User:Steven J. Koch/Physics 102 Stuff/04 Feb 10

Assignment on WebCT
My goal in this assignment is to allow people to leverage their different talents and different strengths in learning. This is the first time I have given a "choose your own adventure" assignment like this. So please forgive any confusion it causes! Also, please know that I will for sure not be able to show all excellent answers during lecture. I may only be able to show only one out of the many good ones I expect! Please choose one of the following assignments.

A. Design a sound wave interference experiment / demo that we can perform in class on Tuesday.
We will have the same frequency generators + loudspeakers that we used last Thursday to hear sound wave interference and beats. (This was the demo that produced dead spots and live spots in the room.) Your goal is to devise some kind of experiment and hypothesis that we can test during a demo in class on Tuesday. The frequency generators can send sine waves of different frequencies to each speaker independently. We can control them with very good frequency resolution (easily down to 0.1 Hz). We'll also have the microphone + oscilloscope available. You also have access to anything you can bring in to class (reasonably), plus we can use the students in the class as part of the demo (for example, by having them raise their hands when they hear sounds, etc.). If I see a creative experiment that I think may (a) work and (b) be educational, we'll give it a whirl!

==B. Record a video about something to do with sound wave interference and post it to youtube, our facebook page, WebCT, or all three.==

If you enjoy recording and posting videos, I invite you to record something having to do with sound wave interference. If you post it somewhere other than WebCT (highly recommended, by the way), make sure you let me know where they are! I will try to show videos (or parts of videos) that I think are educational or thought provoking, but of course we'll be time-limited.

==C. Find your favorite video on youtube (or elsewhere) that relates to sound wave interference. Post the video on our facebook page and / or WebCT.==

If neither of the previous two assignments appeal to you, see if you can find interesting videos on youtube (or other video places) having to do with sound wave interference. Or try to find new web applets that we haven't looked at yet in class. When you find one, post it on WebCT or on our facebook page.  Thank you for your work on this assignment, and once again, I apologize in advance for not being able to show all of the good work in class!