and cold water and food coloring, but the visuals make it appealing and fun.

Learn more: Layered Water

10. Layer more liquids

This density demo is a little more complicated, but the effects are spectacular. Slowly layer liquids like honey, dish soap, water, and rubbing alcohol in a glass. Kids will be amazed when the liquids float one on top of the other like magic (except it is really science).

Learn more: Layered Liquids

11. Grow a carbon sugar snake

Easy science experiments can still have impressive results! This eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration only requires simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand.

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

12. Mix up some slime

Tell kids you’re going to make slime at home, and watch their eyes light up! There are a variety of ways to make slime, so try a few different recipes to find the one you like best.

13. Make homemade bouncy balls

These homemade bouncy balls are easy to make since all you need is glue, food coloring, borax powder, cornstarch, and warm water. You’ll want to store them inside a container like a plastic egg because they will flatten out over time.

Learn more: Make Your Own Bouncy Balls

14. Create eggshell chalk

Eggshells contain calcium, the same material that makes chalk. Grind them up and mix them with flour, water, and food coloring to make your very own sidewalk chalk.

Learn more: Eggshell Chalk

15. Make naked eggs

This is so cool! Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the membrane underneath that holds the egg together. Then, use the “naked” egg for another easy science experiment that demonstrates osmosis .

Learn more: Naked Egg Experiment

16. Turn milk into plastic

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but don’t be afraid to give it a try. Use simple kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes when you’re done!

17. Test pH using cabbage

Teach kids about acids and bases without needing pH test strips! Simply boil some red cabbage and use the resulting water to test various substances—acids turn red and bases turn green.

Learn more: Cabbage pH

18. Clean some old coins

Use common household items to make old oxidized coins clean and shiny again in this simple chemistry experiment. Ask kids to predict (hypothesize) which will work best, then expand the learning by doing some research to explain the results.

Learn more: Cleaning Coins

19. Pull an egg into a bottle

This classic easy science experiment never fails to delight. Use the power of air pressure to suck a hard-boiled egg into a jar, no hands required.

Learn more: Egg in a Bottle

20. Blow up a balloon (without blowing)

Chances are good you probably did easy science experiments like this when you were in school. The baking soda and vinegar balloon experiment demonstrates the reactions between acids and bases when you fill a bottle with vinegar and a balloon with baking soda.

21 Assemble a DIY lava lamp

This 1970s trend is back—as an easy science experiment! This activity combines acid-base reactions with density for a totally groovy result.

22. Explore how sugary drinks affect teeth

The calcium content of eggshells makes them a great stand-in for teeth. Use eggs to explore how soda and juice can stain teeth and wear down the enamel. Expand your learning by trying different toothpaste-and-toothbrush combinations to see how effective they are.

Learn more: Sugar and Teeth Experiment

23. Mummify a hot dog

If your kids are fascinated by the Egyptians, they’ll love learning to mummify a hot dog! No need for canopic jars , just grab some baking soda and get started.

24. Extinguish flames with carbon dioxide

This is a fiery twist on acid-base experiments. Light a candle and talk about what fire needs in order to survive. Then, create an acid-base reaction and “pour” the carbon dioxide to extinguish the flame. The CO2 gas acts like a liquid, suffocating the fire.

25. Send secret messages with invisible ink

Turn your kids into secret agents! Write messages with a paintbrush dipped in lemon juice, then hold the paper over a heat source and watch the invisible become visible as oxidation goes to work.

Learn more: Invisible Ink

26. Create dancing popcorn

This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes popcorn to dance around in the water.

27. Shoot a soda geyser sky-high

You’ve always wondered if this really works, so it’s time to find out for yourself! Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Soda Explosion

28. Send a teabag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it! You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course. For more safety, try this one outside.

Learn more: Flying Tea Bags

29. Create magic milk

This fun and easy science experiment demonstrates principles related to surface tension, molecular interactions, and fluid dynamics.

Learn more: Magic Milk Experiment

30. Watch the water rise

Learn about Charles’s Law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, using up oxygen and heating the air in the glass, the water rises as if by magic.

Learn more: Rising Water

31. Learn about capillary action

Kids will be amazed as they watch the colored water move from glass to glass, and you’ll love the easy and inexpensive setup. Gather some water, paper towels, and food coloring to teach the scientific magic of capillary action.

Learn more: Capillary Action

32. Give a balloon a beard

Equally educational and fun, this experiment will teach kids about static electricity using everyday materials. Kids will undoubtedly get a kick out of creating beards on their balloon person!

Learn more: Static Electricity

33. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north.

Learn more: DIY Compass

34. Crush a can using air pressure

Sure, it’s easy to crush a soda can with your bare hands, but what if you could do it without touching it at all? That’s the power of air pressure!

35. Tell time using the sun

While people use clocks or even phones to tell time today, there was a time when a sundial was the best means to do that. Kids will certainly get a kick out of creating their own sundials using everyday materials like cardboard and pencils.

Learn more: Make Your Own Sundial

36. Launch a balloon rocket

Grab balloons, string, straws, and tape, and launch rockets to learn about the laws of motion.

37. Make sparks with steel wool

All you need is steel wool and a 9-volt battery to perform this science demo that’s bound to make their eyes light up! Kids learn about chain reactions, chemical changes, and more.

Learn more: Steel Wool Electricity

38. Levitate a Ping-Pong ball

Kids will get a kick out of this experiment, which is really all about Bernoulli’s principle. You only need plastic bottles, bendy straws, and Ping-Pong balls to make the science magic happen.

39. Whip up a tornado in a bottle

There are plenty of versions of this classic experiment out there, but we love this one because it sparkles! Kids learn about a vortex and what it takes to create one.

Learn more: Tornado in a Bottle

40. Monitor air pressure with a DIY barometer

This simple but effective DIY science project teaches kids about air pressure and meteorology. They’ll have fun tracking and predicting the weather with their very own barometer.

Learn more: DIY Barometer

41. Peer through an ice magnifying glass

Students will certainly get a thrill out of seeing how an everyday object like a piece of ice can be used as a magnifying glass. Be sure to use purified or distilled water since tap water will have impurities in it that will cause distortion.

Learn more: Ice Magnifying Glass

42. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This quick experiment teaches you how. Use a little salt to melt the ice and then refreeze the ice with the string attached.

Learn more: Sticky Ice

43. “Flip” a drawing with water

Light refraction causes some really cool effects, and there are multiple easy science experiments you can do with it. This one uses refraction to “flip” a drawing; you can also try the famous “disappearing penny” trick .

Learn more: Light Refraction With Water

44. Color some flowers

We love how simple this project is to re-create since all you’ll need are some white carnations, food coloring, glasses, and water. The end result is just so beautiful!

45. Use glitter to fight germs

Everyone knows that glitter is just like germs—it gets everywhere and is so hard to get rid of! Use that to your advantage and show kids how soap fights glitter and germs.

Learn more: Glitter Germs

46. Re-create the water cycle in a bag

You can do so many easy science experiments with a simple zip-top bag. Fill one partway with water and set it on a sunny windowsill to see how the water evaporates up and eventually “rains” down.

Learn more: Water Cycle

47. Learn about plant transpiration

Your backyard is a terrific place for easy science experiments. Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration.

Learn more: Plant Transpiration

48. Clean up an oil spill

Before conducting this experiment, teach your students about engineers who solve environmental problems like oil spills. Then, have your students use provided materials to clean the oil spill from their oceans.

Learn more: Oil Spill

49. Construct a pair of model lungs

Kids get a better understanding of the respiratory system when they build model lungs using a plastic water bottle and some balloons. You can modify the experiment to demonstrate the effects of smoking too.

Learn more: Model Lungs

50. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to collect rocks, and there are plenty of easy science experiments you can do with them. In this one, pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Experiments

51. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: DIY Rain Gauge

52. Build up towel mountains

This clever demonstration helps kids understand how some landforms are created. Use layers of towels to represent rock layers and boxes for continents. Then pu-u-u-sh and see what happens!

Learn more: Towel Mountains

53. Take a play dough core sample

Learn about the layers of the earth by building them out of Play-Doh, then take a core sample with a straw. ( Love Play-Doh? Get more learning ideas here. )

Learn more: Play Dough Core Sampling

54. Project the stars on your ceiling

Use the video lesson in the link below to learn why stars are only visible at night. Then create a DIY star projector to explore the concept hands-on.

Learn more: DIY Star Projector

55. Make it rain

Use shaving cream and food coloring to simulate clouds and rain. This is an easy science experiment little ones will beg to do over and over.

Learn more: Shaving Cream Rain

56. Blow up your fingerprint

This is such a cool (and easy!) way to look at fingerprint patterns. Inflate a balloon a bit, use some ink to put a fingerprint on it, then blow it up big to see your fingerprint in detail.

57. Snack on a DNA model

Twizzlers, gumdrops, and a few toothpicks are all you need to make this super-fun (and yummy!) DNA model.

Learn more: Edible DNA Model

58. Dissect a flower

Take a nature walk and find a flower or two. Then bring them home and take them apart to discover all the different parts of flowers.

59. Craft smartphone speakers

No Bluetooth speaker? No problem! Put together your own from paper cups and toilet paper tubes.

Learn more: Smartphone Speakers

60. Race a balloon-powered car

Kids will be amazed when they learn they can put together this awesome racer using cardboard and bottle-cap wheels. The balloon-powered “engine” is so much fun too.

Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car

61. Build a Ferris wheel

You’ve probably ridden on a Ferris wheel, but can you build one? Stock up on wood craft sticks and find out! Play around with different designs to see which one works best.

Learn more: Craft Stick Ferris Wheel

62. Design a phone stand

There are lots of ways to craft a DIY phone stand, which makes this a perfect creative-thinking STEM challenge.

63. Conduct an egg drop

Put all their engineering skills to the test with an egg drop! Challenge kids to build a container from stuff they find around the house that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

64. Engineer a drinking-straw roller coaster

STEM challenges are always a hit with kids. We love this one, which only requires basic supplies like drinking straws.

Learn more: Straw Roller Coaster

65. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. This experiment takes a little more time and effort, but the results are always impressive. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Solar Oven

66. Build a Da Vinci bridge

There are plenty of bridge-building experiments out there, but this one is unique. It’s inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old self-supporting wooden bridge. Learn how to build it at the link, and expand your learning by exploring more about Da Vinci himself.

Learn more: Da Vinci Bridge

67. Step through an index card

This is one easy science experiment that never fails to astonish. With carefully placed scissor cuts on an index card, you can make a loop large enough to fit a (small) human body through! Kids will be wowed as they learn about surface area.

68. Stand on a pile of paper cups

Combine physics and engineering and challenge kids to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.

Learn more: Paper Cup Stack

69. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected by windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: Parachute Drop

70. Recycle newspapers into an engineering challenge

It’s amazing how a stack of newspapers can spark such creative engineering. Challenge kids to build a tower, support a book, or even build a chair using only newspaper and tape!

Learn more: Newspaper STEM Challenge

71. Use rubber bands to sound out acoustics

Explore the ways that sound waves are affected by what’s around them using a simple rubber band “guitar.” (Kids absolutely love playing with these!)

Learn more: Rubber Band Guitar

72. Assemble a better umbrella

Challenge students to engineer the best possible umbrella from various household supplies. Encourage them to plan, draw blueprints, and test their creations using the scientific method.

Learn more: Umbrella STEM Challenge

Plus, sign up for our newsletters to get all the latest learning ideas straight to your inbox.

You Might Also Like

16 Red-Hot Volcano Science Experiments and Kits For Classrooms or Science Fairs

Kids will erupt with excitement! Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Researchers are exploring new ways to learn that make science more relevant to everyday life, and more fun

by Andrew Dunne, Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

Frank Täufer, a scientific assistant at Campus Wiesengut—the University of Bonn's ecological teaching and research farm—asked a group of visiting 8-year-olds to speculate on why the rye plants in his field were all different heights. He was surprised by their insightful range of responses.

Some of the children suggested that the tall plants at the farm received more sunlight. Others thought there could be different types of rye in the field, or that insects may be blighting the crop. One student, after digging up a plant to inspect its roots, thought that the soil must be different across the field.

"They really asked questions and thought of ideas that I wouldn't have myself," said Täufer. "I regularly ask these questions to my university students , and they don't have as many ideas. And none of them has ever dug up a plant to look at the roots."

Taking children outside the classroom

Täufer's work is part of the three-year MULTIPLIERS project that aims to explore ways of making science more appealing to young people .

They are doing this through the creation of what they call Open Science Communities, or OSCs. The idea is to create collaborative networks among schools, universities, informal education providers, museums, local associations, and industry and civil society in order to expand the opportunities for students to learn about science in real-world settings—like the farm.

"I think it's very important to bring students outside the classroom in order to have authentic themes to work on and to make learning about science relevant to everyday life ," said Professor Annette Scheersoi, a specialist in sustainability science education from the University of Bonn and coordinator of MULTIPLIERS.

"When you are interested, you remember better, but you also connect more and feel the value and relevance," she said.

Connecting science and real life

OSCs have so far been set up in six European countries: Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Students in all six countries were given the opportunity to interact with science experts from a wide range of backgrounds to explore science-based solutions for modern-day problems.

The idea is to help young people relate to the real-life science challenges we face every day, ranging from antimicrobial resistance to clean water and sanitation.

In Barcelona, for example, secondary school students were invited to apply what they learned in chemistry classes to measure air pollution in the school playground and at home. Then they presented the results.

In Germany, Slovenia and Sweden, students took to the forest to learn about sustainable forestry and biodiversity. With the guidance of local foresters and scientists, students studied different trees up close and made decisions on whether they should be felled or not.

"The approach was to consider forestry as a complex dilemma with trade-offs between the ecosystem and wood production," Scheersoi said.

Multiplying the impact

Crucial also for Scheersoi has been the multiplier effect—turning the students into teachers and giving them the chance to share their newfound knowledge with others.

Schoolchildren on the ecological farm invited their parents to a tasting session where they discussed the benefits of organic produce. In the forest, parents were invited to a Forest Day under the trees, where the children shared what they had learned.

Students have also been encouraged to share their knowledge by creating podcasts, science blogs, or organizing science fairs for families. Now the hope is to build on this work and further embed the approach beyond the project.

"Across MULTIPLIERS we have seen how students, teachers and outside science experts have engaged in these lessons. We want these networks to not only stay, but to grow, bringing in more people and bringing forward this new way of learning for students," said Scheersoi.

Science for sustainability

As part of its open science policy, the EU is supporting open schooling for science education, recognizing that Europe needs more scientists, including citizen scientists.

This is something that is also important to Jelena Kajganović, a sustainability expert at Geonardo, a Hungarian innovation and technology company active in the energy, environment and sustainable development fields.

Kajganović led a three-year project called OTTER which, like MULTIPLIERS, aimed to inspire a different approach to science learning and connect students to real-world challenges outside the classroom. They call this approach education outside the classroom (EOC).

Taking learning out of the school setting through things like outdoor activities and fieldtrips, has proven positive effects, says Kajganović. OTTER investigated how EOC could also help improve the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, specifically in the field of environmental sustainability.

"The core ideas behind OTTER are how to make science education more attractive, how to encourage students to learn and apply their knowledge," she said.

Although Kajganović observes a general apathy towards science in many classrooms, she sees this as untapped potential to do more to connect learning with pressing sustainability challenges.

Working with partners in Finland, Hungary, Ireland and Spain, OTTER sought to connect science lessons in the classroom with local issues. Very quickly students in OTTER schools began to link theory and practice.

In one school, near Barcelona, a group of 14-year-olds took samples from the local river to test water quality and were alarmed by the results. Based on their findings, the students organized an online petition calling for the river to be cleaned up.

"By testing the water, they could see the problem and they could see the connection with their own lives. It really clicked in their heads," said Kajganović.

Sharing knowledge across Europe

To spread the impact of their work further, the OTTER team created an online learning platform with a range of interactive teaching materials that educators can use to help them carry out education outside the classroom activities.

Looking ahead, OTTER now hopes to get teachers across Europe to use the platform to explore ways to get involved in outdoor science learning. Longer term, Kajganović believes it could spark a new way of thinking about science and inspire the next generation.

"I would really like to see our approach to science education changing by giving young people more space to think about science and its application in their lives," she said. "In terms of sustainability, if we don't solve our problems, no one will, and it was amazing to see young people taking the lead."

• MULTIPLIERS
• EU open science policy
• European Research Area

Provided by Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

Explore further

Feedback to editors

Study unveils limits on the extent to which quantum errors can be 'undone' in large systems

18 hours ago

Mars and Jupiter get chummy in the night sky. The planets won't get this close again until 2033

20 hours ago

Saturday Citations: A rare misstep for Boeing; mouse jocks and calorie restriction; human brains in sync

Aug 10, 2024

Flood of 'junk': How AI is changing scientific publishing

135-million-year-old marine crocodile sheds light on Cretaceous life

Aug 9, 2024

Researchers discover new material for optically-controlled magnetic memory

A new mechanism for shaping animal tissues

NASA tests deployment of Roman Space Telescope's 'visor'

How do butterflies stick to branches during metamorphosis?

Historic fires trapped in Antarctic ice yield key information for climate models

Relevant physicsforums posts, incandescent bulbs in teaching.

16 hours ago

Sources to study basic logic for precocious 10-year old?

Jul 21, 2024

Free Abstract Algebra curriculum in Urdu and Hindi.

Jul 20, 2024

Kumon Math and Similar Programs

Jul 19, 2024

AAPT 2024 Summer Meeting Boston, MA (July 2024) - are you going?

Jul 4, 2024

How is Physics taught without Calculus?

Jun 25, 2024

More from STEM Educators and Teaching

Related Stories

Exploring challenges in learning for nursing students in Morocco

May 6, 2024

New approach to teaching computer science could broaden the subject's appeal

May 23, 2023

Citizen science project blends school curriculum to create eco warriors

Dec 12, 2023

Facilitating learning chemistry with conceptual modeling

Nov 27, 2023

New research shows students' knowledge and perceptions of active learning declined during pandemic-era teaching

Feb 9, 2024

Q&A: Experts discuss how best to educate people about climate change

Jan 23, 2024

Recommended for you

The 'knowledge curse': More isn't necessarily better

Aug 7, 2024

Visiting an art exhibition can make you think more socially and openly—but for how long?

Aug 6, 2024

Autonomy boosts college student attendance and performance

Jul 31, 2024

Study reveals young scientists face career hurdles in interdisciplinary research

Jul 29, 2024

Transforming higher education for minority students: Minor adjustments, major impacts

Communicating numbers boosts trust in climate change science, research suggests

Jul 26, 2024

Let us know if there is a problem with our content

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter