Did you know that your phone is, especially if it is a modern model, full of small tools that you can use to perform some simple experiments?
Many of these tiny tools used by major phone software and third-party applications as data collectors to help with some of the features, such as GPS etc.
For example, most of them can now be used to measure:
- acceleration;
- Magnetic fields;
- sound;
- Geospatial position;
- Atmospheric pressure.
Is not that interesting?
Of course, you also need special applications to "uncover" the inner potential of your phone. A great example of just such an application - Phyphox. You can find this app in the Android Market.
However, if your phone does not have a sensor (eg, a barometer), some experiments / function will be marked as unavailable.
Experiment № 1. Measurement duration freefall
This interesting experiment will measure the duration of a free fall with the help of your smartphone.
If you downloaded the app, the experiment requires the use of function "Acoustic stopwatch." This experiment will determine the time between two loud acoustic event.
You will need to enter a few parameters before you start. Primarily, set threshold valueSo you can adjust the trigger noise, which is louder than the ambient noise levels.
As you can imagine, this will require some trial and error, therefore, continue changing the value until the ambient noise will not start the stopwatch.
There is also another option for installation - minimum delay. Since any noise has a tendency to have a duration, it prevents the same "sound event" several times to stop and start the timer and port your experiment.
As you can imagine, the delay should always be less than the total freefall time.
A simple experiment - is to use some kind of object to be dropped, for example, a pen and a ruler (preferably metal). Now put the ruler and a pen on the edge of a flat surface such as a table.
With activated acoustic stopwatch hit a line along the edge to the handle fell off the line on the floor. Stopwatch should be triggered when the line "calling" of stroke, and stop when the microphone detects your phone exposure pen on the floor. This will free fall time of the subject.
By repeating this several times at different heights, you will see that the time should be the square root of 2 times the height of the fall divided by the gravitational acceleration of the Earth, equal to 9.81 m / s2 .
Experiment 2. Measure the speed of movement of the elevator
Phyphox and other applications similar applications allow you to measure the speed of the lift - if you've ever thought about it, of course.
As you can imagine, you will need to lift for this experiment, but other than that, all you need is your phone and the application in hand. However, there is one snag.
Your phone must be equipped with a barometer. If you are not sure that your phone has the built-in component, the application will soon notify you when you attempt to perform an experiment "Elevator" in Phyphox application menu.
If you have a barometer, then fine. To run this experiment, turn on the app and select the experiment with a lift in the menu.
Then put your phone on the floor of the elevator, then select the level to which you want to go. For best results, you need at least 3 floor.
The application then records the changes in atmospheric pressure when lifting or lowering the lifting mechanism in the shaft of the lifting device. Using the barometric formula, the application may determine the travel distance, the vertical velocity and acceleration of the recovery record using your phone's accelerometer.
You can adjust the experiment almost everything that can carry your phone. If you have a strong enough drone such as quadrocopter, you can run the same experiment on the device.
Experiment 3. Measuring the speed of sound
This is one of the most simple experiments that you can spend on your smartphone. As expected, before executing it on your device must be installed to record data, e.g. Phyphox.
You will need two phones with the installed application, and roulette, to install two phones at a certain distance from each other.
Open the app on both phones (with the same settings) and place them at a certain distance from each other. Turn on "Acoustic stopwatch." As is the case with other acoustic experiment, you need to play with the thresholds to make sure that the background noise is eliminated.
Now all you have to do is hlopyt next to one of the phones.
Then ask a colleague (or walk themselves between the two phones is very quiet) and pop next to the second phone. The first cotton almost instantly activates your nearest stopwatch application and launches the second phone later.
When you pop next to the second phone, the stopwatch is stopped immediately on the second phone, and after a short delay, the sound is transmitted to another phone.
The velocity of sound must be "easy" is found using the formula:
v = 2 x d / (Δt)
Here:
- v = speed of sound;
- d = the distance between phones;
- Δt = the time difference between the results of two telephones (Δt = Δt1 - Δt2).
Of course, given the relatively simple setup, you will probably get different results depending on the temperature and other variables. Assumed value of the sound velocity should be about 343 m / s at 21 degrees Celsius.
This is a video that illustrates this experiment: