Related papers: Student Conceptual Difficulties in Hydrodynamics
Bernoulli's equation, which relates the pressure of an ideal fluid in motion with its velocity and height under certain conditions, is a central topic in General Physics courses for Science and Engineering students. This equation,…
We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduates thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded…
We developed a survey to probe student understanding of quantum mechanics concepts at the beginning of graduate instruction. The survey was administered to 202 graduate students in physics enrolled in first-year quantum mechanics courses…
A survey was developed to probe student understanding of quantum mechanics at the beginning of graduate instruction. The survey was administered to 202 physics graduate students enrolled in first-year quantum mechanics courses from seven…
In our daily lives, we observe objects sinking, floating, or rising when immersed in a fluid. The Archimedes principle, which explains an object's behavior when immersed in a fluid, is important in fluid mechanics; however, it is a…
When speaking of unsolved problems in physics, this is surprising at first glance to discuss the case of fluid mechanics. However, there are many deep open questions that come with the theory of fluid mechanics. In this paper, we discuss…
Transport is one of the most important physical processes in all energy and length scales. Ideal gases and hydrodynamics are, respectively, two opposite limits of transport. Here, we present an unexpected mathematical connection between…
We report on a large-scale study of student learning of quantum tunneling in 4 traditional and 4 transformed modern physics courses. In the transformed courses, which were designed to address student difficulties found in previous research,…
In ancient times, electricity was viewed as a spirit or soul residing in an inanimate substance. A fluid image was introduced in an attempt to visualize its movement. It was also an effort to concretize its nature into the realm of physical…
We explore the difficulties that advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with non-relativistic quantum mechanics of a single particle in one spatial dimension. To investigate these difficulties we developed a conceptual survey and…
Identifying and understanding student difficulties with physics content in a wide variety of topical areas is an active research area within the PER community. In many cases, physics topics appear multiple times in different contexts across…
Many features of real granular fluids under rapid flow are exhibited as well by a system of smooth hard spheres with inelastic collisions. For such a system, it is tempting to apply standard methods of kinetic theory and hydrodynamics to…
Development of conceptual multiple-choice tests related to a particular physics topic is important for designing research-based learning tools to reduce the difficulties. We explore the difficulties that the advanced undergraduate and…
We discuss some important issues arising from computational efforts in dynamical systems and fluid dynamics. Various individuals have misunderstood these issues since the onset of these problem areas; indeed, they have been routinely…
Of the three basic states of matter, liquid is perhaps the most complex. While its flow properties are described by fluid mechanics, its thermodynamic properties are often neglected, and for many years it was widely believed that a general…
Students are taught several models of conductivity, both at the introductory and the advanced level. From early macroscopic models of current flow in circuits, through the discussion of microscopic particle descriptions of electrons flowing…
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…
The particle diffusion in a fluid is a classical topic that dates back to more than one century ago. However, a full solution to this issue still lacks. In this work the velocity autocorrelation function and the diffusion constant are…
We investigate student understanding of energy and momentum concepts at the level of introductory physics by designing and administering a 25-item multiple choice test and conducting individual interviews. We find that most students have…
We investigated the common difficulties that students have with concepts related to rotational and rolling motion covered in the introductory physics courses. We compared the performance of calculus- and algebra-based introductory physics…