String and Sticky Tape Experiments

This handbook describes physics experiments that are constructed with only the simplest and least expensive materials: rubber bands, tape, paper clips, chalk, etc.

The experiments, though simple, demonstrate fundamental physics laws in a practical way. The experiments are divided into 11 sections: mechanics, properties of matter, hydrodynamics, heat, wave motion, light, sound, atomic and nuclear physics, solid state and crystallography, electrostatics, and magnetism.

Each experiment is rated by difficulty level (elementary, high school, or university), and includes many illustrations.

Ronald Edge has served physics education with a many-faceted career. He earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge, and became Professor of Physics at the University of South Carolina, where he is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His research has been in experimental nuclear physics, with an interest in the measurement of slow neutron radiation and meson physics. Ron served The Physics Teacher on the editorial board and as section editor of the String and Sticky Tape column.