相关论文: Student understanding of time in special relativit…

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…

Several physical concepts, including the concept of time, are clarified herein by taking into account existing experimental data. In addition, the missing links among these physical concepts are established. This allows us to take another…

Some studies interpret quantum measurement as being explicitly non local. Others assume the preferred frame hypothesis. Unfortunately, these two classes of studies conflict with Minkowski space-time geometry. On the contrary, in Aristotle…

One of the objectives of the undergraduate physics curriculum is for students to become aware of the connections between the fundamental principles of classical physics and their personal experience. Nonetheless, numerous studies have shown…

For over a century Minkowskian spacetime has dominated discussions of space contraction and time dilation within special relativity. Brown and Pooley have called into question both the assumptions of Minkowski and the effects his presumed…

We put forward a new view of relativity theory that makes the existence of a flow of time compatible with the four-dimensional block universe. To this end, we apply the creation-discovery view elaborated for quantum mechanics to relativity…

Investigations related to expertise in problem solving and ability to transfer learning from one context to another are important for developing strategies to help students perform more expert-like tasks. Here we analyze written responses…

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…

In this pedagogical article, we explore a powerful language for describing the notion of spacetime and particle dynamics intrinsic to a given fundamental physical theory, focusing on special relativity and its Newtonian limit. The starting…

Besides two fundamental postulates, (i) the principle of relativity and (ii) the constancy of the speed of light in all inertial frames of reference, special relativity uses the assumption about the Euclidean structures of gravity-free…

This contribution shows that the main topics of Relativity can be discussed at an elementary level and in a considerable extent - including the formal results of "Time Dilation" and "Lorentz Contraction" - by a minor modification of the…

I examine the results obtained so far in exploring the recent proposal of theories of the relativistic transformations between inertial observers that involve both an observer-independent velocity scale and an observer-independent…

While the relation between visualization and scientific understanding has been a topic of long-standing discussion, recent developments in physics have pushed the boundaries of this debate to new and still unexplored realms. For it is…

The invariance of the speed of light in all inertial frames - the second postulate of special theory of relativity (STR) - is shown to be an inevitable consequence of the relativity principle of special theory of relativity taken in…

In this paper, inspired by quantum field theory, or more specifically QED, we propose a dynamical model for relativity. By adopting the approach provided by this dynamical model, we provide a dynamical explanation for relativistic phenomena…

The concept of velocity dependent mass, relativistic mass, is examined and is found to be inconsistent with the geometrical formulation of special relativity. This is not a novel result; however, many continue to use this concept and some…

The modern view, that there exists a preferred frame of reference related to the cosmic microwave background (CMB), is in apparent contradiction with the principles of special relativity. The purpose of the present study is to develop a…

This article presents a simple model that reproduces key concepts of modern cosmology within the framework of special relativity, at a level that is suitable for an undergraduate or high school setting. The model includes cosmic expansion…

If textbook Lorentz invariance is actually a property of the equations describing a sector of matter above some critical distance scale, several sectors of matter with different critical speeds in vacuum can coexist and an absolute rest…

Uncertainty is an important concept in physics laboratory instruction. However, little work has examined how students reason about uncertainty beyond the introductory (intro) level. In this work we aimed to compare intro and beyond-intro…