The "WOW..." Effect in Physics Education: Using the Singing Tesla Tower as a teaching tool in physics class room.


  Ronen Mir  ,  Benjamin Klingman  
Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Center

One of the core foundations of how we teach physics at the Schwartz/Reisman center for science education is to bring the physics outside of the textbooks and equations to measure and explain the physical world. Demonstration in physics can be placed on a spectrum bounded by the following two extremes. The "WOW…" affect at one extreme and the "AHA" affect at the other. In The "AHA" affect the visual stimuli of the demonstration "fills a hole" in our understanding of the phenomena and usually needs no additional explanation. The demonstration is self-explanatory. The "WOW..." affect does the opposite, it usually creates a dissonance between our understanding of the phenomena and the reality of what has occurred during the demonstration. The singing tesla tower is a special device we use to demonstrate different physics phenomena, including Power transformation, High Voltage, Faraday cage, and resonance. In this presentation, you will experience a demonstration of the Singing Tesla Tower and we will discuss the benefits of such a demonstration.