Conceptual Physics Lab Activities: 4th Edition
Using your Lab Manual or downloaded Guiding Worksheet, select the labs for which you wish to select supplies. Clicking on the lab title will open a new window with the specific items needed for that activity. Each item quantity is based on a single lab group. Multiply quantities to accommodate the number of student lab groups in your class.
Required Materials: This page lists materials needed in many of the Conceptual Physics labs, and should be on hand for a curriculum of Conceptual Physics.
Using the Lab Activities Database
Step 1. Download and print the Guiding Worksheet and organize the labs and topics your classes will cover.
Step 2. After reviewing and making decisions using the Guiding Worksheet, select each lab from the menu to make selections of needed equipment.
Step 3. Each lab selection will open a new window for that lab. After you have completed your choices for the lab, close the window and return to this page for further selections.
Step 4. After completing your equipment selections or at any point during the process you can click the "Shopping Cart" to see or edit equipment selections. You can navigate between the Shopping Cart and the Lab Menu at any time. You can also print a copy of the shopping cart for reference.
Step 5. Simplify organizing your lab supplies when they arrive! Here is a link to download a spreadsheet providing you with a complete list of lab numbers, titles and items associated with each lab. Download Spreadsheet
The Basics
These labs cover scientific method, vectors, mechanical equilibrium and measurement.
Demos on the Basics
Additional product to help expand on the basics of phyics.
Chapter 1
1: Amassing a Penny's Worth - Scientific Method
Chapter 2
2: Smart Ropes - Mechanical Equilibrium
3: 24-Hour Towing Service - Statics and Vectors
4: Sail With the Wind - Vector Components
5: Weight of a sign - Vector Components
Chapter 40
105: Roll Out the π - Significant Figures and Precision
Motion
These labs cover topics such as linear motion, inertia, gravity, projectile motion, acceleration and air resistance.
Demos on Motion
Additional products to help expand on force and motion.
Chapter 3
6: Going Nuts - Inertia
7: Buckle Up! - Inertia
Chapter 4
8: The Physics 500 - Measuring Speed
9: The Domino Effect - Maximizing average speed
10: Reaction Time - Accelerated Motion
11: Merrily We Roll Along - Accelerated Motion
12: Blind As a Bat - Graphical Analysis of Motion
13: Bring Home the Bacon - Accelerated Motion
14: What a Drag! - Effects of Air Resistance
15: Impact Speed - Effects of Air Friction on Falling Bodies
Chapter 5
16: Bull's Eye - Projectile Motion
17: Anatomy of a Homer - Projectile Motion
Chapter 6
18: Getting Pushy - Variables Affecting Acceleration
19: Constant Force and Changing Mass - Mass + Acceleration
20: Constant Mass and Changing Force - Force + Acceleration
Chapter 7
21: Tension - Action and Reaction
22: Tug-of-War - Action and Reaction
Chapter 8
23: Egg Toss - Impulse
24: Conserving Your Momentum - Conservation of Momentum
25: Go Cart - Two-Body Collisions
Energy
These labs cover topics such as conservation of energy, work, efficiency and friction
Demos on Energy
Additional products to help expand on force and motion.
Chapter 9
26: Making the Grade - Mechanical Energy
27: Muscle Up! - Power
28: Cut Short - Conservation of Energy
29: Conserving Your Energy - Conservation of Energy
30: Wrap Your Energy in a Bow - Energy and Work
31: How Hot Are Your Wheels? - Efficiency
32: Releasing Your Potential - Conservation of Energy
33: Slip-Stick - Coefficients of Friction
Rotation and Orbit
This section covers topics about the physics of rotation, balance, and torque.
Demos on Rotation and Orbit
Additional products to help expand on rotation and orbit.
Chapter 10
34: Going in Circles - Centripetal Acceleration
35: The Flying Pig - Centripetal Force
36: Torque Feeler - Torque
Chapter 11
37: Where's Your CG? - Center of Gravity
38: Weighing an Elephant - Balanced Torques
39: Solitary Seesaw - Balanced Torques and CG
40: Keeping in Balance - Balanced Torques
Chapter 12
41: Rotational Derby - Rotational Inertia
42: On or Off the Mark? - Rotational Mechanics
Chapter 13
43: Apparent Weightlessness - Free Fall
44: Getting Eccentric - Planetary Motion
45: Tracking Mars - Planetary Motion
Chapter 14
46: Trial and Error - Kepler's Third Law
Matter
This section deals in the nature and properties of matter. Including scaling objects, density and flotation
Demos on Matter
Products to help expand on the properties of matter.
Chapter 17
47: Flat as a Pancake - Diameter of a BB
48: Extra Small - The Size of a Molecule
Chapter 18
49: Stretch - Elasticity and Hooke's Law
50: Geometric Physics - Scaling
Chapter 19
51: Eureka! - Displacement and Density
52: Sink or Swim - Archimedes' Principle and Floatation
53: Float a Big Stick - Floatation
Heat
These labs work with subjects including heat, temperature, solar energy.
Demos on Heat
Products to help expand on the properties of matter.
Chapter 21
54: Heat Mixes: Part I - Specific Heat of Water
55: Heat Mixes: Part II - Specific Heat of Nails
56: Temperature of a Flame - Specific Heat/Thermal Equilibrium
57: Antifreeze in the Summer? - Specific Heat and Boiling Point
58: The Bridge Connection - Linear Expansion of Solids
Chapter 22
59: Cooling Off - Comparing Cooling Curves
60: Solar Equality - Solar Energy
Chapter 23
61: Boiling is a Cooling Process - Boiling of Water
62: Melting Away - Heat of Fusion
63: Getting Steamed Up - Heat of Vaporization
64: LN is Cool Stuff - Specific and Latent Heats
65: Work for Your Ice Cream - Energy Transfer
66: The Drinking Bird - Heat Engines
Chapter 24
67: The Uncommon Cold - Estimating Absolute Zero
Sound and Waves
This section includes waves, vibrations, and penulum motion.
Demos on Sound and Waves
Products to help expand on the properties of sound and waves.
Chapter 25
68: Tick-Tock - Period of a Pendulum
69: Grandfather's Clock - Period of a Pendulum
70: Catch a Wave - Superposition
71: Ripple While You Work - Properties of Waves
Chapter 26
72: Mach One - Speed of Sound
Light
This section contains labs on light, reflection and refraction, shadows and more.
Demos on Light
Products to help expand on the properties of light.
Chapter 27
73: Shady Business - Formation of Shadows
74: Shades - Polarization
Chapter 28
75: Flaming Out - Atomic Spectra
76: Why the Sky is Blue - Rayleigh Scattering
Chapter 29
77: Images - Formation of Virtual Images
78: Pepper's Ghost - Multiple Reflections
79: The Kaleidoscope - Multiple Reflections
80: Funland - Images Formed By a Curved Mirror
Chapter 30
81: Camera Obscura - Pinhole Camera
82: Thin Lens - Concave and Convex Lenses
83: Lensless Lens - Pinhole "Lens"
84: Air Lens - Refraction in Air
85: Bifocals - Images Formed by a Converging Lens
86: Where's the Point? - Focal Length of a Diverging Lens
Chapter 31
87: Rainbows Without Rain - Thin-Film Interference
88: What's My Lambda? - Diffraction
Electricity and Magnetism
These labs work with electricity, electrostatics, circuits and magnetism.
Demos on Electricity and Magnetism
Additional Products to help expand on the principles of electricity and magnetism.
Chapter 32
89: Static Cling - Static Electricity
90: Sticky Electrostatics - Static Electricity
Chapter 34
91: Sparky, the Electrician - Series and Parallel Circuits
92: Brown Out - Capacitors
93: Ohm Sweet Ohm - Ohm's Law
Chapter 35
94: Getting Wired - Current Flow in Circuits
95: Cranking Up - Series and Parallel Circuits
96: 3-Way Switch - Household Circuits
Chapter 36
97: 3D Magnetic Field - Magnetic Field Lines
98: You're Repulsive - Force on Moving Charges
Chapter 37
99: Motors and Generators - Electric Motors and Generators
The Atom
This section works with the properties of the atom, radioactivity and nuclear energy.
Chapter 38
100: Particular Waves - Photoelectric Effect
101: Energy of a Photon - Planck's Law and the Light Quanta
Chapter 39
102: Nuclear Marbles - Nuclear Scattering
103: Half-Life - Half-Life
Chapter 40
104: Chain Reaction - Chain Reaction
