Smartphone Pocket Lab: Experimental Classical Mechanics

In the MOOC "Smartphone Pocketlab", you do real physics experiments at home and you learn scientific description of movement : speed, acceleration, trajectory...

The needed equipment is a smartphone and a laptop. This is all.

The proposed experiments explore the concepts presented in the course 'Classical Mechanics' that is taught in all universities. They introduce participants to a scientific description of motion by doing themselves experiments at home (no lab required).

The experiments are organised in 5 sessions: the pendulum (S3) and the free fall (S1) with illustrations directly from Galileo and Newton, while the Session 2 (S2) deals with rotation and Session 4 (S4) with oscillations and vibrations.
In Session 5 (S5), you do your own experiment: you can study trajectory of a bicycle, of a train. As an example, we show you how to quantitatively study the trajectory, speed and acceleration of a tramway. New ideas welcomed.

Smartphone Pocket Lab is a “Learning by doing” course. The needed lab is your smartphone

Doing experiments in Classical Mechanics is the objective. It is a "Do It Yourself (DIY)" strategy.
Classical Mechanics is a scientific course on motion, trajectory, displacement. It is a first year course taught in all universities in the world to all students in sciences and technology.
Studying Classical Mechanics requires to do experiments. Proposed experiments are related to major chapters of the course “Classical Mechanics”.

The scientific method involves facing reality in details to obtain a precise and meaningful description of the probed concepts. This is at the heart of the scientific experimental method as it is developed in laboratories.

Here the lab is your smartphone connected to your laptop.
No other material or scientific instrument is needed.

The scientific approach of motion has always been of key importance.
In modern societies, it is probably even more relevant in many fields including design, arts,…
Use of smartphone opens new opportunities to explore movements including movements of body and gestures. In fact, we never notice it but this is what smartphones are measuring all time during their use in everyday life.
Smartphones when used as labs are so powerful that they enable students to define new experiments. Your ultimate success if your enter this course would be that the experiment you propose in session 5 is a surprise for the Course Staff and for others students.

Through our free and open software iMecaProf, movements of a smartphone are measured and interactively represented in real time using the associated audio-visual interface. This is a newly developed tool to enter exploration of scientific concepts, which describe all kind of movements. It is a pedagogical tool developed for both scientists and non-scientists.