Desarrollo de habilidades relacionadas con el uso de los ordenadores como herramienta para resolver problemas en el primer curso de física para ingeniería

[ES] Es usual encontrar tres asignaturas en el primer año de las carreras de ingenierías técnicas, es decir: cálculo, física general y programación. Como la física se encuentra en la base de conocimiento de las ingenierías técnicas, es naturalmente apropiada la introducción del Cálculo y la Programación como valiosas herramientas en el contexto de un problema de Física. Esto se puede lograr trasladando algunas Clases Prácticas de Física (dedicadas a la solución de problemas) hacia el laboratorio de ordenadores y por medio de una reformulación del problema, de modo que sea más adecuado para este tipo de situaciones computacionales. En este entorno, los estudiantes logran reunir, por ejemplo, herramientas de programación y métodos numéricos, junto con las leyes de la Física, con el objetivo de abordar modelos más realistas, diferentes de los que usualmente se tratan comúnmente en el pizarrón. Este tipo de problema computacional de Física incrementa la motivación de los estudiantes de ingeniería por medio de una imbibición en escenarios cuyos modelos son más cercanos a los problemas reales que ellos enfrentarán luego en el desempeño profesional y científico. Este hecho es particularmente relevante para el primer año de las carreras de ingeniería donde el desarrollo de habilidades profesionales es obviado y relegado para años superiores. En el presente trabajo ilustraremos estas ideas a través del conocido problema del "Movimiento del un cuerpo sujeto a la fuerza de arrastre del aire". Las ideas básicas de este trabajo han sido experimentadas en el curso de física de primer año de la carrera de telecomunicaciones y electrónica de la Universidad de Pinar del Río, Cuba en el año 2010.[EN] Usually one can find three subjects in the first year of the syllabus of any technical engineering career, namely, calculus, general physics and programming. Being physics a matter lying on the grounds of technical engineering it becomes naturally appropriate to introduce the use of calculus and programming as useful tools in the context of a physics problem. This can be accomplished by moving some Practical Classes of Physics (problem solving) into the computer pool and by reformulating the physics problems in order to make them more appropriate for this kind of approach. In this environment, students put together, for instance, programming tools and numerical methods, along with the physical laws in order to address more realistic models, diferent from those which can usually be treated on the blackboard. This kind of computational physics problems increases the motivation of the engineering students by embedding them into sceneries whose models are closer to those real problems they will be facing later in their professional and scientific life. This is particularly relevant for the first year of the engineering careers when the development of this kind of professional skills is usually skipped. In the present work we will illustrate these ideas by means of the known problem of "The motion of a body subject to air drag force". The basic ideas of this work have been experienced in the physics course of first year undergraduate students of telecommunication and electronics engineering of Pinar del Río University, Cuba in 2010.We would like to thank the Department of physics of Pinar del R´ıo University, Cuba for the application of this problem in its teaching process. This work has been partially supported by the Universitat Polit`ecnica de Val`encia under APICID funds and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) under the grant DPI2008- 02953. 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Theoretical and experimental study of the normal modes in a coupled two-dimensional system

[EN] In this work, the normal modes of a two-dimensional oscillating system have been studied from a theoretical and experimental point of view. The normal frequencies predicted by the Hessian matrix for a coupled two-dimensional particle system are compared to those obtained for a real system consisting of two oscillating smartphones coupled one to the other by springs. Experiments are performed on an air table in order to largely reduce the friction forces. The oscillation data are captured by the acceleration sensor of the smartphones and exported to file for further analysis. The experimental frequencies compare reasonably well with the theoretical predictions, specifically, within 1.7% of discrepancy.The authors would like to thank the Institute of Educational Sciences of the Universitat Politecnica de Val ` encia (Spain) ` for the support of the Teaching Innovation Groups MoMa and e-MACAF and for the financial support through the Project PIME 2015 B18. The authors would also like to thank Mrs Janet Anne Handcock for kindly revising the manuscript as a native English speaker.Giménez Valentín, MH.; Castro-Palacio, J.; Gómez-Tejedor, JA.; Velázquez, L.; Monsoriu Serra, JA. (2017). Theoretical and experimental study of the normal modes in a coupled two-dimensional system. Revista Mexicana de Fisica E. 63:100-106. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/99643S1001066

The Smartphone as a Sound Level Meter: Visualizing Acoustical Beats

[EN] Acoustics is a topic in first year Physics courses for engineering students. In this respect, we present in this work a simple experiment to study acoustic beat phenomenon. The superposition of sound waves of slightly different frequencies is captured with the microphone of a smartphone which is placed equidistantly from two speakers which are connected at the same time to AC generators. The smartphone is used here as a measuring instrument. Data registered from the sound level versus time were collected and exported to a «.csv» file for further analysis by means of a free Android application. Based on these data and applying a simple graphing analysis the frequency of the beat was determined and compared with the frequency difference set at the AC generators. Percentage discrepancies within 1% were obtained. This indicates the efficacy of the method used.The authors would like to thank the Institute of Education Sciences of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), for the support to the research groups on teaching innovation MoMa and e-MACAFI and for supporting the Project PIME/2015/B18 which gave rise to this workSalinas Marín, I.; Gimenez Valentin, MH.; Castro-Palacio, J.; Gómez-Tejedor, J.; Monsoriu Serra, JA. (2017). The Smartphone as a Sound Level Meter: Visualizing Acoustical Beats. Tecnica Industrial. 318:34-38. https://doi.org/10.23800/9948S343831

Characterization of linear light sources with the smartphone's ambient light sensor

The authors would like to thank the Institute of Educational Sciences of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) for the support of the Teaching Innovation Groups MoMa and e-MACAFI.Salinas Marín, I.; Gimenez Valentin, MH.; Monsoriu Serra, JA.; Castro-Palacio, J. (2018). Characterization of linear light sources with the smartphone's ambient light sensor. The Physics Teacher. 56(8):562-563. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5064575S56256356

Using a smartphone acceleration sensor to study uniform and uniformly accelerated circular motions

The acceleration sensor of a smartphone is used for the study of the uniform and uniformly accelerated circular motions in two experiments. Data collected from both experiments are used for obtaining the angular velocity and the angular acceleration, respectively. Results obtained with the acceleration sensor are shown to be in good agreement with alternative methods, like using video recordings of both experiments and a physical model of the second experiment.Castro-Palacio, JC.; Velazquez, L.; Gómez-Tejedor, JA.; Manjón Herrera, FJ.; Monsoriu Serra, JA. (2014). Using a smartphone acceleration sensor to study uniform and uniformly accelerated circular motions. Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Fisica. 36(2):2315-2315. doi:10.1590/S1806-11172014000200015S2315231536