A Primer in Quantum Mechanics for NMR Students
An introduction in quantum mechanical theory for NMR students which covers basic concepts and calculations.
cond-mat.other↗
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An inquiry into the reproduction of physics-phobic children by physics-phobic teachers
Recently in the authors' country Japan, the unpopularity of natural science among children has been a serious problem. Especially, physics is unpopular because physics requires mathematics. One of the reasons of this problem is that teachers themselves do not like physics. We focus our attention on the ``teachers in embryo'', namely the undergraduate students in a course for school teachers. We conducted a questionnaire and a quiz on the undergraduate students in the first grade of the Department of Science Education, Ibaraki University. We report the result of the questionnaire and the quiz, and also make suggestions to improve the present situation.
physics.ed-ph↗
The meaning of 1 in l(l+1)
The magnitude of the angular momentum ($J^2$) in quantum mechanics is larger than expected from a classical model. We explain this deviation in terms of quantum fluctuations. A standard quantum mechanical calculation gives the correct interpretation of the components of the angular momentum in the vector model in terms of projections and fluctuations. We show that the addition of angular momentum in quantum mechanics gives results consistent with the classical intuition in this vector model.
quant-ph↗
Measuring the 2D Vector Aspect of Momentum Using Only One Dimension
Without the use of cameras to record 2D motion and an appropriate analysis tool, creating a laboratory activity for students to experience the vector nature of momentum can be challenging. Even with appropriate measurement tools, it is difficult to predict the final velocities of the objects in the system unless you know the impact parameter. For accurately predicting the final velocities, the typical momentum experiment involves colliding gliders on an air track or colliding low-friction carts on a track. These one-dimensional experiments require the vector nature of momentum for correct analysis but do not require breaking the momentum vector into components. In this work we present another experiment, using this aforementioned equipment, which only requires a stopwatch, ruler, and mass balance yet requires the two-dimensional analysis of the momentum vector.
physics.ed-ph↗
Exam fairness
It is widely agreed that exams must be fair; yet what this exactly means is not made clear. One may mean fairness of treatment, but this merely propagates the fairness or unfairness of pre-existing rules. Fairness of opportunity on the other hand necessarily leads to identical grades for everyone, which clearly makes it inapplicable. Neither view is helpful to make decisions on competing claims: fairness of treatment ignores the problem and fairness of opportunity holds all claims to be equally valid. To escape this deadlock one needs an external criterion to replace fairness viewed as student-student comparison. Keywords: assessment; bias; engineering education; examinations; grading; justice; tests
physics.gen-ph↗
The European Electricity Grid System and Winter Peak Load Stress: For how long can the european grid system survive the ever increasing demand during cold winter days?
The rich countries of Western Europe and its citizens benefited during at least the last 30 years from an extraordinary stable electricity grid. This stability was achieved by the european grid system and a large flexible and reliable spare power plant capacity. This system allowed a continuous demand growth during the past 10-20 years of up to a few % per year. However, partially due to this overcapacity, no new large power plants have been completed during the past 10-15 years. The obvious consequence is that the reliable spare capacity has been reduced and that a further yearly demand growth of 1-2% for electric energy can only be achieved if new power plants will be constructed soon. Data from various European countries, provided by the UCTE, indicate that the system stress during peak load times and especially during particular cold winter days is much larger than generally assumed. In fact, the latest UCTE data on reliable power capacity indicate that already during the Winter 2007/8 only a few very cold winter days in Western Europe could have resulted in very unpleasant supply problems during the early evening peak load times in France and the neighboring countries. An analysis of the potential to build and operate new power plants demonstrates that no short term solution, which allows a further continuous 1-2% consumption growth seems to exist. Thus, without any action from the various governments in Europe to reduce the electricity demand in a serious way, the risk of blackouts will increase dramatically in the near future. Instead of simply waiting for the blackout disaster to happen, a few simple short term political actions are suggested.
physics.soc-ph↗
Teaching superfluidity at the introductory level
Standard introductory modern physics textbooks do not exactly dwell on superfluidity in 4He. Typically, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is mentioned in the context of an ideal Bose gas, followed by the statement that BEC happens in 4He and that the ground state of 4He exhibits many interesting properties such as having zero viscosity. Not only does this approach not explain in any way why 4He becomes a superfluid, it denies students the opportunity to learn about the far reaching consequences of energy gaps as they develop in both superfluids and superconductors. We revisit superfluid 4He by starting with Feynman's explanation of superfluidity based on Bose statistics as opposed to BEC, and we present exercises for the students that allow them to arrive at a very accurate estimate of the superfluid transition temperature and of the energy gap separating the ground state from the first excited state. This paper represents a self-contained account of superfluidity, which can be covered in one or two lessons in class.
cond-mat.supr-con↗
Considerations for Anderson-Bridge Experiment
Various issues concerned with the design and sensitivity of the Anderson bridge are discussed. We analyse the circuit using the tools of Network Analysis to determine the conditions under which the balance may be obtained with greater sensitivity and discuss how to obtain these under practical circumstances in an undergraduate laboratory.
physics.class-ph↗
Heuristic model of teaching
A simple physical model differentiates effective from ineffective teaching and identifies elements that make teaching productive, with specific implications concerning training of teachers.
physics.ed-ph↗
Experimentos simples demostrando algunas propiedades de lentes difractivas y redes espirales
We introduce some new experiments where light diffraction is demonstrated with simple elements: white light diffraction with a coin, construction of a diffractive lens by holography, diffraction properties in digital discs and an interesting experiment that generates images with them. This experiments lead to the idea of a new optics that is entirely diffractive, which is a trend in development for its construction facilities, weight reduction and other benefits it causes.
physics.ed-ph↗
Are Self-explaining and Coached Problem Solving More Effective When Done by Pairs of Students Than Alone?
Although cognitive science has discovered several methods for increasing the learning of complex skills, such as physics problem solving, detailed examination of verbal protocols suggests there is still room for improvement. Basically, students do not always apply the meta-cognitive strategies that the instruction invites. For instance, when prompted to self-explain, students may still choose to not explain. We conjecture that most students know which meta-cognitive strategies are good and bad. When they work in pairs, they are more likely to choose the good strategies. We hypothesize that social accountability improves meta-cognitive strategy choice, which thereby improves learning. Our experiment compared individuals and pairs learning from state-of-the-art instruction. The results suggest that the dyads solved more problems and requested fewer hints during problem solving than individuals. We also discovered a new form of self-explanation, wherein students generate explanations to account for the differences between their solutions and the instructor's.
physics.ed-ph↗
Productive Dialog During Collaborative Problem Solving
Collaboration is an important problem-solving skill; however, novice collaboration generally benefits from some kind of support. One possibility for supporting productive conversations between collaborators is to encourage pairs of students to provide explanations for their problem-solving steps. To test this possibility, we contrasted individuals who were instructed to self-explain problem-solving steps with dyads who were instructed to jointly explain problem-solving steps in the context of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). The results suggest that collaboratively developed explanations prompted students to remediate their errors in dialog, as opposed to relying on the ITS for assistance, which is provided in the form of on-demand hints. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for combining proven learning interventions.
physics.ed-ph↗
The Theory of Relativity - Galileo's Child
We determine the Lorentz transformations and the kinematic content and dynamical framework of special relativity as purely an extension of Galileo's thoughts. No reference to light is ever required: The theories of relativity are logically independent of any properties of light. The thoughts of Galileo are fully realized in a system of Lorentz transformations with a parameter 1/c^2, some undetermined, universal constant of nature; and are realizable in no other. Isotropy of space plays a deep and pivotal role in all of this, since here three-dimensional space appears at first blush, and persists until the conclusion: Relativity can never correctly be fully developed in just one spatial dimension.
physics.class-ph↗
Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Opening a New Window on the Universe for Students, Educators and the Public
The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are produced by some of the most energetic and dramatic phenomena in the cosmos, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae. The detection of gravitational waves will help to address a number of fundamental questions in physics, from the evolution of stars and galaxies to the origin of dark energy and the nature of space-time itself. Moreover, the cutting-edge technology developed to search for gravitational waves is pushing back the frontiers of many fields, from lasers and materials science to high performance computing, and thus provides a powerful showcase for the attractions and challenges of a career in science and engineering. For several years a worldwide network of ground-based laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors has been fully operational, including the two LIGO detectors in the United States. These detectors are already among the most sensitive scientific instruments on the planet and in the next few years their sensitivity will achieve further significant improvement. Those developments promise to open an exciting new window on the Universe, heralding the arrival of gravitational-wave astronomy as a revolutionary, new observational field. In this paper we describe the extensive program of public outreach activities already undertaken by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and a number of special events which we are planning for IYA2009.
physics.ed-ph↗
Teacher Learning of Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment
Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) is a pedagogy for teaching with classroom response technology. Teacher Learning of TEFA is a five-year research project studying teacher change, in the context of an intensive professional development program designed to help science and mathematics teachers learn TEFA. First, we provide an overview of the project's participating teachers, its intervention (consisting of the technology, the pedagogy, and the professional development program), and its research design. Then, we present narratives describing the unfolding change process experienced by four teachers. Afterward, we present some preliminary findings of the research, describe a "model for the co-evolution of teacher and pedagogy" that we are developing, and identify general implications for professional development.
physics.ed-ph↗
Astronomy at school: present situation and future perspectives
Both the basic educational contents for students and study programs for science teachers include several topics in physics and astronomy, from the simplest ones to others as advanced as nuclear fusion to explain stellar evolution and space-time geometry for an approach to modern cosmology. In all these subjects, and most often in the simplest ones, alternative conceptions emerge, as both groups reach science course with preconstructed and consistent models of the universe surrounding them. In this work we present a series of basic questionings that make us reflect on the present situation of the teaching-learning relationship in astronomy within the framework of formal education. We then briefly explain our project aiming at finding the real learning situation of both students and prospective primary-school teachers in astronomical topics and, from the expected results of it, we point towards the need to develop didactic tools that could contribute to improve formal education in astronomy issues.
physics.ed-ph↗
Support of Study on Engineering Technology from Physics and Mathematics
An approach that provides students with an ability to transfer learning in physics and mathematics to the engineering-technology courses through e-teaching and e-learning process is proposed. E-modules of courses in mathematics, physics, computer systems technology, and electrical and telecommunications engineering technology have been developed. These modules being used in the Blackboard and Web-based communications systems create a virtual interdisciplinary learning community, which helps the students to transfer knowledge from physics and mathematics to their study in engineering technology.
physics.ed-ph↗
A student designed experiment measuring the speed of sound as a function of altitude
Relatively inexpensive and readily commercially available equipment (such as digital recorders, MP3 portable speakers and tie-pin microphones), allowed a team of students from McNeese State University to measure the speed of sound in the atmosphere as a function of altitude. The experiment was carried as a payload (in the context of a NASA funded student program called La-ACES) on a high altitude balloon that reached a maximum altitude of 101,000 feet. Not withstanding substantial environmental noise, our particular experimental design allowed for the filtering of the signal out of the noise, thus achieving remarkable accuracy and precision. The speed of sound measurement was then used to set limits on the abundances of the main molecular components of the atmosphere (diatomic nitrogen and oxygen). Bayesian analysis was used to set meaningful values on the uncertainty of our limits. It is our experience that students find intutive and appealing this type of probability method.
physics.ed-ph↗