物理教育
A simple model based on the maximum energy that an athlete can produce in a small time interval is used to describe the high and long jump. Conservation of angular momentum is used to explain why an athlete should run horizontally to…
This paper re-centres the discussion of student learning in physics to focus on context. In order to do so, a theoretically-motivated understanding of context is developed. Given a well-defined notion of context, data from a novel…
We present an undergraduate lab that investigates weak localization in thin silver films. The films prepared in our lab have thickness, $a$, between 60-200 \AA, a mesoscopic length scale. At low temperatures, the inelastic dephasing length…
Snell's law of light deflection between media with different indices of refraction is usually discussed in terms of the Maxwell electromagnetic wave theory. Snell's law may also be derived from a photon beam theory of light rays. This…
We report on a multi-year, multi-institution study to investigate student reasoning about energy in the context of quantum tunnelling. We use ungraded surveys, graded examination questions, individual clinical interviews, and…
A surprisingly large amount of information on our solar system can be gained from simple measurements of the apparent angular diameters of the sun and the moon. This information includes the average density of the sun, the distance between…
The scattering properties of quantum particles on fractal potentials at different stages of fractal growth are obtained by means of the transfer matrix method. This approach can be easily adopted for project assignments in introductory…
Are we smarter now than Socrates was in his time? Society as a whole certainly enjoys a higher degree of education, but humans as a species probably don't get intrinsically smarter with time. Our knowledge base, however, continues to grow…
Several Monte Carlo algorithms and applications that are useful for understanding the concepts of temperature and chemical potential are discussed. We then introduce a generalization of the demon algorithm that measures the chemical…
We discuss a case study of the influence of epistemology on learning for a student in an introductory college physics course. An analysis of videotaped class work, written work, and interviews indicates that many of the student's…
We describe a 8085 microprocessor interface developed to make reliable time period measurements. The time period of each oscillation of a simple pendulum was measured using this interface. The variation of the time period with increasing…
Acquiring the mathematical, conceptual, and problem-solving skills required in university-level physics courses is hard work, and the average student often lacks the knowledge and study skills they need to succeed in the introductory…
The thermodynamic properties of ideal quantum gases are derived solely from dimensional arguments, the Pauli principle and thermodynamic relations, without resorting to statistical mechanics.
We comment of the widespread belief among some undergraduate students that the amplitude of any harmonic oscillator in the presence of any type of friction, decays exponentially in time. To dispel that notion, we compare the amplitude decay…
We discuss a couple of simple quasistatic electromagnetic systems in which the density of electromagnetic linear momentum can be easily computed. The examples are also used to illustrate how the total electromagnetic linear momentum, which…
The electromagnetic form factors of spin-1/2 particles are known, but due to historical reasons only half of them are found in many textbooks. Given the importance of the general result, its model independence, its connection to discrete…
A simple relation is developed between elastic collisions of freely-moving point particles in one dimension and a corresponding billiard system. For two particles with masses m_1 and m_2 on the half-line x>0 that approach an elastic barrier…
A theoretical analysis about the influence of the Hertz elastic contact on a three body chain collision is presented. In spite of the elastic character of the collision, the final velocity of each particle depends on the particular…
The curve joining the points of maximum height in the parabolas of ideal projectile motion is shown to be an ellipse. Some features of the motion are illustrated with the help of such ellipse.
The asymptotic form of the plane wave decomposition into spherical waves, which is used to express the scattering amplitude in terms of phase shifts, is incorrect. We explain why and show how to circumvent the mathematical inconsistency.