Cronpes: time measurement device suitable for teaching experimental physics in Brazil

Abstract

Several public schools and also universities in Brazil have few or none financial resources to acquire certain equipment for teaching physics. Nevertheless, it is extremely important that institutions, schools and universities offer laboratory conditions for the students, mainly in engineering courses, in order to get the first contact with physics concepts in practice. For this purposes, it was proposed to develop a simple construction, low-cost and easy maintenance photogate (Cronpes) device, so that teachers, technicians and even students from the basic and high education network can build them for their schools, institutions and universities, thus improving the quality of teaching physics. This study aims to implement a photogate Esp32 microcontroller based programmed in MicroPython with good resolution, accuracy and user friendly in order to apply in experiments like simple pendulum, spring oscillations and conservation of mechanical energy. The main focus of this research was to demonstrate, through the development of Cronpes, that we can create solutions for educational laboratories, in a viable, creative and inexpensive way.