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Macintosh
ISBN 1-56396-469-4
Single copy $150.00
High School Site License $375.00
10-copy lab pack $600.00
"VideoGraph has the potential to become a 'commongound' hypercard-like link to effective use of multimedia for the physical sciences."
-David Nairns,
Temple University
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VideoGraph

Robert J. Beichner
North Carolina State University

What is it about physics that makes students think it's so hard? Perhaps it's because we ask them to work in both the abstract world of graphs, theories, and equations as well as the concrete real-world motion of cars, balls, and springs. Making the connection can be tough. VideoGraph will help.

VideoGraph is a unique video-analysis tool that lets you analyze QuickTime movies. You can make measurements on those movies and quickly graph the data you have gathered. For example, suppose you have a video clip of a baseball being thrown. VideoGraph will step through the video frame by frame, allowing you to easily mark the location of the ball in each frame. The overall scale and origin are easily set as well. Once you've marked the positions of the ball, VideoGraph generates a data table that gives the ball's coordinates and velocity as a function of time. Up to four graphs of any two quantities can be drawn upon request. Simple slope-finding and integration are provided. That's enough to make any physics teacher smile - but VideoGraph goes beyond data collection and presentation.

If you reset the video clip to an earlier moment, the ball is highlighted, as is the data point on the graph at the corresponding time. Replaying the video shows the highlighted ball moving through space as the associated data points are successively emphasized. In this way, VideoGraph can help students make the difficult conceptual leap to connect the abstraction of a graph to the motion of an object.

The package includes several video clips for immediate use and lists many applicable videotapes and videodisks that most physics departments commonly own. And as an added bonus, you also get VideoGrab, a companion program that allows you to create QuickTime video clips from a video source such as a VCR or videodisk using many common video capture boards. Imagine taping you own students as they try out their fastballs!

With VideoGraph, you can harness the power of video analysis to make physics a home run for your students. 86 pp.

System Requirements:
Your computer system and hardware configuration should be any Macintosh Plus computer or later with the following features:

  • Minimum RAM of 5 MB
  • Hard disk with a minimum of 2.1 MB of space available. If you do not have QuickTime 2.0 or higher, the QuickTime folder requires another 1.7 MB.
  • System software version 7.0 or higher
  • Printer with graphics capability (recommended)
  • QuickTime is included with the VIDEOGRAPH package
  • Video capture board (only if you wish to capture your own video)
  • ViSCA driver 2.0 or later (only if you wish to operate a ViSCA device with VIDEOGRAB)
Macintosh
ISBN 1-56396-469-4

Single copy $150.00
High School Site License $375.00
10-copy lab pack $600.00

© 1996 by Physics Academic Software Publishing Organization. All rights reserved.

 Part of the MECHANICS SERIES
AWARDS
 
Computers in Physics
Award for Educational Software
REVIEWS
 
"User's guide is easy to follow... One concept that is especially well moderated is that of an item falling from a moving object."
Marlyn L. Barrett,
The Science Teacher
May 1997
Articles
 
"Considering Perception and Cognition in the Design aof an Instructional Sofware Package," Robert J. Beichner Multimedia Tools and Applications 1 173 (1995)
MORE PICTURES
 
Vectors of a Bungee Jumper
Graphs of Motion for Bungee Jumper

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