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Quick Links
Physics Video FAQ
General Approach
These are mechanics-based activites which illustrate specific points about kinematics, dynamics, and conservation of momentum and energy. If you are teaching or taking a non-mathematics based course, you can watch the videos simply for the qualitative (visual) comparisons. In these cases you should ask yourself: which one goes faster? and why.
In the case of a mathematics based course you will need to make measurements of position and time and use these to determine velocities or accelerations. To do this, you can measure things as presented on the screen (most videos include a ruler or other scale figure) or measure the number of pixels the object moves using a program such as NIH Image or VideoPoint. However, if you know how to use these programs, you're probably making your own videos and you don't need our stuff!
Therefore, you should use the following techniques to measure position and time data from the videos.
Position:
If the camera doesn't move during the video, you can project the image onto a whiteboard and mark the position of the object with a marker on the board. Then measure the distance of a known object (a ruler for example) to set the scale. If the scale isn't important, you can use the measurements of the board markings directly.
You can measure position in this way directly on a computer screen using overhead transparency markers to mark the position of the object over time. Then use a ruler to measure the distance between the marks. We used this method with no problems on CRT monitors. Be sure you don't have permanent markers! We did not test this method on an LCD and recommend caution before ruining an expensive display.If the camera moves during the video, then you should use the scale present in the video to get position data. Rulers and other markers have been provided in most cases to give you a standard of measurement.
Time:
Most of our videos are recorded at 30 frames per second. Therefore every 6 frames is 0.20 seconds. There are a couple of exceptions and these are noted on those pages.
Video download problems:
You will need to download and install QuickTime if you do not have it already.
Recent changes to Internet Explorer for Windows may make playing the videos linked here impossible from within a web browser (a desperate attempt to prevent browser hijack of your Windows based machines by hackers). You can right-click to download the videos and then play them later with QuickTime for Windows.
Please email us with any specific errors you encounter with the videos so we can try to fix them. Most of the videos are very large so keep that in mind when downloading them. If you cannot view the videos we can arrange to send them to you on a CD-ROM. Contact Jeff Adkins at the link below if you have difficulties.
Jeff Adkins, Director
astronomyteacher@mac.com
Cheryl Domenichelli, Assistant Director
cheryldomenichelli@antioch.k12.ca.us
4700 Lone Tree Way
Antioch, CA 94531
The ESPACE Academy is sponsored in part by a grant from the California Department of Education's Specialized Secondary Program.
