Lab Name Interference of Waves
Subject Area Science and Computer Science
Grade 9-12
Topic Waves
Experiment Title The effect of interference on WiFi Communication.
Hardware Linux machines (ex laptop, raspberry pi).
Software iperf
Number of Sessions to teach the topic 1
Educational standards to be addressed New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards

  • HS-PS4-3
    Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described either by a wave model or a particle model (quantum theory), and that for some situations one model is more useful than the other.
    Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how the experimental evidence supports the claim and how a theory is generally modified in light of new evidence. Examples of a phenomenon could include resonance, interference, diffraction, and photoelectric effect.
    Assessment Boundary: Assessment of the photoelectric effect is limited to qualitative descriptions.
COSMOS concepts to be used for the lab Different communication on the same frequency will interfere with each other.
K12 Educational Goals (How the educational goals are achieved through teaching using the experiment, how the topic is connected to the COSMOS concepts used) Students describe the effect of interference on waves. Students use the wifi communications between different laptops to create interference between two different waves.
Short Description and Walk-through of the experiment Students communicate on different WiFi channels to see which two channels create the least interference.
Testbed mapping of the experiment Students check which combination of channels allows more users with least interference.

Experiment Execution

Enter the WiFi Channel (1-14) you would like to create a WiFi access point and press START to begin the experiment. In order to terminate the experiment press STOP.

WiFi Channel:

Experiment Material

NGSS Lesson Plan
Worksheet

© 2018 COSMOS Project. Created by Peter Tsun, Newtown High School.