Why does a balloon stick to your sweater? Rub a balloon on a sweater, then let go of the balloon and it flies over and sticks to the sweater. View the charges in the sweater, balloons, and the wall.
Explore the origin of energy bands in crystals of atoms. The structure of these bands determines how materials conduct electricity.
Look inside a battery to see how it works. Select the battery voltage and little stick figures move charges from one end of the battery to the other. A voltmeter tells you the resulting battery voltage.
Move point charges around on the playing field and then view the electric field, voltages, equipotential lines, and more. It's colorful, it's dynamic, it's free.
Experiment with conductivity in metals, plastics and photoconductors. See why metals conduct and plastics don't, and why some materials conduct only when you shine a flashlight on them.
This module is designed to guide students in better understanding what electricity is and how it works by investigating electrical circuits. The teacher will facilitate students' explorations as they use scientific terms to generate a summary of their experiences. Throughout this unit, students will be guided in using practical materials such as wires, batteries, switches and light bulbs to better understand how electricity behaves in open and closed circuits. This module was developed by Stephanie Hooks as part of a Virginiga Commonwealth Universtiy STEM initiative sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education.
This module is designed to guide students in better understanding what electricity is and how it works by investigating electrical circuits. The teacher will facilitate students' explorations as they use scientific terms to generate a summary of their experiences. Throughout this unit, students will be guided in using practical materials such as wires, batteries, switches and light bulbs to better understand how electricity behaves in open and closed circuits. This module was developed by Stephanie Hooks as part of a Virginiga Commonwealth Universtiy STEM initiative sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education.
Play hockey with electric charges. Place charges on the ice, then hit start to try to get the puck in the goal. View the electric field. Trace the puck's motion. Make the game harder by placing walls in front of the goal. This is a clone of the popular simulation of the same name marketed by Physics Academic Software and written by Prof. Ruth Chabay of the Dept of Physics at North Carolina State University.
Students will study, explore, and create a digital simulation to show understanding of electrical circuits.
Students will construct a simple electromagnet using a dry cell, wire, nail, or other object containing iron (5.4 e), plan and conduct an investigation to determine the strength of an electromagnet (5.4 e), and define a problem and design a solution that uses an electromagnet; demonstrate and explain how the electromagnet works (5.4 e). After the completion of this module students will understand how to construct an electromagnet and explain how one works. This module was developed by Sarah Donnelly as part of a Virginia Commonwealth University STEM initiative sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education.
Light a light bulb by waving a magnet. This demonstration of Faraday's Law shows you how to reduce your power bill at the expense of your grocery bill.
See how the equation form of Ohm's law relates to a simple circuit. Adjust the voltage and resistance, and see the current change according to Ohm's law. The sizes of the symbols in the equation change to match the circuit diagram.
Broadcast radio waves from KPhET. Wiggle the transmitter electron manually or have it oscillate automatically. Display the field as a curve or vectors. The strip chart shows the electron positions at the transmitter and at the receiver.
Learn about the physics of resistance in a wire. Change its resistivity, length, and area to see how they affect the wire's resistance. The sizes of the symbols in the equation change along with the diagram of a wire.
Dope the semiconductor to create a diode. Watch the electrons change position and energy.
Why do the lights turn on in a room as soon as you flip a switch? Flip the switch and electrons slowly creep along a wire. The light turns on when the signal reaches it.
Windmills have been used for hundreds of years to collect energy from the wind in order to pump water, grind grain, and more recently generate electricity. There are many possible designs for the blades of a wind generator and engineers are always trying new ones. Design and test your own wind generator, then try to improve it by running a small electric motor connected to a voltage sensor.