Using iPads to illustrate the impulse-momentum relationship

One of the fundamental challenges in teaching is making the students able to transform course material in ways that help them solve “real world” problems.1 Sophisticated mobile technology (such as smartphones, iPads, or iTouches) offers students an opportunity to apply physics content to a broad range of scenarios to enhance their understanding and improve their class engagement. For the outlined example, students in an upper-level biomechanics class used the native accelerometers in iPads to record and analyze human movement. This activity allowed the students to experiment with the impulse-momentum relationship.