Xperica HD Review

Xperica HD is a really unique, educational and interactive iPad app that includes four physics experiments, ideal for the high school student studying physics. It has been twenty years since I took physics in high school and although I have vague memories of enjoying this subject, I remember very little of what I learned. When I first opened this app, I thought I was going to have to pass on reviewing this application as the subject matter is now way over my head, and this app lacks any reference material needed if one does not have a basic understanding of what is going on.

Even though I understood very little of what I was looking at, I could tell how educational this would be for the right student with some base level of understanding of physics, so I asked my dad, a retired engineer and professor, to look at this with me and tell me his thoughts. All throughout school, I turned to my father for help with all my math and science homework, as often times my dad had a better grasp of explaining the subject matter than my teachers did, so I thought he would be the perfect person to give his insights.

The lack of a textbook type reference material within this app did not phase my dad at all, who knows this subject matter well, and he was fascinated with the educational aspect of this application. Impressed that this app was free, I asked him if he would pay the $3.99 to buy an additional pack of six experiments for me if I were in high school and his answer was a enthusiastic "yes."

Typically, I am not a fan of add-ons, but this app delivers a lot of content that my father looked at for quite some time, making this app very worthwhile with or without the additional experiments. I wish this app were available when I was taking physics, I think it would have added a great deal to my experience, especially at home as you can do experiments not possible until now in a home setting.

Here is my father's impressions of this app:

"This a great app. It is suitable for a high school student and even for a student taking (college) freshman physics. The app consists of four experiments: The Law of Moments, The Specific Heat of Water, Resistance of a Series Circuit, and the Oscillation of a Spring. Each experiment consists of varying parameters and seeing what happens. The amount of physics explanation is minimal, however, so reference material may be required. Alternatively, the student can try to derive the correlating equations from the experimental results. I think that this is a very valuable teaching tool, which allows a student to see how the systems described by the experiments operate and, for the more advanced student, may allow him to actually discover the physics behind them."

I recommend this app for anyone studying high school, possibly early college physics. Also note that the website associated with this app mentions that teacher resources and other learning material will be available at some point in the future, an addition that I think would be great, especially for parents who may know less physics than their child but still want to participate in the use of this application. I think that apps such as this are brilliant new tools for learning, I hope I continue to see more educational apps such as Xperica HD in the future. iPhone users be aware that a version for iPhone is coming soon.