Smartphone barometer and pressure experiments
6 classroom-tested activities with the free FizziQ app, for middle and high school, high school.
Most recent phones have a barometric pressure sensor, precise to a few pascals. FizziQ reads it as a barometer and as a barometric altimeter. Instruments in FizziQ: barometer, altimeter. Read the glossary entry on the barometer.
Each activity below has a protocol, expected results, scientific background, a printable PDF handout and a QR code that opens it directly in the app. FizziQ is free on iOS and Android, needs no account, and shows no advertising.
Activities
- Barometric altimetry Middle and high school 30 min
By recording pressure floor by floor with a smartphone barometer in FizziQ, students see how it falls with altitude and derive their own altimetry formula.
- Elevator speed by barometer Middle and high school 15 min
By recording air pressure during a ride, students reconstruct the elevator's altitude profile in FizziQ and calculate its speed from smartphone barometer data.
- Ideal gas law by barometer High school 30 min
A smartphone sealed in a jar records pressure with the FizziQ barometer as temperature changes, verifying Gay-Lussac's law and estimating absolute zero. High school.
- G-forces on a roller coaster High school 45 min
A smartphone zipped in a pocket logs G-forces, rotation and pressure during the ride. Back in class, FizziQ data gives the altitude profile and weightless phases.
- Rate of climb in flight High school 20 min
During a flight, students log GPS altitude with the FizziQ smartphone app, calculate the airliner's rate of climb and compare it with the world's fastest elevator.
- Depressurization by barometer High school 20 min
A smartphone barometer records the pressure drop when an aircraft toilet flushes; with FizziQ, students apply the Boyle-Mariotte law to estimate the air evacuated.
Other sensors
accelerometer · microphone · magnetometer · gyroscope · light sensor · camera · GPS · external sensors