Generating interactive smartphone physics laboratories using artificial intelligence

We present an AI-generated, browser-based interactive laboratory tool designed to support experimental physics education on smartphones and personal computers. The application, produced entirely via conversational prompts to the Claude AI assistant (Anthropic), implements a dual-channel sine-wave generator (0–2000 Hz) and a real-time microphone waveform visualiser within a single HTML file that requires no installation. The Web Audio API, embedded in all modern browsers, provides low-latency audio synthesis and time-domain analysis at sampling rates up to 48 kHz, making the tool functionally comparable to dedicated hardware signal generators and oscilloscopes. We exemplify its use through the acoustic beat phenomenon: two smartphones are deployed simultaneously, one running the generator and one running the visualiser, allowing a classical two-source interference experiment to be reproduced with no additional equipment. Beat frequencies measured for the pairs (400, 450) Hz and (1000, 1050) Hz agree with theoretical predictions to within 1%, demonstrating a level of accuracy suitable for introductory university physics laboratories. The application exports data as CSV files and screen captures as PNG images, enabling quantitative analysis with standard software. The workflow for generating such a tool through AI prompting is described in detail, providing educators with a replicable template for creating custom, zero-cost browser-based physics laboratories.