Smartphone camera experiments
16 classroom-tested activities with the free FizziQ app, for middle and high school, high school, middle school.
The camera is both a colour sensor and a motion sensor. FizziQ uses it as a colorimeter, as a photoplethysmography sensor with the flash, and as the source of frame-by-frame video analysis. Instruments in FizziQ: colorimeter, video kinematics module, chronophotography. Read the glossary entry on the camera.
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
- Additive RGB color mixing Middle and high school 25 min
One smartphone acts as a colored light source and another as a colorimeter: with the FizziQ camera in RGB mode, students verify the rules of additive color mixing.
- Aerodynamics of a shuttlecock High school 40 min
Frame by frame, students track a badminton shuttlecock in the FizziQ Kinematics module, compare its path to a parabola and quantify aerodynamic drag. High school.
- Parabolic trajectory: basketball High school 40 min
High school students track a basketball shot frame by frame in FizziQ's Kinematics module on a smartphone, then fit a parabola to verify projectile motion.
- Elastic collision: billiards High school 40 min
A video study of a billiard ball collision: with FizziQ's Kinematics module on a smartphone, high school students measure velocities and test energy conservation.
- Center of gravity of a diver Middle and high school 40 min
Students locate a diver's center of gravity frame by frame with FizziQ's Kinematics module on a smartphone and show it traces a parabola, from middle school up.
- Cycloid of a rolling wheel High school 40 min
Using FizziQ's kinematics module on smartphone or tablet, students track a point on a rolling bicycle wheel and compare the curve to the cycloid equations.
- Measuring g by video analysis High school 40 min
Frame-by-frame tracking of a ball's parabolic flight in FizziQ's kinematics module on smartphone gives high school students two independent measurements of g.
- Colorimetry of autumn leaves Middle school 30 min
Middle school students measure the RGB components of autumn leaves with the FizziQ smartphone colorimeter and follow chlorophyll breakdown from green to red.
- Hammer throw: v = ω × r High school 40 min
Tracking a hammer throw video frame by frame in FizziQ's kinematics module on smartphone or tablet, students measure release speed and test v = ω × r.
- Mechanical energy of a pendulum High school 40 min
Frame-by-frame tracking of a pendulum in FizziQ's kinematics module lets high school students compute kinetic and potential energy and verify their constant sum.
- Elastic shock: Newton's cradle Middle and high school 35 min
Video kinematics of a Newton's cradle: track the balls frame by frame in FizziQ on smartphone or tablet to compare momentum and kinetic energy around impact.
- Photoplethysmography of a finger Middle and high school 25 min
The phone camera and its LED become a photoplethysmography sensor: the FizziQ colorimeter records green light variations and yields heart rate, on smartphone.
- Pole vault: energy balance High school 40 min
Frame by frame, students track a vaulter's centre of gravity and compute kinetic, elastic and potential energy. FizziQ kinematics module, on smartphone or tablet.
- Speed of a skier on video Middle school 35 min
Point by point on a downhill video, students read horizontal and vertical velocity, then combine them with Pythagoras. FizziQ kinematics module, on smartphone.
- Trajectory of a football shot Middle school 30 min
Using a chronophotograph of a kicked football, students track the ball in FizziQ's kinematics module on smartphone or tablet and show the motion is not uniform.
- Falcon 9 landing kinematics High school 35 min
Students track a Falcon 9 first stage frame by frame in FizziQ's kinematics module on smartphone or tablet, plot velocity and analyse the braking burn strategy.
Other sensors
accelerometer · microphone · magnetometer · barometer · gyroscope · light sensor · GPS · external sensors