Using a Smartphone pressure sensor as Pitot tube speedometer

Abstract: In this article, an experiment to measure air velocity with the barometer of a smartphone is presented utilizing the concept of a Pitot tube. For the experiment, the app phyphox is used which has a set of useful features for performing smartphone-based experiments 9,10 . Both the data analysis tools included in the app phyphox and the remote access function to smartphones in experimental setups are used in the presented experiment. This experiment is also an example for designing customized experiments within phyphox which can be realized by any user via a web-based editor 9 . In addition, it is shown how an external Bluetooth pressure sensor can be used to extend an experiment, which is used here to measure the speed of a vehicle. Such an integration of external Bluetooth Low Energy sensors into smartphone experiments became available with phyphox version 1.1.0.