A lot of good physics in the Cartesian diver

Luca, R. De; Ganci, Salvatore

doi:10.1088/0031-9120/46/5/001

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…So as not to extend this study too long, it will only be given one example of these of activities explained, the performance of the Cartesian diver or Cartesian devil, a classic science experiment, named by René Descartes, which demonstrates the principle of buoyancy (Archimedes' principle) and the ideal gas law (Amir & Subramaniam, 2007;De Luca, & Ganci, 2011;Lozano & Solbes, 2014). The traditional version of the Cartesian diver that students can make consists of a plastic bottle full of water, in which there is an object inside that can sink or float according to the pressure applied to the bottle.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Inquiry Based Learning through Entertaining Science Activities

Lozano

Solbes

2021

IJRES

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Considering students’ increasing lack of interest and motivation for science subjects, it becomes almost imperative to introduce different methodology approaches in classrooms. Besides, decontextualized science teaching, where hands on activities are not sufficiently taken into account, can make the students attitude toward science-learning even worse. Inquiry Based Learning where elements such as games, toys and short experiments are included is showed as a useful methodological proposal. This paper presents how the use of these entertaining science activities can improve students’ interest and encourage them to speak about science, acquiring better argumentation and inquiry skills when they are properly performed in a formal classroom context.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Inquiry Based Learning through Entertaining Science Activities

Lozano

Solbes

2021

IJRES

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“…The physical principles behind the operation of a Cartesian diver have been dealt with in several publications (for an introduction see [6], while for a more detailed treatise see [7]).…”

Section: Cartesian Diver Principles Of Operationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the pressure applied to the container is increased, the volume of air inside the diver decreases, providing room for more liquid, so that the diver average density increases causing it to sink (figure 1). Studying the properties of this toy in different educational versions allows introducing some concepts and laws of hydrodynamics such as pressure in fluids, ideal gas law, Archimede's principle, and Stevin and Pascal laws [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Whatever the pressure applied, the Cartesian diver does not have a stable equilibrium point inside the liquid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cartesian diver to study oscillations and internal gravity waves in a stratified fluid

Carpineti,

Spongano,

Croccolo

et al. 2024

Eur. J. Phys.

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We propose a variation of the well-known Cartesian diver experiment where, instead of moving in a uniform fluid, the diver floats in a fluid stratified in density.In contrast to the original experiment, for a given external pressure the diver can stop in a stable equilibrium position within the fluid, at the depth where the surrounding density matches its own. By varying the applied pressure, the density of the diver changes and it moves until it reaches a new stable equilibrium condition at a different depth. When a sudden pressure pulse is applied, the diver, pushed off its equilibrium position, starts oscillating due to a restoring force that depends on the density gradient. The oscillations produce internal gravity waves that are typical of stratified fluids, when a portion of them is displaced and transmits its motion to the surrounding fluid. Although they are extremely difficult to observe, gravity waves are particularly interesting, as they typically occur in the atmosphere and in the stars. We propose a simple experiment and suggest a way to make the internal gravity waves visible. The experiment can be realized by students with easy-to-find household objects and used to improve their understanding of many concepts and laws of hydrodynamics, but also to introduce them to complex phenomena of general interest.

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“…In [21], the authors made interesting suggestions for different diver constructions with the inclusion of rotation and different ways of applying pressure. A theoretical approach to the problem of the Cartesian diver is given in [22] which is adapted for the investigation presented here. Our approach is to construct Cartesian divers using a standard 3D-printer and investigate how well we can predict the pressure needed to let the constructed divers sink using common household materials.…”

Section: The Cartesian Divermentioning

confidence: 99%

Physics competitions in the time of a pandemic: 3D printing as a new approach to the quantitative investigation of Cartesian divers at home

et al. 2021

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Despite the difficult circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemics, physics students can tackle interesting questions that are part of physics competitions as the German Physicists' Tournament (GPT) 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemics in 2020, many competitions such as the GPT are held online. Furthermore, the usual options of equipment offered by the supervising university institutions could not be used by the students. The problems of the GPT 2020 therefore had to be chosen in such a way that they could be examined at home using simple means. One of these supposedly simple but profound experiments - the Cartesian diver - is described in this article. The Physics of the Cartesian diver has been discussed before [2, 3, 22], as well as various modications [21]. We present a new way of investigating Cartesian divers quantitatively by using 3D printing and common household materials. The paper is addressed to undergraduate students and educators teaching physics at university.

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A lot of good physics in the Cartesian diver

Abstract: We present a simple mathematical analysis for deriving the pressure and temperature variations for complete sinking in the Cartesian diver experiment. Some additional remarks on the system, with respect to the existing literature, are also made.

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Promoting Inquiry Based Learning through Entertaining Science Activities

Promoting Inquiry Based Learning through Entertaining Science Activities

A Cartesian diver to study oscillations and internal gravity waves in a stratified fluid

Physics competitions in the time of a pandemic: 3D printing as a new approach to the quantitative investigation of Cartesian divers at home

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