138 Free Printable Physics Lab Worksheets
Every OpenLab investigation has a printable, 5E-model lab worksheet: a driving question, guided setup steps, a data table for measured and calculated values, analysis prompts, and a teacher rubric.
Mechanics
- Projectile Motion & Kinetic Energy
- Ball on a Ramp: Energy on a Frictionless Incline
- Block on a Friction Ramp: Finding the Static-Friction Threshold
- Terminal Velocity: Falling Through Drag
- Force Lab: Newton's Second Law
- Opposing Forces: Newton's Second Law & Momentum
- Bouncing Ball: Energy Loss on Impact
- Elastic Collisions & Momentum Conservation
- Inelastic Collision & Momentum Conservation
- Newton's Cradle: Momentum and Energy Transfer
- Simple Pendulum
- Mass on a Spring: Simple Harmonic Motion
- Uniform Circular Motion & Centripetal Force
- Lever: Balancing Torques
- Unequal Lever: Mechanical Advantage
- Ramp & Load: Acceleration on an Incline
- Atwood Machine — Newton's Second Law for Connected Bodies
- Free Fall: Does Mass Change How Fast Things Drop?
- Moon Drop: Does Mass Change Free-Fall Speed?
- Gravitational Fall: Does a Dropped Probe Keep Speeding Up?
- Circular Orbits & Orbital Speed
- Elliptical Orbits: Energy, Escape Speed & Eccentricity
- Gravitational Escape — Breaking Free of a Central Mass
- Kepler's Third Law: Orbital Period vs. Radius
- Kepler's Second Law: Equal Areas & Angular Momentum
Fluids
Waves & Sound
- Travelling Waves on a String: Speed, Frequency, and Wavelength
- Beats: Two Close Frequencies Interfering
- Standing Waves: Harmonics on a Fixed String
- Doppler Effect: A Source Approaching a Listener
- Sound Intensity and the Inverse-Square Law
- The Decibel Scale: Compressing a Huge Range of Intensities
- Timbre: Harmonic Content of a Complex Tone
- Open-Pipe Resonance: Length Sets the Pitch
Thermodynamics
- The Ideal Gas Law: Pressure, Volume, and Temperature
- Kinetic Theory: Temperature and Molecular Speed
- Isothermal Compression: Work Done at Constant Temperature
- Isobaric Heating: Expansion at Constant Pressure
- Isochoric Heating: Pressure Rise at Constant Volume
- Adiabatic Expansion: Cooling Without Losing Heat
- Calorimetry: Mixing Hot and Cold
- Thermal Conduction: Heat Flow Through a Bar
- The Carnot Cycle: Maximum Possible Engine Efficiency
- The Otto Cycle: A Gasoline Engine's Idealized Model
- The Reversed Carnot Cycle: A Refrigerator
- The Stirling Cycle: Isothermal Legs with Regeneration
- Entropy Change in a Reversible Isothermal Expansion
- Entropy Balance Across a Carnot Cycle
Circuits
- Ohm's Law: Current, Voltage, and Resistance
- Resistors in Series: Resistances Add
- Resistors in Parallel: Current Divides
- A Switched Lamp: Power Dissipation in a Bulb
- Batteries in Series: EMFs Add
- Ideal Meters: Ammeters and Voltmeters Don't Disturb the Circuit
- Bulbs in Series: Shared Current, Dimmer Bulbs
- Bulbs in Parallel: Shared Voltage, Full Brightness
- Shorting a Bulb: What Happens When You Bypass One
- A Rheostat Dimmer: Continuously Variable Resistance
- Correct Meter Placement: Ammeter in Series, Voltmeter in Parallel
- Swapped Meters: A Common Wiring Mistake
- RC Charging: A Capacitor's Exponential Approach
- RL Circuit: An Inductor Resists Sudden Current Changes
- Series RLC: Damping and Resonance
Electromagnetism
- Coulomb's Law: The Field Around a Point Charge
- Electric Dipole: Superposing Two Opposite Charges
- Field of a Finite Line of Charge
- Parallel-Plate Capacitor: Charge and Energy Storage
- An Isolated Charged Sphere
- A Real Capacitor Matching a Circuit Component
- The Lorentz Force: A Moving Charge in a Magnetic Field
- Magnetic Field of a Current-Carrying Wire
- Magnetic Field Inside a Solenoid
- Faraday's Law: EMF from a Changing Field
- Faraday's Law: EMF from a Changing Area
- Faraday's Law: Both Field and Area Changing at Once
- RLC Impedance vs. Drive Frequency: Finding Resonance
- RLC Current Waveform Away from Resonance
- RLC Current Amplitude Across Frequencies (Linked to Circuits)
Optics
- Converging Lens: Real Images Beyond 2f
- The Focal Point: Where Images Escape to Infinity
- A Lens as a Magnifying Glass
- A Diverging Lens: Always Virtual, Always Reduced
- A Concave Mirror: Real Images Like a Converging Lens
- A Convex Mirror: Always a Reduced Virtual Image
- The Plane Mirror: A Special, Invariant Case
- Apparent Depth: Why a Pool Looks Shallower Than It Is
- Total Internal Reflection: The Critical Angle
- A Two-Lens Relay: Chaining Images Together
- The Compound Microscope: Two Lenses for High Magnification
- A Photographic Enlarger: Two Lenses for a Real, Bigger Image
- A Prism Bends Light: Angle of Deviation
- Minimum Deviation: Symmetric Passage Through a Prism
- Flint Glass: A Higher-Index Prism
- A Thin Prism: The Small-Angle Approximation
- A Water Prism: Gentler Dispersion Than Glass
- The Lensmaker's Equation: Focal Length from Curvature
- The Healthy Eye: Continuous Accommodation
- Myopia: When the Far Point Isn't Infinity
- Myopia Corrected: How the Diverging Lens Actually Works
- Hyperopia: When the Near Point Is Pushed Out
- Hyperopia Corrected: The Converging Lens at Work
- Young's Double Slit: Measuring Light's Wavelength
- Single-Slit Diffraction: A Different Kind of Pattern
- Diffraction Gratings: Many Slits, Sharper Peaks
- Thin-Film Interference: Soap Bubbles and Oil Slicks
- The Simple Magnifier: Angular Magnification
- The Afocal Telescope: Two Lenses, No Net Focusing
- Compound Microscope Magnification: The Full Formula
- Malus's Law: Two Polarizers at an Angle
- The Three-Polarizer Paradox
- Brewster's Angle: Reflected Light Perfectly Polarized
Modern Physics
- The Photoelectric Effect: A Sharp Energy Threshold
- The Photoelectric Effect: Stopping Potential
- A Real Photocell: Sodium's Work Function
- Compton Scattering: Wavelength Shift at 90°
- Compton Scattering: Maximum Shift at Backscatter
- Compton Scattering: A Shallow-Angle Comparison
- The Balmer Series: Visible Hydrogen Spectral Lines
- The Lyman Series: Ultraviolet Hydrogen Lines
- The Paschen Series: Infrared Hydrogen Lines
- Radioactive Decay: Carbon-14 Dating
- Medical Radioisotopes: Technetium-99m's Short Half-Life
- Nuclear Binding Energy: The Liquid-Drop Model
- De Broglie Matter Waves: An Electron's Wavelength
- Electron Double-Slit Interference
- Low-Energy Electrons: A More Pronounced Wave Nature
- The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: Position vs. Momentum
- Confining a Gamma-Ray Photon to Nuclear Scale
- The Uncertainty Tradeoff at Everyday Atomic Scale
- Time Dilation: The Light-Clock Thought Experiment
- Cosmic Muons: Time Dilation Made Visible
- Length Contraction: A Relativistic Rocket
- Relativistic Electrons: When Classical Momentum Fails
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