Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • In the Classroom
  • Published:

A lab in the pocket

Nature Reviews Materials volume 5, pages 169–170 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

With the right app, smartphones can become a powerful tool for teaching physics and for increasing the popularity of this important subject.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Smartphone sensors.

References

  1. Staacks, S. et al. Advanced tools for smartphone-based experiments: phyphox. Phys. Educ. 53, 045009 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Staacks, S. et al. Simple time-of-flight measurement of the speed of sound using smartphones. Phys. Teach. 57, 112–113 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Vieyra, R. et al. Turn your smartphone into a science laboratory. Sci. Teach. 82, 32–40 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 2nd Institute of Physics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Christoph Stampfer & Sebastian Staacks

  2. 1st Institute of Physics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Heidrun Heinke

Authors
  1. Christoph Stampfer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Heidrun Heinke
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sebastian Staacks
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Stampfer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Related links

Physics Toolbox: https://vieyrasoftware.net/

Science Journal: https://sciencejournal.withgoogle.com/

SPARKvue: https://www.pasco.com/prodMulti/sparkvue-software/

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stampfer, C., Heinke, H. & Staacks, S. A lab in the pocket. Nat Rev Mater 5, 169–170 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-0184-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-0184-2

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing