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Implementing Deflection-type Bridge-based Thermometer for Learning the Gaussian Distribution of Measurement Error under Research-based Learning Approach a) Department of Physics, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia Abstract Research-based learning (RBL) has been implemented in many countries. It is a self-learning approach in which students gather information and construct new knowledge to solve given problems. In this paper, the RBL approach was implemented to learn and analyze the nature of Gaussian distribution on the random error of measurement. In this case, the analysis was focused on the error of temperature measurement using deflection-type bridge-based thermometer. The thermometer was designed using a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor. The thermistor, which the resistance depends on temperature, was connected to a bridge circuit to convert the measured temperature to an analog voltage. A differential amplifier circuit amplifies the output voltage of the bridge circuit. Then, a microcontroller module (Arduino, UNO R3) convert the amplified analog voltage to digital data. The converted data from the microcontroller module were sent to a PC via serial communication and were recorded. After undergoing calibration procedure, the designed thermometer was used to monitor the temperature of a hot plate that was equipped with a control module to guarantee constant temperature. The temperature fluctuation as recorded by the thermometer was analyzed. The measurement error from the experiment follows the Gaussian distribution and thus the distribution properties, such as mean, mode, and standard deviation, were obtained. Those properties can also indicate the measurement performance of the designed thermometer. Keywords: Gaussian distribution, microcontroller, temperature, thermistor Topic: Physics Education |
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