Modern Physics Demonstrations with DIY Smartphone Spectrometers

Smartphones are widely available and used extensively by students worldwide. These phones often come equipped with high-quality cameras that can be combined with basic optical elements to build a cost-effective DIY spectrometer. Here, we discuss a series of demonstrations and pedagogical exercises, accompanied by our DIY diffractive spectrometer that uses a free web platform for instant spectral analysis. Specifically, these demonstrations can be used to encourage hands-on and inquiry-based learning of wave optics, broadband versus discrete light emission, quantization, Heisenberg’s energy-time uncertainty relation, and the use of spectroscopy in day-to-day life. Hence, these simple tools can be readily deployed in high school classrooms to communicate the practices of science.