物理教育
We present a brief historical introduction to the motivations behind quantum mechanics and quantum field theory on noncommutative spacetime and provide an insightful technique, readily accessible to the undergraduate student, to examine the…
Relying on the equivalence principle, a first approach of the general theory of relativity is presented using the spacetime metric of an observer with a constant proper acceleration. Within this non inertial frame, the equation of motion of…
Optimum projection angles for achieving maximum horizontal range in throwing and jumping events are considerably less than 45 degrees. This unexpected result arise because an athlete can generate a greater projection velocity at low…
This article describes a simple method for using a PC soundcard to accurately measure bullet velocity. The method involves placing the microphone within a foot of the muzzle and firing at a steel target between 50 and 100 yards away. The…
This article is intended for physics educators and students at school and undergraduate level. It is used at our department to introduce students to simulation and offer a guide in using statistics in physics. The simulation code was…
I discuss how to estimate the gas mileage of a car. This discussion, which covers air resistance and Reynolds numbers, describes one way to introduce dimensional analysis and order-of-magnitude physics into introductory physics (if only the…
Should teachers concentrate on critical thinking, estimation, measurement, and graphing rather than college-clone algorithmic physics in grades K--12? Thus far physics education research offers little substantive guidance. Mathematics…
In a previous work we have shown that the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment in vacuum is deeply connected with the notion of time. The same is true for the the postulate of constancy of the two-way speed of light in vacuum in…
Highly successful students, as measured by grades and by scores on the Force Concept Inventory, still struggle with fundamental concepts in mathematics and physics. These difficulties, which turn physics into parrot learning and include…
We write a computer program that uses the recursion relation to calculate wave function in the harmonic-oscillator potential for specified values of E/hv (with its deviation 0.001) containing only even numbers of v (0,2,4,...). In this…
We show in details the four quantum key distribution protocols which initiated the important field of quantum cryptography, using an accessible language for undergraduate students. We begin presenting the BB84 protocol, which uses…
The basic laws of geometrical optics can be deduced from energy-momentum conservation for electromagnetic waves, without other wave concepts. However, the concept of quanta is required; it arises naturally, hence such a hypothesis could…
Based on the Bohr's correspondence principle it is shown that relativistic mechanics and quantum mechanics may be considered as generalizations of classical mechanics. A comparative description of relativistic and classical mechanics is…
It is the purpose of this manuscript to place an illustrative demonstration on the measurement of damped electromagnetic oscillations for a RLC circuit that it is easy to set in any physics laboratory equipped with PASCO technologies and…
Textbooks frequently extol plate tectonics theory without questioning what might be wrong with the theory or without discussing a competitive theory. How can students be taught to challenge popular ideas when they are only presented a…
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…
Although relativistic electrodynamics is more than 100 year old, there is one neglected topic in its presentation and application: relativistic transformations of electromagnetic integrals. Whereas in theoretical and applied electrodynamics…
Hylleraas in 1929 carried out a variational computation on the Schrodinger equation for the helium atom which gave, for the first time, a ground-state energy in essential agreement with experimental results. Coolidge and James in 1933,…
GRTensorJ - Books is an active interface to a small part of the computer algebra systems GRTensorII (for Maple) and GRTensorM (for Mathematica) with the specific intent of providing students of General Relativity with an advanced…
In special relativity, spacetime algebra (STA) provides a powerful and insightful approach to an invariant formulation of physics. However, in this geometric algebra of spacetime, relativistic physics is usually considered a misnomer: STA…