'Big data' in physics education: Discovering the stick-slip effect through a high sample rate

With the availability of educational digital data acquisition systems, it has also become possible in physics education to generate 'big' data sets by (a) measuring multiple variables simultaneously, (b) increasing the sample rate, (c) extending the measurement duration, or (d) choosing a combination among these three options. In the context of this paper, we will use a simple acceleration experiment to show that a higher sample rate, resulting in a larger data set, quantitatively reveals the stick-slip effect. For this purpose, two variables are measured simultaneously, first with a low and then with a high sample rate. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that dealing with 'big' data sets can add value to experimentation in physics labs by dealing with data sets that more accurately describe observations.