Mahendra Thapa

Research Interests: 

• Computational biophysics
• Physics educational research

CURE-E Course: General Physics I (PHYS 202A), Spring 2024

Project Title: Calculate the terminal velocity of lighter objects (such as paper, foam) by video analysis techniques

This project is designed for students who are not majoring in physics but are enrolled in my course, General Physics 1 (202A). Many of them are fulfilling their general education (GE) requirement for their degree program. Given this context, the project will bear a strong resemblance to the paper titled 'Video analysis on tablet computers to investigate effects of air resistance, Phys. Teach. 54, 440 (2016); https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4962788.'

Upon successfully completing this project, students will acquire transferable skills that can be applied in various other areas of interest. These skills encompass (i) utilizing regular smartphones to create videos for analysis purposes, (ii) applying statistics to analyze collected data, (iii) troubleshooting errors during experiments, and (iv) comparing and contrasting results with those of other students and previously published similar findings.