Lablet - Physics Sensor Lab

Physics experiments, analysis & customizable handout; everything on the tablet!

Lablet leverages tablets (and smart phones) as experimental tools to perform real physics experiments. Experiments can be conducted and analyzed entirely on the tablet. Lablet is designed for use in lab classes, but is not limited to such. Lablet can run fully customizable lab activities to guide students through an experiment.

Camera Experiment:

Lablet enables students to use the tablet camera to perform an experiment. For example, students can record a video of the trajectory of a thrown ball. To analyze the trajectory, students can step through the video and tag the ball in each frame. Using this data, the velocity and the acceleration of the ball can be calculated and even the gravitational constant can be derived. Students learn the relation between kinetic and potential energy. Furthermore, they see how the movement of the ball differs in the x and y directions.

Microphone Experiment:

The frequency analysis module uses the tablet’s microphone to record audio data. Lablet displays the fourier transformation of the recoded data. This can be used for Doppler shift and similar experiments.

Accelerometer Experiment:

The accelerometer module uses the tablet’s accelerometer sensor to capture the acceleration of the tablet. Lablet integrates this data in order to display velocity and distance graphs.

Lab Activities ("electronic" lab handouts):

Lablet supports "electronic" lab handouts with information and instructions to guide the students through a complete lab activity. Teachers can widely customize a lab activity by editing a simple lab activity script file. Here, a rich set of components and layout options are provided, for example, text questions, check boxes or special components such as a sheet where students learn to calculate velocity and acceleration from the raw data.

About Lablet

- Overview: http://lablet.auckland.ac.nz/features/

- Example lab activities: http://lablet.auckland.ac.nz/lab-activities/

- Source code and documentation: http://lablet.auckland.ac.nz/download/

- Contact us: [email protected]