Experimental Approach to High School Physics
with an Emphasis on the Scientific Method
Light
The highlight of this section is allowing the students to measure the
speed of light. This problem will stretch the student's problem
solving abilities. We may not be able to find the speed of light be
we will be able to set a lower limit on its speed and that will be
quite an accomplishment. While establishing a lower limit, we will
learn more about errors and how to propagate errors through our
mathematical analysis.
Look Around the Corner—Does Light Travel in a Straight Line?
Left and Right in the Mirror—Reflection
Spear Fishing—Diffraction
Rainbows—Prisms
Hidden Information in Rainbows—Spectroscopy
That Looks Weird—Line Emission and Continuous Emission Light
Under the Magnifying Glass—Lenses I
Seeing in the Dark—Lenses II
Another Way to do the Same Thing—Parabolic Mirrors
Thin Lens Approximation
Eyeglasses, Telescope and Microscopes
Generating Electricity from Light—Photoelectric Effect
Generating Heat from Light—Solar Heating
Now You See It, Now You Don't—Transparency and Opacity