Demo Highlight: Air Table
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- Published: Monday, 16 May 2022 10:00
We have many demonstrations of the mechanics of collisions in our collection. You can explore them in section C7 of our website.
Among the most valuable for illustrating all kinds of collisions are the air table demonstrations, the large C7-42 and the smaller C7-43, and their portable cousin the hoverpucks, C7-44. All three of these demonstrations use pucks floating on a cushion of air to allow you to show very low friction collisions with various masses. The air tables use an air blower beneath the surface, while the hoverpucks have their own integral fans so they can skitter across the floor of the classroom. All three, of course, require quite a bit of space to use!
So it’s a valuable supplement to them that the PhET Collection at the University of Colorado Boulder has introduced their online simulated Collision Lab, which lets you experiment with collisions of pucks at the comfort of your desk or couch. You can use the air table in the classroom, then try to replicate the experiment at home for further analysis!