Leaving Certificate Experiments
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These should be read when the experiments are being performed |
The principle of science, the definition, almost, is the following: The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific "truth." But what is the source of knowledge? Where do the laws that are to be tested come from? Experiment, itself, helps to produce these laws, in the sense that it gives us hints. But also needed is imagination to create from these hints the great generalizations---to guess at the wonderful, simple, but very strange patterns beneath them all, and then to experiment to check again whether we have made the right guess.
-- Richard Feynman (The Feynman Lectures on Physics, 1963)
| Mechanics | Heat | Light/Sound/Waves |
|---|---|---|
| Measurement of velocity and acceleration. | Calibration curve of a thermometer using the laboratory mercury thermometer. | Measurement of the focal length of a concave mirror. |
| To show a proportional to F. | Measurement of the specific heat capacity, e.g. of water or a metal by a mechanical or electrical method. | Verification of Snell's law of refraction. |
| Verification of principle of conservation of momentum. | Measurement of the specific latent heat of fusion of ice. | Measurement of the refractive index of a liquid or a solid. |
| Measurement of g. | Measurement of the specific latent heat of vaporisation of water. | Measurement of the focal length of a converging lens. |
| Measurement of the wavelength of monochromatic light. | ||
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Investigation of the laws of equilibrium for a set of co-planar forces. |
Measurement of the speed of sound in air. | |
| Investigation of the variation of the fundamental frequency of a stretched string with length. | ||
Physlets
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Simulations demonstrated in class are below, with some others - take the time to go through them at your own pace. |
In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
-- Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice (1902-1984 )
Question Bank & Suggested Solutions |
I have been known to use the occasional question from below in 5th & 6th year class tests :-) |
- Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.
--Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
General Information
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Useful stuff for physics research |
- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
- --Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) French mathematician.
Please let Mr. Garvey know about any problematic links.
