The advent of digital video capture technology has added a new dimension to the teaching and learning of concepts in mechanics. The ability to capture motion of objects in the immediate vicinity of the students puts mechanical concepts on a very tangible basis. The motion involved could be the bio-mechanical motion of the student themselves. The arena of sports and dance also become very rich in possibilities for analysis. At Gainesville College, this technology has been integrated in all the introductory mechanics courses.
Students can acquire and digitize their own video using a video camera and a video capture card.
Equivalently they can digitize a video segment from TV or a movie. The software used for video capture and conversion to a quicktime movie is Adobe Premiere. This data can be subsequently modeled using the Graphical Analysis or MathCad programs. Examples of some modeling activities will be presented. This paper describes a course and course of study which has virtually no lectures.