Some people liked physics lab ..

March 16, 2025 12:34 PM

You might need a cuvette or that plastic scintillator or photomultiplier that you've always wanted, but someone else has already written up the lab report in English or Italian, illustrated the setup, graphed the results, and done the math.

Lodovico Lappetito presents over two hundred amateur experiments on topics ranging from cosmic rays through sudden ionosphere disturbances to intriguingly simple quantum physics demonstrations.

posted by the Real Dan (5 comments total)

Is there one for the thing with two vertical antennae with a flowy spark between them going zzt… zzt… zzt?

Those things are cool.
posted by Lemkin at 12:55 PM on March 16 [1 favorite]

Is there one for the thing with two vertical antennae with a flowy spark between them going zzt… zzt… zzt?

Those things are cool.

That is a Jacob's Ladder, which Popular Science does have directions to build!
posted by thegears at 1:02 PM on March 16 [1 favorite]

I've been reading a lot about DIY EEGs lately, so this DIY ECG looked pretty interesting (hearts are so much easier to measure than brains)!
posted by mittens at 1:05 PM on March 16

Lemkin,

As a kid I saw the Frankenstein movie, and all that stuff, especially the Jacob’s Ladder with the spark going made me want to go into science. But, I ended up somewhere else, but that’s what I thought scientists did. (Having seen a lot of labs, it actually looks kind of dull. )
posted by njohnson23 at 1:39 PM on March 16 [1 favorite]

They are dangerous but if you trust yourself to be careful and can keep it away from kids, I must recommend building a jacob's ladder for yourself. They are absolutely as cool as you think they're going to be.
posted by phooky at 3:58 PM on March 16