Re-Edited Publications

The re-edited colour AS Student Text and associated photocopiable black and white Activity Sheets, Teacher's and Technician's Guides were published in June 2000. The A2 resources are scheduled for early June 2001. Some pilot resources can still be obtained from Heinemann Educational Publishers whilst stocks last.

The new Resource Pack now contains two introductory activities which teach students the basic operation of Lotus 1-2-3 '97 and Microsoft Excel '97 spreadsheets from inputting data into tables through to obtaining best-fit line graphs. Unfortunately Figure 3.2 showing the Microsoft Excel 97 opening screen had its Decimal Place icons wrongly positioned. These are the two icons to the left of those indicated. Corrections to the re-edited publications and revised tests are collated on Heinemann's Secondary Science 16 to 19 website . Unless otherwise stated, corrections and amendments here refer to the pilot texts and resource packs. Some Activity numbers have been changed in the re-edited Resource Pack. Activity numbers in brackets refer to the pilot version.

E-mail Groups and Pico website

Heinemann have set up an e-mail discussion group for Salters Horners Advanced Physics teachers. To join send a blank e-mail (nothing in the message or subject field sections at all) to <Subscribe-SHAP@Heinemann.co.uk>. It is a restricted group so there will be a slight delay before registration is acknowledged.

Valery Chapman at Caistor Grammar School, Caistor, Lincs LN7 6QJ has set up an e-mail system through which Salters Horners Advanced Physics technicians (and others) can communicate with each other. If you are interested in joining, contact her at the address above or e-mail her on valerycobb@sciencetechnician.com or valery.chapman@caistor-grammar.lincs.sch.uk.

Pico Technology Limited have set up a Salters Horners Advanced Physics section on their website at http://www.picotech.com/education/salters_horners.html . Four activities, specially adapted to suit the ADC40/42 and their new DrDAQ dataloggers and storage oscilloscopes, have already been placed on it. Would you like to adapt other activities to their equipment and have these placed on the site? If so, do first check the website to see that what you have in mind has not already been done and then contact Pico concerning your wish. If used, you may well get a piece of Pico hardware free. Technology Supplies Limited have produced a sensor adaptor (Code 260-643) to connect the DrDAQ external sensor sockets to homemade sensors.

Higher Faster Stronger

The Multimedia Motion CD-ROM from Cambridge Science Media is now available in a revised version, Multimedia Motion II. Whilst either version can be used in the course, the new version makes a larger display format available, incorporates a best-fit line capability and, with a lot of effort on your part, also enables you to use your own video clips.

Activity 16 Components of force vectors header on P23 of the re-edited Student Text has a typographical error. It should refer to 'Activity 13' and not 'Activity 14'.

Whilst it was nice in the pilot to have the rather thick elastic and heavy mass for the model bungee jump in Activity 29 (27) it has proved difficult to get the elastic. An initial substitute available from haberdashers and woolshops was Newey Knitting Elastic (Art 60391) produced by Newey Goodman. They have since been taken over and Gold-Zack Knitting-in Elastic Ref 977 770 is the new substitute available c.w.o. from Honora if not locally. A length of 0.5 m being used with a 4.1 g small Lego person. A new graph of Elastic potential energy against Extension is available from the Project Office on request.	Making up a model road as shown below with Lego railings for the Lego person to jump from does add to the effect. Suggest it models a local bridge or the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Alternatively have it jump from a model crane.
The re-edited Activity Sheet 33 Range of a projectile had the caret ^ placed in error over the 2 instead of in the space left before it. Please correct both the Lotus 1-2-3 and the Microsoft Excel formulae.
A number of people have queried exactly what the tyre data in Activity 38 (36) really tells you. It was reproduced from some advertising literature from Michelin. From the figure it can be seen that from 1 to around 8000 Hz the energy absorbed by the Energy tyre is less than that of the Traditional tyre. At around 20 Hz there is an appreciable difference between the two types of tyre. The less energy the tyre absorbs the more economical will be the fuel consumption. The 20 Hz vibrations are typical of the macroscopic deformation of a tyre at speeds of 100 kph, with the magnitude of those vibrations being between 15 mm and 20 mm.	This distortion and vibration produces a great deal of heating of the tyre and increased resistance to rolling. Much higher frequency vibrations of between 1000 and 1000000 Hz are caused by direct contact with the microscopic lumps and bumps of the road surface. Here again energy is required to move over these, but this is what serves to give the vehicle grip and direction. Hence here you would need a compound which maintained the same level of absorption of energy as seen by the common line of the graph after around 8000 Hz.

The video Physics Means Business from The Institute of Physics is only available on free loan, it cannot be purchased. It has a short clip related to sports science that may be useful. Look in your careers library, it may have this video.

If you did want students to look at the curve fitting extension to Activity 17 (15) Model of Tyrolean Traverse, you might find it simpler to have x and y as the displacement of the point about which the central mass is hung, its original position being 0,0. The plots then provide a y = kx² curve fit which is more obvious.

The Sound of Music

Pico Technology Limited have recently produced an educational data logger and storage oscilloscope, DrDAQ, which has built-in sensors for sound, light and temperature, together with two sockets for other sensors and a special pH socket. A number of the activities in this unit (and others) could easily be adapted to use DrDAQ. It is excellent value for money.

Cambridge Science Media's latest version of Multimedia Sound now has its own sound recorder built in. It certainly makes recording sounds much easier.

Whilst superposition is shown correctly in Activity 8 in terms of what is heard on the Multimedia Sound CD, the amplitude of the superposed waveforms is unfortunately rescaled each time and so is displayed incorrectly. The text of page 132 and question 10 deal adequately with this but it might be wise to draw attention to what happens on the CD in case any misconceptions occur. There is an excellent Java Applet listed in Useful Weblinks that you might also like to consider.	In Activity 21 you might have found problems in getting the 'loud/soft' changes as the model CD was moved. This depends on the make of microwave apparatus that you have. Making a small wax lens may be the solution. Melt beeswax, obtainable from craft and candle making shops, in a saucepan and pour into a large evaporating basin. Pour enough wax in to make its 'diameter' close to that of the microwave horn. Place this lens just in front of the transmitter horn with the receiver probe alongside and adjust the distance away of the model CD until discrimination between bumps and troughs occurs.
P129 of the re-edited Student Text has a typographical error in the section beginning 'Displacement-distance graphs'. Change 'Activity 5' to Activity 6'. In the re-edited Activity Sheet 7 Can your recorder tell you the speed of sound it should show the thumb hole closed to produce note B.	In one of the June INSET sessions the beam splitting technique for the CD player was queried. There are in fact three techniques used to do this having the prisms with : (i) differing refractive indices, (ii) a polarising plate and (iii) a half mirror plate. Details on (i) and (ii) are in Digital Audio and Compact Disc Technology edited by Luc Baert et al. ISBN 0 240 51397 5.
The 12 V red LED used in Activity (23) should have had an RS Components' reference number of RS 228-5607. An alternative means of mounting the LEDs is in a piece of plastic downpipe with two 4 mm sockets on the rear. Adjust the position of the LEDs so that they are on the same level as the lens will be in its holder. One of the simplest lensholders is just a toolclip mounted on a piece of wood. This is correctly referenced in the new resource pack.	The researcher who developed the model laser in Activity 27 has assured us that it really does lase, but only in a small area within the jelly. Hence it is unlikely that the mirrors have any great effect but are merely there to enhance the model. In a darkened room the flash of light emerging from the hole should be easily seen on a screen a metre or so away. It is helpful to stick black paper around most of the jelly tube, (obviously not round the side where the flash gun injects light) and that will then prevent undue stray light from going towards the students.

Technology in Space

NOTE: This unit was known in the pilot as Working in Space.

Activity 4 Solar Array Voltage does not have a separate activity sheet as it is covered by the first part of Activity Sheet 2 Data from Space.

The TH3 thermistor originally specified for Activity (14) Changing Resistance is no longer obtainable. Use a bead thermistor like that from Maplin Electronics Ref FX21X which ranges in resistance from 318 ohms at 100 degrees C to 15.28 k ohms at 0 degrees C. Unfortunately it is less robust than the TH3. This is correctly referenced in the new resource pack.

As the temperature fall in Activity 22 Heating is so small, one of the teachers on the July INSETs suggested increasing the fall by placing a fan infront of the 'radiator'. Sounds sensible. Give it a try.

Try using Nasa's J-Track 3D to see where UoSAT2 is now. They refer to it as UO-11. There are many others to track live too.

The SPLOT (Superplot) software from AMSAT-UK is now being offered at £25.00 + VAT. AMSAT-UK will forward the software on receipt of an official order form. UoSAT2 files to match those used in the text are available from the Project Office on receipt of a formatted pc disc and return postage. Additional files of UoSAT2 data can be downloaded from Clive Wallis's website <http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/oscar11.htm> which also provides access to free software to convert the data for use on SPLOT. For this your pc will need to have QBasic available. AMSAT-UK is a very worthy organisation to join, it provides an excellent source of software, hardware and information, together with an interesting magazine called Oscar News. School subscription rate is £21 for a year (2000 price).

If you have students who are interested in weather imaging then do consider the Remote Imaging Group. Like AMSAT they provide an excellent library of software and of images, access to hardware at very low cost and an excellent magazine. They also have a useful website. Very cheap to subscribe at £11 for a year (2000 price).

An excellent source of free information on space probes is to be found at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). They have an extremely useful website with lots of information and links. Their magazine Frontiers, free to schools and colleges, provides useful updates in this field of research and discovery.

The Central Laboratory for the Research Councils (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Daresbury Laboratory ) also produces a useful free magazine Science and Technology containing substantial space probe information. Both of these laboratories are interesting and useful places to visit. Contact their Education Liaison Officers for details.

Similarly the European Space Agency's free magazine ESA Bulletin is well worth getting. Apply to ESA Publications Division. It is an excellent source of data and information on present and future ESA space probes, together with a number of articles in both French and English. They also publish two other free pamphlets which might prove useful: On Station, Preparing for the future and Earth Observation Quarterly. The first concerns itself with manned spaceflight and research in microgravity conditions, the second at space technology and the third is primarily about remote sensing.

In 1998 The Sunday Times distributed the Window on the World CD produced by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the Remote Sensing Society. If you did not get one then I suggest you do so as soon as possible. It has a wealth of interesting images and information on it and is still available free from the British National Space Centre (BNSC). It runs on PCs, Macs, Acorns and Unix systems. BNSC also produces a number of resources on space and astronomy for education, including an excellent index to organisations associated with space and astronomy called the UK Space Index. The latest (as of November 2000) is the 1999 edition. It is also available on their website. Ideas for visits?

Digging up the Past

Activity 3 Modelling a resistive survey in two dimensions can be greatly improved with an idea from one of the pilot schools. Using a base of Teledeltos paper paint areas at least 2 cm wide and long on it to model the buried walls of an old castle or abbey with Aquadag (colloidal graphite) mixed with PVA glue. You will need to experiment with concentrations of glue and colloidal graphite to provide three different resistivities, each of which should be greater than that of the surrounding Teledeltos paper.

A very useful article appeared in the May 2000 edition of Physics World magazine. It was titled Physics and Archaeology and gave a good insight into the physics of radiocarbon and luminescence dating, resistance surveying, magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar prospecting.

Penny Balmer, the Physics Technician at Market Weighton School in East Yorkshire, has devised an easy way of making the 3-D crystal model to use in a ripple tank in Activity (17). She took some plain matrix board from Maplin Electronics and inserted pins through its holes, gluing them into place. When positioned in the ripple tank, with the sharp ends uppermost and out of the water, the effect of plane waves hitting at particular angles can be noted.

Current Archaeology is a useful magazine available on subscription. As well as having interesting articles on archaeological sites it also has had, until very recently, a special science section. Its Directory of British Archaeology (produced annually) provides details of current excavations, together with addresses with links to archaeology. Very useful indeed.

Time Team site reports from the television series are available from Channel 4 Television and make interesting reading

Activity (18) - What's that artefact? - activity notes never did make it into print in time for the pilot publication. It now appears in the re-edited resource pack as Activity 18 Where has it been? The task (produced with the aid of the York Archaeological Trust and English Heritage is to determine, with the aid of X-ray crystallography spectra, what the Coppergate helmet was made of and the conditions in which it was buried. Unfortunately on the new activity sheet the two X-ray diffraction spectra in Figure A18.3 were displaced to the right by the labels A and B. Shift them to the left to align with those in Figure A18.2 and put their labels above.

The video Physics of Fine Art is still available from The Institute of Physics, either on free loan or purchase for £5 c.w.o. It has a number of clips in it of relevance to this unit.

Good Enough to Eat

If you have not already got a polarimeter, and also did not wish to spend >£200 on purchasing one, then do look at the revised edition of the Nuffield Advanced Chemistry Teacher's Guide 2 pages 203-5. It has details of how to make your own - quite easy too. If you have the Philip Harris polarimeter and it does not appear to function correctly, do check that the analyser polaroid is in place. In the latest INSET at York it was discovered to have fallen out. Replacement was easy - glueing a piece of polaroid to the base of the analyser mounting.

Chris Pambou, Chief Science Technician at The Community College in Hackney, has kindly forwarded details of how to mount the flowmeter used in Activity 9 Calibrating a flowmeter much more securely. If you would like a copy do get in touch with the Project Office. A number of technicians have used a windscreen washer pump from a car breaker's yard as a cheap alternative to a garden pond pump in Activity 9.

Dr Stephen Beckett of Nestlé, UK who wrote the introduction to the unit has written a book The Science of Chocolate that was published by The Royal Society of Chemistry in September 2000. It looks good. Back in December 1988 he also wrote an article for School Science review titled Chocolate - a sweet conundrum which is worth looking at too. Both have ideas for experiments amongst other information.

Classroom Video, who produce a video on Polarization of Light, have moved to Bristol. See their new details on our Useful Addresses pages.

Spare Part Surgery

The Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) used in Activity (5) is available from Philip Harris Limited in two forms: one to be stretched by simply hanging masses from it (Ref: Q30180/4) and the other to be stretched in the Unilab Materials Testing Kit jig (Ref: 871.687). Current prices as of July 2000 are (for five samples in each case): Ref: Q30180/4 £15.38 net and Ref:871.687 £29.73 net. Another source of this same material, but requiring cutting to shape, is available from Haden-Browne Plastics in the form of a 2 m x 1 m roll costing £39.60 + VAT as of July 2000. Thanks to Mrs Margaret Knight of St Peter's High School and Sixth Form Centre, Gloucester for this information.

If you wished to have an activity on modelling ultrasound scanning then do look at Physics Education November 1998. The article Modelling ultrasound scanning in schools, provides an activity in which students can determine where the boundaries between media occur. It uses a pulse generator, oscilloscope and two different types of coaxial cable. If you would like a copy of the article get in touch with the Project Office. A version based on use with the Pico Technology ADC-200 is on the Pico Technology web site.

The Crunchie Bar testing jig in the pilot edition can be made more easily by taking the two beams of the original design and linking them together with long coach bolts or studding, terminated by wingnuts. The bolts or studding should be firmly fixed into the lower beam but be a loose fit through the upper one. As with the G-clamp method, the piece of Crunchie is placed in the depression beneath the upper beam, and the wingnuts then tightened in synchronisation with each other until the sample crushes. The record at the moment is 570 N. Let the Project Office know if you beat this. The Ultimate Compressive Stress that an adult's femur will withstand is around 170 MPa so how does Crunchie compare?

The last paragraph of the procedure on re-edited Activity Sheet 21 Flicker fusion should read: 'You should have found that your eyes cannot detect any flicker unless the signal generator is set to a much lower frequency that 150 Hz. 150 Hz is the frame rate that can be achieved by real-time phased array ultrasound scans, but your eyes can only detect flicker below about 30 Hz'.

NOTE: The following A/A2 units are in the process of re-editing and are on schedule for publication in May 2001. The comments and corrections refer solely to the pilot edition.

Transport on Track

An excellent introduction to the context of this unit can be provided by the video British Rail Crashworthiness Development Programme - Improving Passenger Safety in Collisons which is available on free loan from The Institute of Physics. It looks in detail at how new carriages are designed and crash tested.

Activity (2) Short circuits on the line has been altered slightly with the ammeter which was placed across the track substituted by a 10 V f.s.d. voltmeter. Students should then note what happens to the ammeter and voltmeter readings as salt water is poured onto the ballast. In addition they should then be able to explain what would happen to the signal aspect/colour if the ballast became salty and damp. Activity (3) Modelling a track circuit with apparatus has also been amended in regard to 'Further work'. Delete (1) as that is now dealt with in Activity (2). In (2) place a 10 V f.s.d. voltmeter across the relay solenoid and get the students to note the voltages at which the signal goes from red to green - Drop-away, and from green to red - Pick-up. Also the values of the variable resistance that brings these conditions about. Revised details available on request to the Project Office.

An ideal tray for Activity (4)Trouble between the tracks is that used as an ice-cream carton lid. Cut pieces out of the lid where the crocodile clips attach to make a firm but stable connection to the foil and paper towel.

If you would like to get your students to obtain their own data for Activity (17) Falling Magnet you may find it best to fit a piece of plastic downpipe half way between the two coils, put two 4 mm sockets on it and connect the coils in parallel to them. If you also put a hole in this downpipe large enough to take a piece of dowel, it will then allow the system to be easily supported by the dowel fitted into the boss on a retort stand. Do place sponge or a catching bag beneath the bottom of the tube so that the magnet does not get damaged.

How electromagnetic induction can provide speed and acceleration data on the railway can be better modelled by fixing two coils to the underside of plastic guttering and letting a 'vehicle' on which a magnet is fixed vertically roll down it. A Pico version using their ADC40/42 has been produced and details are available from the Project Office on request.

Copies of the various files for use with Crocodile Clips based activities in this unit can be obtained from the Project Office on receipt of a formatted pc disc and return postage.

The Kynar Film sensor initially used in Activity (36) Runaway train is no longer available. The revised activity uses the Honeywell force sensor FSG15N1A available from Farnell ref:721-6671. Details of apparatus construction (very easy indeed) and a revised activity sheet using the Pico DrDAQ or ADC40/42 is available from the Project Office.

The Medium is the Message

An excellent video Sending Signals has been placed in The Institute of Physics video library. It was made by Airbus Industrie and looks at fly-by-wire on their Airbus range. It is available on free loan.

Activity (7) Name that tune requires the use of an amplifier. The K2637 Super Mini Mono 2.5 W Audio Amplifier from Maplin Electronics Ref VE12N would prove ideal. Loudspeaker and box etc. are extra. Copies of the files for use with Crocodile Clips based activities can be obtained from the Project Office on receipt of a formatted pc disc and return postage.

An improvement can be made to the Digital Optical Sensor for Activity (14) by replacing the wooden block which holds the two parts of the circuit apart by two Hex Clear Spacers (Maplin FE69) bolted through the pcb. Put breaks in the copper strip between the bolts and the rest of the circuit so that short circuits do not occur. This will bring the IREDs and photo-transistors closer together and make switching with the encoders more reliable. A correction to the pcb and connection diagrams of the Digital Optical Sensor, Multiplexer and Demultiplexer, LCD Display unit and the Jelly Fibre Receiver are available from the Project Office.

The analogue switch DG200ACJ needed for making the sampler in Activity (7) name that tune and both the multiplexer and demultiplexer of Activity (12) Time Division Multiplexed link and is no longer stocked by Maplin, but can be obtained from Farnell.

Two errors have occurred on the circuit diagrams for Activity (10) D-A conversion with an op-amp. The feedback resistor for the Binary weighted op-amp should be 12.5 k ohms and for the R-2R ladder network 100 k ohms and some connections to switches have been incorrectly drawn. Correction sheets are available from the Project Office or refer to the computer files supplied on disc. Please correct both activity sheets and the text. It might also help some students if overlapping links in circuits such as the SIPO and DtoA are redrawn in the old manner of a loop.

It has been reported that the LCD display used in Activity (27) Comparing LCD and LED displays is no longer stocked by Rapid Electronics. In fact any 12.7 mm LCD display will do the job, so that marketed by Maplin Electronics Ref FY89W is fine as a replacement as it is an identical device. If you use another version then check its pin-out diagram and wire it up so that it lights as an 8.

Probing the Heart of the Matter

Activities (13) and (14) Exploring Coulomb's Law and Probing the Field do need a very dry atmosphere to work properly. A really frosty morning is the ideal time to do them. Also ensure that the insulating rods and suspensions are very dry by wiping them over with methylated spirit before use.

Reach for the Stars

Activity (9) Measuring half-life looks at the decay of Protactinium. This activity requires some uranyl nitrate and few suppliers currently appear to have this in stock. Try R and L Slaughter Ltd.

A really superb spectrometer for use in Activity (12) The Sun's Spectrum, and for looking at other spectra, is that marketed by Learning Technologies Inc. as part of the Project Star Hands-on Science Materials. It is available as a cardboard kit or in a more robust ready-made plastic form. It was on display at the Leeds ASE meeting and was impressive.

In April 2000 Astronomy Now magazine gave away the CD-ROM on SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, shown alongside. It contained over 100 movie clips and more than 400 images and was really superb. If you missed it, see where you might obtain a copy by going to the NASA SOHO website.

If you missed Channel 4's series The Complete Cosmos then do consider purchasing one of their videos of the series that deals with Redshift and Black Holes. Really excellent and fits in well with the unit.

Build or Bust?

Additional details are now available from the Project Office on how to construct the earthquake table shown alongside, plus slightly amended student activity notes. Attach the platform to the vibration generator and Velcro a tray of silver sand to it to show liquefaction. Weighted buildings made from the smallest Lego bricks are ideal to show the effect. An additional platform with K'Nex structures is used to show resonance effects.

If you are not already using the Virtual Earthquake interactive web-based program in which students can calculate where the epicentre of a quake is located, together with its magnitude on the Richter Scale, then do have another look.