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The “light curve” experiment of the Physics Remote Laboratory: a proposal of an investigative activity epistemologically contextualized

In this paper we present a proposal of an experimental activity which was elaborated in the context of the subject Concepts of Astronomy – AST929, in the Physics undergraduate course of the Federal University of Itajubá. The main idea is to utilize the method of obtaining the period-luminosity relationship as a contextualizing element. A remotely controlled experiment and a software for data analysis have been developed specifically for this activity. To illustrate both data acquisition and analysis, we performed an experiment in which we have acquired data from twenty objects. The light curves were analyzed in order to obtain the period and the magnitude in each case. The coefficients were determined through the χ-square method and the results we have found are A = −2.822± 0.035 and B=−1.410 ± 0.016, which are in agreement with those presented by Carrol & Ostlie [1]. This tells us that the experiment has internal consistency and simulates the behavior of a cepheid variable star properly, from the didactical perspective. The resource has been shown to be beneficial as the students were able to acquire, in a few seconds, data that would take days, maybe weeks to acquire through real observations. Students who have participated in the activity were in the first semester of the undergraduate course, therefore they have had only little contact with the mathematical tools in higher education. Nonetheless, the activity was carried out without major difficulties.

Keywords
Astronomy Teaching; Cepheid; Remote Experiment


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