How do piezoelectric accelerometers — vibration sensors — work? The force caused by vibration or a change in motion (acceleration) causes the sensor's mass to “squeeze” contained piezoelectric ...

There’s a good chance that you use a MEMS accelerometer every single day. It’s the small chip that let your smart phone automatically adjust its screen orientation. They’re great chips, and since they ...

An optomechanical accelerometer that uses light to measure acceleration. Credit: F Zhou/NIST An accelerometer that uses laser light instead of just mechanical strain can register changes as small as ...

Actually, I've done this experiment before (although with an iPod touch). Of course, it's a fun experiment so it seems worthwhile to repeat the measurement. Of course most smart phones have some type ...