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Edge Diffraction

What it shows:

A point light source will produce seemingly sharp shadows which turn out to be not at all sharp when viewed under magnification. Narrow interference bands are seen within the shadow of a straight edge while more complicated shapes yield more complicated interference bands and striations.

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Newton's Apple

Apple electronically released from platform; fall time given by special circuit and digital display.

What it shows:

This is a free-fall-from-rest experiment in which an apple (or any other object of comparable size) is dropped from the lecture hall ceiling into a catching bucket on the floor. By measuring the (1) distance and (2) duration of the fall, an accurate (± 0.022%) determination of the acceleration due to gravity can be made:

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Eddy Current Levitation

What it shows:

It's impossible to magnetically levitate an object with static magnetic fields. However, it's posible to levitate a magnet with another hand-held magnet by taking advantage of eddy currents.

How it works:

A rectangular block of copper (6"×6"×2") is stacked on top of another one (6"×6"×1"). They are separated by 1" plastic spacers. A rectangular bar magnet (2"×2"×½") is placed in the space between them. When a second magnet is lowered from above, the two magnets attact each other. However, rather than "jumping up"...

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Single Photon Interference
single_photon_paper.pdf

Wave/particle duality observed in Young's double slit experiment with camera sensitive to individual photons.

What it shows:
In this demonstration we perform the double-slit interference experiment with extremely dim light and show that even when the light intensity is reduced down to several photons/sec, the audience can see the familiar Young's double-slit interference pattern build up over a period of time. This addresses the question of how can single photons interfere with photons that have already gone through the apparatus in the past, or with those that...

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Crystal Growth & Recession

What it shows:

By providing a cold boundary, you can get water to crystalize as advancing needles of ice.

How it works:

This cold boundary can be provided by a petri dish of alcohol. Adding dry ice to this produces an endothermic reaction that lowers the temperature below 0°C. By placing a smaller petri dish containing distilled water within the alcohol dish (figure 1), the water freezes from the outer edge inwards. In front of a "thick" wall of ice shoots a monolayer of needles. The advance or recession can be...

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Cavendish Experiment

Calculation of gravitational constant, with accompanying apparatus model.

What it shows

The gravitational attraction between lead spheres. The data from the demonstration can also be used to calculate the universal gravitational constant G.

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Eddy Currents at LN2 Temperature

What it shows:

A rectangular block of copper (measuring 6"×6"×2"), offers VERY little resistance to eddy currents generated by dragging a magnet across its surface. Thus the Lorentz force between the eddy currents and magnetic field is quite strong and you can feel a sizable drag force. Dropping a magnet onto the surface likewise produces a sizable Lorentz force, as evidenced by the damped motion of the magnet's fall. The effects are quite dramatic at liquid nitrogen temperature.

How it works:

Copper has a positive temperature...

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Poisson's Spot

Diffraction produces a bright spot where Poisson believed there would be darkness.

Poisson's Spot

What It Shows

Edge diffraction around a 1/8" diameter steel ball bearing results in a visible spot in the center of its shadow. In 1818 this...

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