Embracing the Wave: Using the Very Small Radio Telescope to Teach Students about Radio Astronomy

Details Embracing the Wave: Using the Very Small Radio Telescope to Teach Students about Radio Astronomy Embracing the Wave: Using the Very Small Radio Telescope to Teach Students about Radio Astronomy

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21544608f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #446.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.413

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Very Small Radio Telescope (VSRT) is a low-cost educational tool appropriate for laboratory demonstrations of the nature of radio waves and the principles of interferometry for use in both high school and undergraduate physics/astronomy classes. The system consists of small direct broadcast antenna dishes and other commercially available parts and can be assembled for under $500. Complete teaching units have been developed and tested by high school physics teachers to demonstrate radio wave transmission and exponential absorption though materials (Beer's law), the polarization of electromagnetic waves (Malus' law), the inverse square law, and interferometry. These units can be used to explore the properties of electromagnetic waves, including similarities and differences between radio and visible light, while challenging students' misconceptions about a wavelength regime that is important to both astronomy and everyday life. In addition, the VSRT can be used as a radio astronomical interferometer to measure the diameter of the Sun at 12 GHz. Full details, including a parts list, comprehensive assembly instructions, informational memos, teaching units, software, and conformance to national and Massachusetts educational standards, are available on the web at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/undergrad/VSRT/index.html .
Development of the VSRT at MIT Haystack Observatory is made possible through funding provided by the National Science Foundation.

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