Measuring the coefficient of restitution and more: a simple experiment to promote students’ critical thinking and autonomous work

Abstract

Abstract A simple experiment on the determination of the coefficient of restitution of different materials is taken as the basis of an extendable work that can be done by the students in an autonomous way. On the whole, the work described in this paper would involve concepts of kinematics, materials science, air drag and buoyancy, and would help students to think of physics as a whole subject instead of a set of, more or less, isolated parts. The experiment can be done either in teaching laboratories or as an autonomous work by students at home. Students’ smartphones and cheap balls of different materials are the only experimental materials required to do the experiment. The proposed work also permits the students to analyse the limitations of a physical model used in the experiment by analysing the approximations considered in it, and then enhancing their critical thinking.