Laboratorios Remos de Física General en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Manizales.

Abstract

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Manizales, has recently acquired a series of equipments that allow the development of the basic practices that take place in the general physics laboratories. Reason being, a series of projects have being developed where these new equipments are involved and integrated one another through a unique virtual site that can easily be accessed through the INTERNET. This site allows, in real time, the supervision and manipulation of the equipment, so that any determined experiment can be fully developed. The above mentioned project requires a fully line PASCO equipment to carry on the general physics practices. The scope and impact of this project is not only at a regional level but also at a national level. Having in account the advantages of this type of systems, the student body has been encouraged to actively participate in this type of environment. Thus, a series of Remote Practices of the Basic Physics that work accordingly with this scheme have already been materialized; this allows the successful accomplishment of the laboratories carried from home by engineered-major students or students with a curriculum that requires taking any Physics class; there is no need to be physically present at the laboratory facility so the experiments take place. Among the many advantages of this new stage of learning are the Time Saving and a greater volume of students that is possible to handle. Moreover, this sets the ground for new inter-institutional agreements to be created; for this new system is useful not only for University students but it is also functional for students in the higher levels of High School. Be mindful that all the data obtained from the system is Real-Time data and is subject to the same error bearded in any practice developed in the lab-facility; no data is simulated. Nevertheless, the simulations created by our group can be used to corroborate and reassure the results obtained from the system. The proper implementation of these applications is do- ne through Java programming, PHP and in a minor scale through LabView. In addition, the TCP/IP, RS-232 and GPIB protocol is used, all over a Web Apache server.