The development of pupils´ Science process skills at secondary school

[EN] As an integral part of physics education, we consider the development of pupils´ SPS. The aim of our survey is the development of selected pupils´ SPS - predicting and formulating hypotheses on the age level 14- 16 years. As an endeavour to meet such a goal, we prepared and included specific activities, which requires to make predictions or formulate hypotheses, and also we included physics experiments planned by students themselves in physics education. The process of preparation of specific activities for the development of selected SPS is described below. Reason for the inclusion of physics experiment planned by students themselves in physics education is that formulating hypotheses or prediction is one of the planning stages of a physics experiment. In the second part of our contribution, we present our experiences with utilization of specially designed activities and with the implementation physics experiments planned by students themselves. In the last part, we present a Hypotheses quality scale, a tool for the comparison of students´ hypotheses, to compare how they formulate hypotheses in the first, second and third activity in a series. We also made a comparison between hypotheses formulated in activities prepared by the teacher and hypotheses formulated for experiments planned by pupils themselves.Demkanin, P.; Klinovská, L.; Horváth, P. (2020). The development of pupils´ Science process skills at secondary school. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 149-157. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10113OCS14915

Measuring the Permeability of Vacuum Using a Smartphone

[EN] The paper offers a few activities for high school students which use the magnetometer of a smartphone to measure the value of magnetic fields. The first part of the paper deals with finding the magnetometer of the used smartphone. Following is the first selection of activities which are focused on discovering the equation for measuring the magnetic field of coil with a negligible length, while the second selection of activities use the discovered equation to measure the permeability of vacuum and finally to measure the magnetic field of the earth. Sample results of the experiments are given, showing the accuracy and effectiveness of the conducted experiments. The activities offer teachers a novel way for teaching the equation for calculating the magnetic field of a coil, as well as measuring the permeability of vacuum in a classroom environment.This paper was elaborated with the support of the project VEGA no. 1/0396/18Wannous, J.; Horváth, P. (2021). Measuring the Permeability of Vacuum Using a Smartphone. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 63-70. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11811OCS637

A Momentum-First Approach to Teaching Force in High School

[EN] A common conception that students have in mechanics courses is that a force is needed to maintain motion. Our work approaches this problem from a p-prim perspective with a comparison to the historical understanding of force. From a p-prims perspective, momentum is proposed to substitute force as a maintaining agency to motion. By a comparison with history, it is shown that a similar problem occurred in the development of the concept of force, which led to a similar solution to the one proposed in our work. As a result, a teaching plan and activities are prepared to introduce the concept of force through the concept of momentum. In this work, the main activities of the plan are discussed, as well as the results of a preliminary research based on its realization in a classroom.This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency, project Science curriculum 2020 (Grant number APVV-14-0070).Wannous, J.; Horváth, P. (2020). A Momentum-First Approach to Teaching Force in High School. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 35-42. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10059OCS354

Low-Dimensional Life of Critical Anderson Electron

We show that critical Anderson electron in 3 dimensions is present in its spatial effective support, which was recently determined to be a region of fractal dimension $\approx \! 8/3$, with probability 1 in infinite volume. Hence, its physics is fully confined to space of this lower dimension. Stated differently, effective description of space occupied by critical Anderson electron becomes a full description in infinite volume. We then show that it is a general feature of the effective counting dimension underlying these concepts, that its subnominal value implies an exact description by effective support.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; v2: fixes minor glitches; v3: published versio

Measuring the Speed of Light in Water Using a CD

[EN] The paper describes a simple method of measuring the speed of light in water using the wave properties of light. The tools used are a compact disk (CD), an aquarium, a laser pointer and a ruler. The key tool is a CD of which the reflective layer has been scratched off. Using the comparison method, we compare the speed of light in water with the already known speed of light in air. The measurement itself will be realized using a ruler and a graph paper. Other than measuring the speed of light in water, the activities offers an experimental proof that during light refraction the wavelength of the light changes while the frequency remains constant, which is an important but not trivial fact about refraction.This work was supported by project VEGA 2/0016/16.Horváth, P.; Wannous, J. (2020). Measuring the Speed of Light in Water Using a CD. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 43-51. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10081OCS435

The Dynamics of the Hungarian Hyperinflation, 1945-6: A New Perspective

From late 1945 through the middle of 1946, Hungary experienced the most gigantic inflation of modern history. But in August 1946, the astronomical price increases stopped, and lasting price stability followed. Indeed, the contrast is so dramatic that it is viewed by some as an economic miracle surpassing even the post-war German Wirschaftswunder. On the surface, the Hungarian hyperinflation, which witnessed a depreciation of the currency unit, the pengo of about 10-27, seems a kind of madness that raises two interlinked questions: First, how could such a fantastic destruction in the value of a currency take place, and second, what possible motive could anyone have for creating this inflation or at least for allowing it to happen