Measurement of gravity in laboratories for fundamental physics using mobile devices: An approach from the Internet of Things

Abstract

In this work, we present IoT, a freeware application for Android mobile devices that belongs to the remote laboratory platform called IoT.PhysicsSensor Mobile Edition. It incorporates the potentialities of the IoT to acquire, store, visualize, and analyze data using smartphones. This application, integrated into low-cost hardware, can be used to conduct online and real-time laboratory practices. Additionally, hundreds of users can be connected to the lab without limiting their participation due to the physical location or equipment available in the facilities. To test the capabilities of the architecture proposed in this work, a practice to measure the value for the acceleration of gravity from a free-fall experience was designed. A group of 101 students from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Medellin and another of 63 students from Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede de La Paz, Cesar, participated in the practice, thus obtaining results with a high degree of accuracy and precision and excellent reproducibility. This platform is emerging as a critical tool to face the digital transformation of educational environments, including those generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.