‘It’s easy to study standing waves using an electric toothbrush and a rubber band’

The development of experimental skills is vital for physics students, but how can you introduce them to the subject if you don’t have a lab at your disposal? Lecturers at Utrecht University have proven that one can go a long way using items you can find about the house.

At home

Conduct a lab study on the topic of waves or optics and come up with the installation yourself; that was the assignment given to first-year students at the start of the Waves and Optics course in block 4. That might not seem unusual at first glance, if it weren’t for the fact that the students had to conduct the experiment at home, without laboratory facilities. The new approach was a resounding success, according to lecturers Elena Popa and Rupert Holzinger: “Students came up with some really fun ideas.”

Fun and creative ideas

Some students, for example, tried to understand what it takes to photograph a black hole or to detect the background microwave radiation, or they looked into medical imaging or atmospheres of exoplanets. Yet others chose for real, practical experiments: using a laser on a canal in Amsterdam to figure out if the Earth is flat or not, making plasma in a microwave oven, building a home-made spectrometer to measure absorption lines or measuring the harmonic spectrum of a guitar. 

I really enjoyed having so much freedom

More freedom

Students Tim de Greef and Jochem Lange were enthusiastic about the course: “I really enjoyed having so much freedom”, says Jochem. “Normally, we’d copy an installation in a lab, but now we were able create everything ourselves.” Via Teams, Niels Hoogendoorn and Erik Griffioen also excitedly explain the installation they built at home. “It’s all a bit more difficult, since there’s no supervisor looking over your shoulder, but it’s a lot more fun”, says Niels.

Lego and a shaving mirror

Niels and Erik wanted to create a Schlieren photo of sound. To do that, they used a shaving mirror and a tea light. The tone generator needed for the experiment, they borrowed from the university. Lego came in very handy for Tim and Jochem’s installation. They wanted to capture the movements caused by a drop falling into silicon gel using the camera on their smartphone. “We noticed that we had to hold the camera very still. With Lego, we were able to build a holder that fit perfectly.”

Letterbox parcels around the world

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, some UCU students who also enrolled in the course, have found themselves stuck in their home countries around the world, in Spain for example. Or India. Consequently, they were unable to pick up essential instruments or materials from campus. Instead, lecturer Nadine van der Heijden sent them letterbox parcels filled with essential supplies for building two experimental installations. That required some creativity, but the result is exceptional: “It’s relatively easy to research standing waves using an electric toothbrush and a rubber band, for example. And you can study diffraction patterns using only a simple laser pen and one of your own hairs.”