Frontiers in Sensors (FS) Volume 1 Issue 4, October 2013 www.seipub.

org/fs

Applications and Examples of Experiments

with Mobile Phones and Smartphones in
Physics Lessons
Jochen Kuhn*1, Patrik Vogt2
*1Dept. of Physics/Physics Education Group, University of Kaiserslautern
2Dept. of Physics, University of Education Freiburg

[email protected]; [email protected]
*1

Abstract The focus of the article is therefore on the “mobile

The contribution provides an overview of possible phone” as an experiment tool–a topic that has been
experiments with mobile phones in physics lessons. The somewhat neglected in the field of educational
focus of the article is therefore on the “mobile phone” as an research to date. Initial experiments using mobile
experiment tool. Besides the use of mobile phones for phones have been described (Dengler, 2003; Falcão et
documentation, experiments with mobile phones for al., 2009; Hammond & Assefa, 2007; Hare, 2011; Kuhn
analysing gravity acceleration and diffraction phenomena of & Vogt, 2012a; Kuhn & Vogt, 2012b; Kuhn & Vogt,
infrared remote controls as well as experiments of the topic 2012c; Kuhn & Vogt, 2013a; Kuhn & Vogt, 2013b;
acoustics are discussed. This paper includes relevant Schwarz et al., 2013; Villa, 2009; Vogt et al., 2011; Vogt
examples of the project “N.E.T.–New Media Experimental & Kuhn, accepted; a summary of currently published
Tools”, which is located within the framework of situated
paper is presented in Kuhn, accepted) 2. Mobile phones
learning theory based on the assumption that the
and smartphones can also be used to search for
authenticity of the media used in experiments has a positive
learning impact on physics instruction. This assumption
information, exchange data, communicate lesson
means that the learning success of the learners with regard to contents, save lesson results and as cognitive tools: as
experimentation in physics lessons is greater, if a physical unit converters or computer algebra systems, for
phenomenon is explored with experimental tools used every example.
day (special focus on new media tools), albeit possibly for
Mobile phones and smartphones are very suitable for
different purposes. The focus of this aspect of research is on
the development of physical experiments using authentic
serving as experimental tools, because they are usually
media of this kind and on the impact of these media on equipped with a number of sensors. For example, most
learning and motivation. of the smartphones involve a microphone as well as
acceleration and field strength sensors, a density of
Keywords
light sensor and a GPS receiver. As all the sensors can
Mobile Phone Applications; Physics Education; Experimental be read by appropriate software (apps), a large number
Tools; Material-Aided Situated Learning Approach of quantitative school experiments can be conducted
with smartphones. 3
Introduction
This paper includes relevant examples of the project
This article provides an overview of possible use and
experiments with mobile phones 1 in physics lessons. programs (so-called applications; short form: apps). As a
result, a smartphone can be seen as a small transportable
1 When referring to “mobile phones” in this context, we mean computer (PDA) with the additional functionality of a mobile
devices whose main function is to enable wireless and phone.
location-independent telephoning; in addition, they communicate 2 Some aspects of different experiments described in this

with the telephone networks via wireless technology and paper are already published as short papers in a special
integrate several simple software applications. “Smartphones”, column of another, relevant peer-review journal (see Kuhn &
on the other hand, are mobile phones, which-alongside their Vogt, 2012b). So for further information we refer to these
function as wireless telephone-provide extensive additional short papers in some cases.
computer functionality and connectivity in comparison to a 3 For details concerning the application of smartphones

traditional modern mobile phone and can be equipped with acceleration sensor in physics lesson: see Vogt and Kuhn
customized functions by the user by installing additional (submitted).

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“N.E.T.–New Media Experimental Tools”, which is preparations (for example, in the next lesson or for
located within the framework of situated learning verification) as many times as required.
theory based on the assumption that alongside the
The recorded video sequences (e.g. of a free-falling
authenticity of the topic, the authenticity of the media
steel ball) can be analysed using appropriate software,
used in experiments has a positive learning impact on
demonstrating that the mobile phone is not only used
physics instruction, thus material-aided situated as a means of documentation, but also as an
learning. Hence, this aspect aims to provide a experiment tool in physics classrooms. Further
theoretical extension or specification of situated possibilities for using the mobile phone as an
learning (aspects to date: thematic, episodic, social; experiment tool are described in the following.
Kuhn & Vogt, 2013a). In concrete terms, this assumption
means that the cognitive and motivational learning
success of the learners with regard to experimentation
in physics lessons is greater, if a physical phenomenon is
explored with experimental tools (in particular with
“(every day) new media”) used every day, albeit
possibly for different purposes.
FIG. 1 RECORDING RESULTS FIG. 2 PHOTOGRAPH OF
The focus of this aspect of research is, first, on the WITH A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE EXPERIMENT SET-UP
development of physical experiments using authentic BOARD USING THE
media of this kind. In a second phase, the impact of INTEGRATED CAMERA
these media on learning and motivation in everyday
physics lessons with quasi-experimental control/test Mobile Phones and Smartphones as
group research design have been investigated. Experimental Tools

Production of an Acoustic Beat

The Mobile Phone as a Means of
Documentation In order to produce an acoustic beat, two mobile
phones, both equipped with an MP3 function, are
The mobile phone and its different functions can be
required to generate tones. A tone with a constant
used in various ways in physics lessons for
frequency is stored on each of the mobile phones
documentation purposes. The dictation function, for
before the experiment 4, whereby the frequencies of the
example, enables the user to effortlessly record
two tones should only differ by several hertz. The
measurements, problems or improvement suggestions
small difference in frequencies ensures that the beat,
during the experiment, which can subsequently be
which results from the interference of the two tones,
integrated in the analysis of the experiment. The
can also be heard with the auditory senses (the beat
camera function, a standard component of almost
frequency, i.e. the number of changes in volume per
every mobile phone nowadays, makes it possible to
time, depends on the difference between the
record the information that has been written on the
frequencies of the two initial tones). In order to
board during the lesson in a time-saving manner
conduct the experiment, the two mobile phones have
(figure 1); in addition, photographs can also be made
to be placed at a short distance from each other and
of experiment set-ups (figure 2). The student can copy
then play the recorded tones with the MP3 function.
the photograph of the board or experiment set-up to
his/her exercise book at home after the lesson, or print In order to analyse the acoustic beat quantitatively
it out and stick it in his/her exercise book. This (beat frequency, frequency of interference), the signal
approach is particularly useful for a single-period can be captured using a microphone and connected to
lesson, as it is frequently the case for the subject of the line-in of a sound card (figure 3). The analysis is
physics. Experience has shown that very often in executed with suitable audio analysis software, e.g.
experiment-based lessons little or no time remains to Audacity 5 or Cool Edit Pro 6 . An example of an
record the lesson’s results thoroughly.
4 The tones can be generated by appropriate software (e.g.
The video function provides a further means of using
with the Software “Audacity” or “Test Tone Generator” (see:
the mobile phone as a means of documentation. It http://www.esseraudio.com/ [07/2013 and transferred via
enables the recording of experiments with only Bluetooth or a USB cable onto the mobile phones.
minimal effort; and students can then watch the videos 5 Audacity(Freeware-Software for analyzing and handling

in order to analyse the experiment or make tones). see: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=de[07/2013]]

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experiment for the initial frequencies f1 = 500 Hz and f2 can be determined very precisely on the basis of the
= 501 Hz is presented in figure 4. resulting Doppler shift, which increases with the
velocity of the fall. The basic experiment set-up can
be seen in figure 6. Attention should be paid to
positioning the microphone immediately next to the
point of impact of the mobile phone; in addition, a
cushion should be placed below the free-falling
device in order to avoid damaging it.

FIG. 3 EXPERIMENT SET-UP FOR THE PRODUCTION OF AN

ACOUSTIC BEAT

FIG. 4 OSCILLOGRAMME FOR AN ACOUSTIC BEAT PRODUCED

BY TWO MOBILE PHONES PRESENTED USING COOL EDIT PRO
AUDIO ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

In order to create a perfect beat, it is important to FIG. 6 EXPERIMENT SET-UP TO DETERMINE G; THE
MICROPHONE CAN BE REPLACED BY A HEADSET OR
ensure that the mobile phones are set at the same
ANOTHER MOBILE PHONE WITH A DICTATION FUNCTION, IF
playback volume and placed at an equal distance from NECESSARY(VOGT ET AL., 2011)
the microphone. It is possible to verify that the
It is even simpler to conduct the experiment with
volumes are the same beforehand by placing one of the
two smartphones installed with suitable tone
mobile phones at a given distance from the
generator apps (e.g. Audio Kit for iOS or FuncGen
microphone and measuring the sound it plays with the for Android); and the initial frequencies can be
audio analysis software. Subsequently, the same easily set and varied using the mobile phone. In
measurement is made for the second mobile phone addition, the analysis of the experiment can be
(figure 5); if necessary, its volume can be adapted performed by the smartphone, which is used as an
according to that of the first mobile phone. oscilloscope (e.g. Oscope Lite for iOS) (figure 6).
The following equation applies to the resulting
Doppler shift ∆f, measured with a PC, with a good
approximation given
v
∆f ≈ f 0 (1)
c
(v velocity of fall of the mobile phone, c speed of
sound in air) and with v= g ⋅ ∆t
FIG. 5 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF AN ACOUSTIC BEAT g ⋅ ∆t
∆f ≈ f 0 (2)
USING A SMARTPHONE c
(∆t fall time).7 If the frequency emitted remains
Determination of the Acceleration of Gravity 7
constant, according to equation (2) ∆f is
1) Set-up and Theoretical Background of the Experiment approximately proportional to ∆t and the quotient
f0 ⋅ g
If a free-falling mobile phone emits a tone4 with a (3)
constant frequency f0, the acceleration of gravity g c
can be considered the slope m of a straight line.
6 Cool Edit Pro (Shareware-Software for analyzing and After having recorded the measurements and
handling tones; see: http://de.brothersoft.com/Cool-Edit-Pro- determined the linear equation by means of a linear
126679.html [07/2013] regression, the resulting slope can be used to
7 Further information: see Vogt et al. (2011). calculate the acceleration of gravity. This is

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performed with the following equation The application of a linear regression results in a
m⋅c linear equation
g≈ (4)
f0 1
= ∆f 115 2 ⋅ ∆t − 2.1 Hz , (5)
s
2) Analysis of the Experiment
with an adjusted coefficient of determination of 0.98
Figure 7 shows a measurement example for a and a slope error of ± 2 s-2. The application of the
mobile phone falling from a height of approx. 2.20 numerical values (4) results in a speed of sound in
meters, emitting a 4 kHz tone 8 . The measured air of 344 ms-1 (at 20 °C) and gravitational
values underlying the presentation can be read acceleration as
from the graph or conveniently exported as a TXT m
=g ( 9.9 ± 0.2 ) 2 . (6)
data file. A graphic presentation of the time- s
dependent Doppler shift can be seen in figure 8; in This shows that by applying the described
accordance with theory (2), the change of frequency procedure gravity can be determined with an
∆f is clearly proportional to the fall time ∆t. acceptable degree of accuracy for school instruction.
The literature value of 9.81 ms-2 is located within
the error margin of the measurement.
An additional experiment to determine gravity,
which makes use of the acceleration sensors
integrated into smartphones, is described in Vogt
and Kuhn (submitted).

The Mobile Phone Makes Infrared Radiation Visible 10

The CCD chips used in digital cameras are also
sensitive to electromagnetic waves in the near infrared
range; and this property can be used to demonstrate
FIG. 7 THE PROGRESSION OF FREQUENCY RECORDED BY THE interesting diffraction phenomena with simple
MICROPHONE, PRESENTED WITH SPEAR EVALUATION
everyday objects (Catelli et al., 2011; Kuhn & Vogt,
SOFTWARE 9 (VOGT ET AL., 2011)
2012a; Williams, 2006). Alongside a mobile phone with
a camera function, the objects required for the
experiment are an infrared remote control, a diffraction
grating with a suitable grating constant, e.g. 50 lines
per millimetre (alternatively regular CDs or low-cost
grating film can be used as reflection grating).

FIG. 8 RESULT OF THE LINEAR REGRESSION (VOGT ET AL., 2011)

FIG. 9 EXPERIMENT SET-UP
TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS
OF THE DIFFRACTION FIG. 10 DIFFRACTION IMAGE ON
8 As the Doppler shift increases with the initial frequency (∆f IMAGES WITH A MOBILE THE MOBILE PHONE DISPLAY
∼ f0), it makes sense to use the highest possible frequencies in PHONE (KUHN & VOGT, 2012A)
order to facilitate the analysis with the evaluation software
and reduce the relative error. The frequency response of the 1) Qualitative Experiments
mobile phone speaker and the microphone used imposes a
The experiment set-up is very simple (figure 9): The
limit on the transmitted frequency, which is why, if data
specifications are not available, it is necessary to conduct user shines the remote control onto the camera lens,
experiments beforehand to determine the ideal initial whilst holding the optical grid directly in front of
frequency for the experimental design. the lens.
9 SPEAR (Freeware-Software for analyzing dynamical
spactra). see: http://www.klingbeil.com/spear/ [07/2013] 10 Further information: see Kuhn and Vogt (2012a)

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The diffraction images can be photographed using

the mobile phone (figure 10) and exported to a PC
to be printed out and stuck in the pupils’ exercise
books. In figure 11 the image on the left was
produced by an optical grid with 50 lines per
millimetre and the image on the right by a grating
film with 900 lines per millimetre.

FIG. 12 DIFFRACTION IMAGE TO

DETERMINE THE WAVELENGTH OF
INFRARED RADIATION PRODUCED
BY A REMOTE CONTROL
FIG. 13 GEOMETRY OF
(MEASURING UNIT AT THE BOTTOM
THE EXPERIMENT
RIGHT) (KUHN & VOGT, 2012A)
SET-UP
A measurement example performed for a remote
control of the brand Benq (S/N: CT050606055) with
an optical grid with the constants g = 1.25⋅10-5 m
generates the following results: l´ = 0.77 m, n = 2 and
s‘2 = 11.5 cm. If the numerical values are inserted
into (9), the wavelength of the infrared diode λ is
calculated to be λ ≈ 930 nm . The wavelength of this
FIG. 11 DIFFRACTION IMAGES PRODUCED BY AN INFRARED particular infrared diode could, unfortunately, not
REMOTE CONTROL AND OPTICAL GRIDS, PHOTOGRAPHED be ascertained; however, the value resulting from
WITH A MOBILE PHONE CAMERA (KUHN & VOGT, 2012A) the experiment lies within the usual wavelength
2) Quantitative experiments range for the infrared diodes used in remote
controls (900 nm – 1200 nm).
In order to determine the wavelength of the
infrared radiation produced by a remote control,
Summary and Outlook
the experimental design is adjusted as in figure 9,
introducing a measuring unit at the same height as Alongside the well-known negative effects of mobile
the remote control for comparison. The grid and phones on everyday school life, modern mobile phones
mobile phone must be adjusted so that the infrared can be used to enhance physics instruction in school in
radiation hits the grid and the interference image many ways, e.g. in order to obtain information, to
can be seen on the mobile phone display together document experiments and to perform experiments
with the measuring unit (figure 12). After having when used as an experiment tool. In addition to
taken the photograph, the wavelength of the several simple and obvious experiments (e.g. “infrared
infrared radiation can be calculated with the help of
diffraction”–to produce diffraction images with the
geometric measurements from figure 13 and the
help of an infrared remote control), more complex
formula for constructive interference as follows:
experiments can also be conducted with mobile phones
n⋅λ
sin α = (7) (e.g. experiments to determine gravity or experiments
g
making use of the navigation function).
(with n: side lobe; λ: wavelength; g: grating constant).
In order to increase the number of applications for
As the values sn and l are difficult to determine, the
mobile phones in physics instruction, on the one hand,
geometric relationships of the experiment (figure 13)
additional new experiments should be developed; and
together with the theorem on intersecting lines
this involves continually scanning the relevant
result in:
databases of free commercial mobile phone applications
sn sn,
= (8) (including, for example, the available apps for
l l´ Smartphones). On the other hand, it is necessary to
sinα ≈ tanα (for small α) results from(8): investigate the impact of this material-aided situated
g ⋅ sn, learning approach on learning and motivation and to
λ= (9)
evaluate which factor might make an used material of
,
n ⋅l

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an experiment more successful than another, or in everyday devices.” European Journal of Physics
other words: to evaluate a degree of material-aided Education 4 (1), 16-27, 2013a.
situatedness. A first quasi-experimental pilot study
Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. “Analyzing Acoustic
indicates positive effects of this media on learning and
self-efficacy (Kuhn & Vogt, accepted). Phenomena with a Smartphone Microphone.” Phys.
Teach. 51, 118-119, 2013b.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. „Smartphone & Co.” in
We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Oliver Schwarz Physics Education: “Effects of Learning with New Media
(University of Siegen) for the useful indication that Experimental Tools in Acoustics.” In Kauertz, A., and
diffraction images can easily be made visible with the
Ludwig, H., and Müller, A., and Pretsch, J., and Schnotz,
use of an infrared remote control and a digital camera.
W. (Eds.). “Multiple Perspecitves on Teaching and
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waves generated by a mobile phone.” Phys. Educ. 45 481– Jochen Kuhn finished his university
6, 2011. training to be a teacher for Physics and
Mathematics in 1998 at the University of
Kuhn, Jochen. “Relevant information about using a mobile
Koblenz-Landau, where he completed
phone acceleration sensor in physics experiments.” Am. J. his PhD-Thesis in physics and physics
Phys. 81 (eccepted). education in 2002, too. In addition to
Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. “Analyzing Diffraction graduation he had been working as high
school teacher for over eight years before
Phenomena of Infrared Remote Controls.” Phys. Teach.
he became a scientific assistant at the physics education
50, 118-119, 2012a. group of Prof. Dr. Andreas Müller (current position:
Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. (Eds.). “iPhysicsLabs.” Phys. Professor at the University of Geneva) at the University of
Teach. 50ff. Column started on February 2012b. Koblenz-Landau in 2008. After finishing his habilitation
thesis there in 2009, he received different offers as full
Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. “Analyzing spring
professor in Germany and Switzerland in 2011. Since 2012 he
pendulum phenomena with a smartphone acceleration has been full professor and head of the Physics Education
sensor.” Phys. Teach. 50, 504-505, 2012c. Group at the University of Kaiserslautern. His current
research interests focus on using smartphones and tablet PC
Kuhn, Jochen, and Vogt, Patrik. “Smartphones as
as experimental tools in physics education and in university
experimental tools: Different methods to determine the courses, on teaching and learning in school labs as well as on
gravitational acceleration in classroom physics by using context-based science education.

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Patrik Vogt was born in 1978 in After graduation, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the
Germany. Hе got the university degree in University of Koblenz-Landau and Kaiserslautern, then
Physics and Mathematics (junior high assistant professor at the University of Education Schwäbisch
school teacher) at the University of Gmünd. He is currently lecturer at the University of
Koblenz-Landau in 2003. During 2003- Education Freiburg and teaches physics and didactics of
2010 he worked as a teacher in Herxheim physics. His current research interests include context-based
and Kandel and received the Ph.D. degree physics instruction, use of smartphones as an experimental
in the field of physics education in 2010. tool and Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio phenomena.

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