Demonstration experiments by using scanner and document camera

Abstract

The scanner and document camera are presented as the advantageous metrological devices in the school physics demonstration experiments.
The scanner is used as a physical tool that allows recording of the oscillations in JPG format. This scanngramme illustratively shows the waveform of the oscillatory motion of a pendulum or spring. Exploiting the fact that the CD behaves like a transmission diffraction grating, the scanner was also used for scanning of the diffraction maxima formed by passing a laser beam throughout CD disc. The wavelength of laser light can be then calculated from the distance of a central spot and the first bright fringe (the first positive order).
Document camera was used to capture the results of the geometrical optics experiments. Using graph paper with the axes we can determine from the scanngramme the reflection angle and refraction angle, respectively. Finally, we can verify the validity of Snell's law.
Scanner, CDs, laser pointer and document camera are well known to students so they are likely to be interested in the lab and participate in discussion.