McMaster lab tech turns Einstein’s gravitational‑lensing calculation into an undergraduate lab; paper in American Journal of Physics
Daniel FitzGreen spent eight years designing a benchtop experiment that reproduces gravitational lensing; his single‑author paper appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Physics, with full teaching materials.
McMaster instructor and lab technician Daniel FitzGreen published a single‑author article in the October American Journal of Physics describing a low‑cost benchtop experiment that simulates gravitational lensing. After eight years of development, the setup uses acrylic lenses and simple imaging (camera plus target) to produce analogues of strong, weak and micro‑lensing; students apply image‑analysis methods to infer an effective mass. FitzGreen has released instructional videos, lab notes, CAD files, ImageJ macros and Python code. The journal notes the experiment can serve as a standard three‑hour introductory lab, an extended advanced lab, or an independent student project.