Not sure I understand your constraints. How is it different from measuring the acceleration of an elevator etc. and using it to find velocity and position?
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An elevator would work too, I just wanted to give them the freedom to find/make some motions that some kind of acceleration they could measure. Ideally I was thinking two different kinds of motion like a constant speed walk them speeding up but not sure how I can write it out and still be open.
sep 1, 2025, 12:27 am • 0 0 • view
If they are using an accelerometer you could challenge them to produce a constant acceleration for x seconds using only body motion.
sep 1, 2025, 2:13 pm • 0 0 • view
You can also do that with acoustic range finders. Surprisingly difficult in both cases
sep 1, 2025, 3:04 pm • 2 0 • view
We do the matching motion lab with those sensors. I suppose I was hoping for them to have choice in their motion and collect some data out of class but I think we would have to use phone sensors or cars.
sep 1, 2025, 3:31 pm • 1 0 • view
How do you get the acceleration measurement from the car? They have accelerometers but it isn't easy for the owner to access. It would be easier to use the phone's accelerometer. I see safety problems with students using cars for a physics experiment.
sep 1, 2025, 3:58 pm • 0 0 • view
"Get in loser, we're going accelerometering"
sep 1, 2025, 6:04 pm • 2 0 • view
I was thinking more observing a car, like as a passenger take note of speed at the other end of an intersection
sep 1, 2025, 6:23 pm • 1 0 • view
I know this the age of all things digital, but one of the labs I used to do was have them design a lab in which they could prove graphically that they were moving at a constant non-zero velocity and one in which they had a constant acceleration. They thought this was so easy until they started it.
sep 1, 2025, 7:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Eventually they came up with various ways of dropping things in the hall and measuring distances (I never showed them things like ticker tape timers etc until after).But it was absolutely hysterical watching them try to figure out the best way to have"constant acc".It led to some awesome discussions
sep 1, 2025, 7:41 pm • 1 0 • view
That led into investigations of "constant velocity cars" with the proof coming from investigations of videos they produced on their phones. I never was able to convince my principal to let us have a bus and driver for a day to drive around and investigate motion(and eventually inertia, etc)
sep 1, 2025, 7:41 pm • 1 0 • view