Related papers: Some Remarks about Variable Mass Systems
Where does what happens happen in a quantum system? The standard textbook formulation of quantum mechanics provides a strange, imprecise and yet successful-in-practice answer to this question. In the struggle to unify our understanding of…
This Resource Letter provides some guidance on issues that arise in teaching general relativity at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Particular emphasis is placed on strategies for presenting the mathematical material needed for…
Using theoretical and numerical arguments we discuss some of the commonly accepted approximations for the radiative transfer equations in climatology.
The finite scope of the some elementary interactions is usually presented to Physics students as a natural consequence of the time-energy uncertainty relation. It is demonstrated that this heuristic derivation is not a priori valid.…
This is the first in a series of papers that analyze college student beliefs in realms where common astronomy misconceptions are prevalent. Data was collected through administration of an inventory distributed at the end of an introductory…
We discuss how a class of difficult kinematic problems can play an important role in an introductory course in stimulating students' reasoning on more complex physical situations. The problems presented here have an elementary analysis once…
The main topic of this article is a discussion about the best way to show students that the proportionality of mass and weight, strictly true for point-like particles, is an excellent approximation for objects of "normal" size. The usual…
We present a method for incorporating a stochastic point of view into physics exercises of mathematics education. The core of our method is the randomization of some inputs, the system model used does not differ from what we would use in…
Does the mass of bodies depend on their velocity? Is the mass additive if separate bodies are joined together to form a composite system? Is the mass of an isolated system conserved? Different teachers of physics and specialists give…
Several concrete examples in quantum information are discussed to demonstrate the importance of proper modeling that relates the mathematical description to real-world applications. In particular, it is shown that some commonly accepted…
General relativity poses serious problems for counterfactual propositions peculiar to it as a physical theory. Because these problems arise solely from the dynamical nature of spacetime geometry, they are shared by all schools of thought on…
Multiple testing problems arise naturally in scientific studies because of the need to capture or convey more information with more variables. The literature is enormous, but the emphasis is primarily methodological, providing numerous…
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…
It is becoming common to hear teaching advice about spending more time on the "physics of the problem" so that students will get more physical insight and develop a stronger intuition that can be very helpful when thinking about physics…
The aim of the present article is to give an exact and correct representation of the essentially important part of modern special relativity theory that touches upon the behavior of the proper length of accelerated moving bodies.In…
We show the traditional rocket problem, where the ejecta velocity is assumed constant, can be reduced to an integral quadrature of which the completely non-relativistic equation of Tsiolkovsky, as well as the fully relativistic equation…
Flaws and ambiguities are pointed out upon examining the comment attempting to solve a problem as raised recently --- the currently accepted formulation of electromagnetic radiation of an accelerated charge violates the principle of…
Interpretations of key concepts, such as uncertainty relations, kinetic energy, value of an observable, probability distributions, the projection or collapse of a wave function postulate, and discrete versus continuous values, that appear…
Most introductory physics textbooks ask students to ignore air resistance but include no analysis of the appropriateness of that approximation. Indeed the approximation is inappropriate in many textbook problems. This short supplementary…
Teaching cosmology at the undergraduate or high school level requires simplifications and analogies, and inevitably brings the teacher into contact with at least one of the pedagogical interpretations of the expanding universe. The by far…