Related papers: Student understanding of Symmetry and Gauss' law
We investigate the difficulties that students in calculus-based introductory physics courses have with the concepts of symmetry, electric field, and electric flux which are important for applying Gauss's law. The determination of the…
Prior research suggest that introductory physics students have difficulty with graphing and interpreting graphs. Here, we discuss an investigation of student difficulties in translating between mathematical and graphical representations for…
We investigate introductory physics students' difficulties in translating between mathematical and graphical representations and the effect of scaffolding on students' performance. We gave a typical problem that can be solved using Gauss's…
The ability to flexibly transform between different representations (e.g., from mathematical to graphical representations) of the same concept is a hallmark of expertise. Prior research suggests that many introductory physics students show…
As an integrative and insightful example for undergraduates learning about electrostatics, we discuss how to use symmetry, Coulomb's Law, superposition, Gauss's law, and visualization to understand the electric field produced by a…
We describe student difficulties in applying the superposition principle in combination with Gauss's law. We addressed these difficulties by developing a tutorial that uses guided inquiry. Students who used this tutorial following…
We discuss the development and evaluation of five research-based tutorials on Coulomb's law, superposition, symmetry and Gauss's Law to help students in the calculus-based introductory physics courses learn these concepts. We discuss the…
Formally investigating the sources of students' difficulties around specific subjects is crucial for developing appropriate strategies to help students. We have been studying difficulties in understanding magnetism encountered by students…
Based on Gauss's law for the electric field, new integral formulas are deduced. Although the applications are not limited within the physics realm, an application is also presented, for the sake of practicability, specifically in the area…
We present a few charge distributions for which the application of Gauss' law in its integral form, as typically outlined in standard textbooks, results in a contradiction. We identify the root cause of such contradictions and put forward a…
We investigated how students apply the concept of circulation when faced with problems related to the Ampere-Maxwell law. For this purpose, we designed a metacognitive pencil-and-paper question, presented it to 65 students, and analysed…
We investigate learning difficulties among second-year students on electromagnetism courses when they apply Amp\`ere-Maxwell's law. Using phenomenography, we analysed written answers from 65 undergraduate physics students to four questions…
In this work, we present an explanation of the electric charge quantization based on a semi-classical model of electrostatic fields. We claim that in electrostatics, an electric charge must be equal to a rational multiple of the elementary…
Throughout introductory physics, students create and interpret free body diagrams in which multiple forces act on an object, typically at a single location (the object's center of mass). The situation increases in difficulty when multiple…
We show that for an infinite, uniformly charged plate no well defined electric field exists in the framework of electrostatics, because it cannot be defined as a mathematically consistent limit of a solution for a finite plate. We discuss…
A geometrical approach to calculate the electric field due to a uniformly charged rod is presented. The result is surprisingly simple and elegant. Using pure geometrical quantities like length and angle, the direction of the electric field…
Practical application of Gauss' law in acoustics is not a very well known method. However, any inverse square law behavior can be formulated in the way similar to Gauss' law, which allows us to extend the same principle to sound waves…
The estimation of the electric field in simple situations provides an opportunity to develop intuition about the models used in physics. We propose an activity aimed at university students of General Physics where the electric field of a…
Expanding our knowledge of student difficulties in advanced undergraduate electromagnetism is essential if we are to develop effective instructional interventions. Drawing on an analysis of course materials, in-class observations and…
Understanding Maxwell's equations in differential form is of great importance when studying the electrodynamic phenomena discussed in advanced electromagnetism courses. It is therefore necessary that students master the use of vector…