Measurements Topic

Basic Units

Concept 3 demos

Brass cylindrical 1 kg mass, wooden meter stick, and large Thompson timer with 60-second dial displayed on a green demonstration table

Units of Measurement

Introduces fundamental SI base units (kilogram, meter, second) using physical examples, then builds derived units (joule, watt) through a concrete calculation: raising 1 kg by 1 m in 1 s …

White tubular frame forming a one-meter cube, with three bottom edges marked by orange-white striped decimeter intervals and blue tape at the corners

One-Meter Cube

A physical one-meter cube helps students visualize the SI unit of volume and the three-dimensional nature of derived units. Three edges from a common vertex are marked in decimeters, forming …

Four identical 473 mL translucent plastic bottles filled with different materials — one with pennies, one with white powder — arranged around an Ohaus Scout Pro 4000g digital scale

Density Samples

Identical 473 mL bottles filled with different materials are weighed to show that equal volumes can have very different masses. Students see directly that density is an intrinsic property of …

Coordinate Systems

Concept 3 demos

Wooden block with three color-coded orthogonal arrows: green arrow pointing up, blue arrow pointing right, and red arrow pointing toward the viewer

XYZ Coordinate Axes

A physical 3D model of the Cartesian coordinate system for establishing axis conventions, demonstrating the right-hand rule, and illustrating coordinate transformations. Hold it in your hand and rotate along a …

Telescoping metal antenna mounted via a hinged bracket to a vertical tube on a ring stand rod, shown extended horizontally

Spherical Polar Coordinates

A manipulable apparatus demonstrates spherical polar coordinates. Students see how each coordinate independently specifies a degree of freedom in 3D space, building intuition for coordinate systems used throughout mechanics, E&M, …

Dark slate globe with white latitude and longitude grid lines, mounted on a metal meridian arc bracket with ornamental cast iron pedestal base

Spherical Chalkboard

A slate globe with writable chalkboard surface and pre-printed latitude/longitude grid lines. Use it to discuss spherical coordinates, great circle paths, and planetary axial tilt — the adjustable mounting bracket …

Vectors

Concept 1 demo

Five magnetic arrows on a blackboard arranged tip-to-tail in a closed polygon: three white arrows, one blue arrow (bottom left), and one red arrow (right side)

Magnetic Vectors

Brightly colored magnetic arrows attach to a blackboard to visually demonstrate vector addition and subtraction. Students see tip-to-tail addition, closed vector loops, and how multiple vectors combine to form a …

Math Topics

Concept 2 demos

Bicycle wheel rim (no tire) with silver spokes mounted vertically on a rod via the axle, with a pink flag marker on one spoke near the top and a bench clamp at the base

Radian Wheel

Provides a physical demonstration that a circle's circumference equals approximately 6.28 radii , giving students an intuitive understanding of why there are radians in a full rotation. Essential groundwork for …

Clear glass Klein bottle with neck curving upward in a loop and passing back through the body wall into the interior, with volume markings in mL on the bulbous base

Klein Bottle

A glass Klein bottle provides a tangible example of a non-orientable surface -- one with no distinct inside or outside. It introduces dimensionality and topology, illustrating how 4D mathematical objects …

Scaling

Concept 2 demos

White painted wooden blocks assembled into a cube with additional flat slabs placed on the visible faces, showing the extra surface area needed when scaling up

Expansion Blocks

Wooden blocks that stack together show how surface area scales as and volume as when linear dimensions scale by. Place additional blocks on the faces of the base cube to …

Large clear acrylic sphere nearly full of yellow-green and orange tennis balls, resting on a cork ring base

Scaling Sphere

Challenges students' volume intuition: a clear sphere holds far more tennis balls than most people estimate. Students predict how many balls (or what fraction of two buckets) will fit, then …