Collection of Experimental Problems in Physics: From the Indian National Physics Olympiads Suitable for Practical Training in Experimental Physics

The book contains 29 ‘experimental problems’ (or experiments presented as problems) in Physics based on concepts and situations from mechanics, electricity, magnetism, optics, and electronics. The experimental problems have been developed over the last several years at the Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (HBCSE), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India, for training and evaluation of students in experimental physics under the Indian National Physics Olympiad Programme. The experimental problems, in our opinion are suitable for practical training in experimental physics at the Olympiads, higher secondary, and undergraduate levels and several of them can be performed in a high school, junior college, or undergraduate physics laboratory. In all our programmes over last several years, a large number of students and teachers have found the experimental problems interesting and really enjoyed performing the experiments and thus ‘solving’ the problems, as much as we enjoyed designing and developing them.

The book has been divided in four chapters. Each chapter describes a set of experimental problems from a specific area in Introductory Physics. Appendix A gives a list of useful books for training in Experimental Physics. This book is useful for students and teachers to work on and introduce innovative experimental problems at higher secondary and undergraduate levels or to prepare for Indian National Physics Olympiad.