This activity is appropriate for students in advanced high school or college introductory physics and is based on the idea that students learn more effectively when they are engaged in investigations, discussions, model building, problem solving, and other active explorations. The instructor might engage the students by showing them a completed 555 timing circuit and letting the class discuss what components are used in the circuit, and how they think these components might affect the flashing rate. Then the instructor can challenge thestudents to build the circuit and investigate how the components affect the flashing rate. The instructor should sharewith the students that the instructions for building the timer are explicit, but the students are to determine experimentally the equation(s) that show how the components affect the rate of flashing.
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