Lab
See the idea. Put it to the test.
956 practicals from Kindergarten to Year 12, in 9 subjects. A practical gives the idea, what you need, the steps, what you should see and a safety card. A teacher-led practical gives the idea and its hazards; its method is for tutors on the learning platform.
Review
Reviewed before publication (owner’s confirmation, 24 September 2026). That covers every practical here, and a practical’s page lists the sources its author read.
A safety card on every page
The risk, who supervises and the hazards. The 38 teacher-led practicals show their idea and hazards here; their materials, steps and sources, and any result, control or note that states a number or an amount, are for tutors and administrators on the learning platform.
School laboratory, not for home
207 practicals are medium or high risk. Each says so on its page: In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.
Curriculum references
Each practical lists the NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes it supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
Find a practical
189 practicals
Physics · page 4 of 4
Black body radiation and Wien's law: a dimmed filament and the solar spectrum peak
A hot body radiates a continuous spectrum whose peak wavelength shifts to shorter values as temperature rises, in inverse proportion to the temperature.
Practical, model not builtLow riskBuilding a simple DC motor and running it backwards as a generator
A current loop in a magnetic field feels a torque that turns it, and the same coil turned by hand produces an alternating emf that a commutator can rectify.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCathode rays in Crookes tubes: Maltese cross, paddle wheel and magnetic deflection
Cathode rays travel in straight lines, carry momentum and are deflected by magnetic and electric fields as negative particles, the evidence that led to the electron.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalHigh riskCentripetal acceleration on a turntable measured with a phone accelerometer
At a fixed rotation rate the centripetal acceleration grows in proportion to the radius and points towards the axis.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCentripetal force against mass, speed and radius with a whirling rubber stopper (syllabus practical)
An object moving in a circle needs a net force towards the centre equal to m v squared over r, which a hanging weight supplies through a string.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskCharged particles in a uniform electric field: deflection tube and projectile comparison
A uniform electric field gives a charged particle a constant acceleration, so its path between plates is a parabola like a projectile's, and the work done is q V.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtHigh riskCharged particles in a uniform magnetic field: circular paths in a fine-beam tube
A magnetic force acts at right angles to a charge's velocity, so it changes direction but not speed and bends the path into a circle of radius m v over q B.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtHigh riskDe Broglie matter waves: electron diffraction rings and the wavelength of an accelerated electron
Electrons passed through a crystal form diffraction rings whose size shrinks as the accelerating voltage rises, exactly as a wave of wavelength h over m v would.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtHigh riskDiffraction of laser light through slits, a thin wire and a grating (qualitative) (syllabus practical)
Light passing an edge or a narrow opening spreads and forms a pattern of bright and dark bands, which only a wave model explains.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskElectromagnetic induction: magnet and coil, and Lenz's law with a magnet falling through a copper tube
A changing magnetic flux through a coil induces an emf proportional to the rate of change, in a direction that opposes the change producing it.
Practical, model not builtLow riskForce between two parallel current-carrying wires
Each wire sits in the field of the other, so parallel currents attract and antiparallel currents repel with a force per length proportional to the product of the currents over the separation.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskForces in circular motion: conical pendulum and a car on a banked bend
On a banked surface or a slanted string, the horizontal component of the normal force or tension supplies the centripetal force, which fixes the speed for a given angle.
Practical, model not builtLow riskHalf-life with dice and a decay simulation
Each unstable nucleus has a fixed chance of decaying per unit time, so a large sample loses a constant fraction in each half-life however many remain.
Practical, model not builtLow riskKepler's third law from planetary data
For every body orbiting the same central mass, the cube of the orbital radius divided by the square of the period is the same constant, fixed by the central mass.
Calculation and dataLow riskMalus's law with two polarising filters and a phone light meter (syllabus practical)
Light is a transverse wave whose electric field can be filtered to one direction, and the transmitted intensity through a second filter falls with the square of the cosine of the angle between them.
Practical, model not builtLow riskMass defect and binding energy: the deuteron from measured masses
A nucleus weighs less than its separated nucleons, and the missing mass times c squared is the energy that holds it together and the energy released when it forms.
Calculation and dataLow riskMeasuring a laser's wavelength with a double slit and a diffraction grating (quantitative) (syllabus practical)
Bright fringes appear where the path difference from two sources is a whole number of wavelengths, so the fringe geometry gives the wavelength.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskModelling a fission chain reaction with dominoes, mousetraps and a simulation
Each fission releases neutrons that can trigger further fissions, so the number of events per generation multiplies unless enough neutrons are absorbed or escape.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskModelling Millikan's oil drop experiment: quantised charge from blind mass measurements
Charges on oil drops come in whole multiples of one unit, found by balancing a drop's weight against an electric force and looking for the common factor in the results.
Practical, model not builtLow riskModelling the expanding Universe with elastic and markers, and Hubble's law from galaxy data
If space expands uniformly, every galaxy recedes from every other at a speed proportional to its distance, and 1 over the constant of proportionality, the Hubble time, is how long the expansion would have taken at today's rate.
Practical, model not builtLow riskProjectile motion: primary data from a ball leaving a bench and a spring launcher (syllabus practical)
A projectile's horizontal velocity stays constant while its vertical velocity changes at g, so range and time of flight follow from the launch conditions.
Practical, model not builtLow riskRolling with Rutherford: finding a hidden target's size from marble scattering
Firing probes at an unseen target and counting deflections reveals the target's size, the reasoning that turned alpha-particle scattering into the nuclear atom.
Practical, model not builtLow riskSpectra from discharge tubes, an incandescent filament and reflected sunlight with a hand spectroscope (syllabus practical)
Hot dense sources give a continuous spectrum, low-pressure gases energised by an electric discharge give bright lines unique to each element, and the Sun shows dark absorption lines on a continuous background.
Teacher-led practicalPracticalMedium riskSpeed of light from the standing waves in a microwave oven (syllabus practical)
Microwaves are light of long wavelength; inside an oven they form standing waves whose hot spots sit half a wavelength apart, so the spacing and the oven's stated frequency give the speed of light.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe Balmer series: measuring hydrogen's visible lines with a diffraction grating
Hydrogen emits only certain wavelengths because its electron drops between fixed energy levels, and the Rydberg formula predicts every visible line.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtMedium riskThe Hertzsprung-Russell diagram from real star data, with spectral classes
Plotting luminosity against surface temperature sorts stars into a main sequence, giants and white dwarfs, and the position of a star reveals its size and its stage of life.
Calculation and dataLow riskThe motor effect measured on a digital balance: force on a current-carrying wire
A conductor carrying current across a magnetic field feels a force proportional to the current, the field and the length in the field, at right angles to both.
Practical, model not builtLow riskThe photoelectric effect: stopping-voltage simulation and a bench estimate of Planck's constant from LEDs
Light delivers energy in packets proportional to frequency, so electrons leave a metal only above a threshold frequency and their maximum energy grows with frequency, not intensity.
Teacher-led practicalPractical, model not builtMedium riskTorque and rotational equilibrium with a metre rule on a pivot
A force turns an object about a pivot with a torque equal to force times perpendicular distance, and a body stays balanced when the torques cancel.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTransformer turns ratio and losses with a demountable transformer
An alternating current in one coil induces an emf in a second coil sharing the same core, in the ratio of their turns, while flux leakage and heating make a real transformer fall short of the ideal.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskModelling radioactive decay with dice and calculating a radiometric age
Decay is random for each atom yet exactly predictable for a large number, so the parent-to-daughter ratio in a mineral is a clock.
Practical, model not builtLow riskA model house: testing wall and window materials for heat loss
A small model house and a heat-loss equation both predict how building materials change indoor temperature, and the model’s limits (scale, no sun, no draughts) are as instructive as its results.
Practical, model not builtLow riskConservation of energy in a pendulum measured with a light gate
The law of conservation of energy predicts a pendulum bob’s speed at the bottom of its swing from the height it was released, whatever its mass.
Practical, model not builtLow riskCounting background radiation: the irregular pattern of random decay
Radioactive decay is random, so counts in equal time intervals scatter irregularly, yet the scatter follows a Poisson distribution in which the variance equals the mean.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDistance and exposure: the inverse square law measured with light
Intensity from a small source falls with the square of the distance, a law whose predictions a measurement can test, and the reason distance from a radiation source is a basic way to reduce exposure.
Practical, model not builtLow riskEnergy transfer in a bounce: tennis ball rebound against the ITF standard
Energy is conserved but not kept as motion: a bouncing ball returns only part of its gravitational energy, and a regulation tennis ball must lose between about 42 and 47 per cent of it in each bounce.
Practical, model not builtLow riskFinding a hidden target with rolling marbles: a model of Rutherford scattering
Like Rutherford’s team, the learner infers the size and shape of something unseen from how often and how projectiles are deflected, and the inference sharpens as the number of trials grows.
Practical, model not builtLow riskOhm’s law as a prediction: resistor against filament lamp
A law earns acceptance by predicting results before they are measured: Ohm’s law predicts the current in a resistor, and a filament lamp shows the conditions under which it stops applying.
Practical, model not builtLow riskPredicting the return of Halley’s comet with Kepler’s third law
A pattern of returns about every 76 years led Halley to infer one comet on one orbit; Kepler’s third law turns the orbit’s size into a period, and the spread in real intervals shows what the simple law omits.
Calculation and dataLow riskThe Bernoulli effect measured in a Venturi tube
Where a flowing fluid speeds up through a narrow section its pressure falls, which a pair of water columns shows as a measurable height difference that Bernoulli’s equation predicts.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTiming a falling object: what quantitative data reveal that the eye cannot
A falling object gains speed at a constant rate, and only timed measurements show that a dense ball falls at about 9.8 m/s² while a light ball is slowed measurably by air.
Practical, model not builtLow riskDiffraction as a measuring tool: a CD, a laser and an X-ray diffraction analogue
A regular pattern too fine to see spreads light into a predictable pattern, so measuring the pattern reveals the spacing; this is the principle that let X-ray diffraction reveal the helical structure of DNA.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskRefraction to telescope: building a two-lens telescope
The laws of refraction that shape a lens also fix a telescope’s design: two converging lenses separated by the sum of their focal lengths magnify by the ratio of those lengths.
Practical, model not builtMedium riskTesting a sunscreen claim: how much UV gets through a thin layer?
An SPF is measured at a set thickness of sunscreen; a thinner layer lets through far more UV, so testing the claim shows why the amount applied matters as much as the number on the tube.
Practical, model not builtLow riskTesting the Doppler prediction with a swinging buzzer and a phone
A source moving toward a listener is heard at a higher frequency and moving away at a lower one; a swinging buzzer and a spectrum app turn Doppler’s prediction into a measured test.
Practical, model not builtMedium risk
For tutors and administrators
The materials and steps of every teacher-led practical are on the learning platform, with the safety card first. Sign in with a tutor or administrator account to read them.