{"title":"A hands-on activity to introduce the structure of NV-center quantum bits in diamond","authors":"Rutger Ockhorst, Lodewijk Koopman, Freek Pols","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad4765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad4765","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 For the start of a secondary school level lesson series on quantum computing, we designed a hands-on modeling activity where students construct a model diamond lattice with a nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect. NV centers find application as qubits and sensitive magnetometers. This activity aims to help students visualize the structure of such NV centers within the diamond lattice, making the subject matter more tangible. The activity has proven to be challenging but feasible. It features both collaborative and competitive elements thereby surely creating an energizing buzz in the classroom.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"42 15","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141119000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Planets, springs and pendulums","authors":"Stephen Hughes, Mark Young","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad48f1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad48f1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Seeing connections between different areas of physics is a good way to teach physics. In the orbit of a planet, there is a continuous interchange between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy with the sum being constant. This is essentially the same physics as a mass on the end of a spring, or a pendulum. In this paper, equivalent spring constants are calculated for planetary orbits and the pendulum equation used to derive Kepler’s third law.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"6 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140962138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Observation of gas flow around plants using Schlieren imaging system and high-refractive-index gas","authors":"Akihiro Matsutani","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad42f8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad42f8","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The fruits of many plant are carried and flowers are also swayed by the wind. If the flow of air around plants can be visualized, the science behind it will be interestingly illustrated. In this study, the gas flow around cherry blossom fruits, clover flowers, maple seed propellers, and dandelion pappi as spherical and propeller-shaped samples is demonstrated using a Schlieren optical system and a high-refractive-index gas. The observed gas flow corresponding to the sample shape was well characterized by fluid dynamics features such as the Coandă effect. The results of experiments in which the flow of gas around plants is visualized are useful as a scientific education material for fluidics and optics.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"35 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140981236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying residual oil in a household oil tank","authors":"Fionn Downes","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad424d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad424d","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 On a chilly evening, a practical challenge was posed to 2nd level students taking an extra-curricular math class: Imagine a household cylindrical oil tank lying on its side. How could we determine how much heating oil remains in the tank? In this paper, we ask students to engage in mathematical deduction to devise methods for approximating a solution to this intriguing engineering problem. The only tools that we have access to are measuring tape, and a long clean stick, so resourcefulness becomes key. We establish a mathematical relationship between the parameters that we have access to measure and the volume of oil that remains in the tank. Expanding the scope, we encapsulate this solution within a Jupyter Notebook (Python), allowing for the calculation of oil in any cylindrical tank.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"28 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140979933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Hachmi, A. Ouariach, R. Essaadaoui, M. El Hadi, A. El Moussaouy
{"title":"Impact of the place of lightwave in secondary school curricula on conceptual understanding of their basic concepts: a moroccan case study","authors":"A. Hachmi, A. Ouariach, R. Essaadaoui, M. El Hadi, A. El Moussaouy","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad424e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad424e","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We aim to highlight the importance of using Huygens’ geometric model when instructing high school students about light. To achieve this, we conducted a research study on teaching lightwaves in Morocco’s secondary schools. We investigated how the place of the lightwave in this teaching affects understanding its basic concepts. We carried out a two-dimensional analysis to examine the place of the lightwave in the high school physics curriculum. We administered a test to assess the conceptual understanding of secondary school and university students. The analysis of the curricula revealed several shortcomings in the teaching of geometrical and wave optics. Furthermore, the assessment of conceptual understanding revealed that a significant proportion of students have misconceptions about the wave concepts of lightwaves and that these misconceptions persist throughout their higher education.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"13 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140979558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Olga Lucía Castiblanco Abril, Diego Fabián Vizcaíno Arévalo
{"title":"Taking on a new meaning of physics mathematization for teaching in teacher education processes","authors":"Olga Lucía Castiblanco Abril, Diego Fabián Vizcaíno Arévalo","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad422a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad422a","url":null,"abstract":"This is a documented reflection that seeks to characterize an alternative conception of the ‘mathematization of physics for teaching’. The reflection was made on the academic production of the research group ‘Teaching and learning of physics’. This group has posed a sequence of research questions has been raised to find out how physics teachers understand the relationship between physics and mathematics in the physics teaching process. In 2003 they studied the idea of ‘mathematical beauty’ in the early days of quantum mechanics, suggesting that there would be a difference between the way scientists assume the physical/mathematical relationship and the way physics is taught. In 2010, they wondered if there would be research in this field that would allow transformations in teaching focused on equations as the set of mathematical–physical relationships, finding that there are at least three trends. In 2019, they verified that despite the research in the literature, many students continue with the same reductionist idea about this relationship. In 2020, they made a proposal, showing a possibility of educating the teacher’s thinking for new understandings in this regard. The main conclusion is that it is possible to develop mathematization processes in the classroom from three specific phases that educate scientific thinking. The first phase tries to make the student aware of the existence of phenomenology and describe it. The second phase educates the study of nature in a systematic way, building the meaning of the organization of a physical system. The third phase promotes explanation and argument so that students achieve an explanatory model. These phases are configured as a criterion to guide the sequence of activities in a class, a set of classes or a complete course and have been worked on and tested in ‘physics didactics’ courses in a physics teacher training course.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140930365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kinematics of the barn-pole paradox","authors":"P-M Binder","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad4229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad4229","url":null,"abstract":"Several ways are shown to solve this famous paradox of special relativity, including two that involve calculations exclusively in one of the inertial frames.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140930051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Line and load regulation: a microcontroller-based experiment","authors":"Fatih Önder","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad40ef","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad40ef","url":null,"abstract":"Voltage regulators, the most common application of Zener diodes, are included in many electronic devices we use in our daily lives. Therefore, students need to learn about regulators to understand the place of Zener diodes in modern electronic technologies. This study focuses on a microcontroller-based experiment that can be used to teach line and load regulation with real-time graphics. The main advantage of the designed experiment over its classical equivalent is its ability to display autonomous and real-time data display. It also eliminates the problem of determining the load resistance, which is the main difficulty of the classical experiment.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140929993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pendulum with a large bob","authors":"Kritsada Tadta, Pattarapon Tanalikhit, Wittaya Kanchanapusakit","doi":"10.1088/1361-6552/ad4444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad4444","url":null,"abstract":"By measuring the period of oscillations, a suspended bob is used to determine the local gravitational acceleration <italic toggle=\"yes\">g</italic>. When modelling the system as either a simple pendulum or a physical pendulum, the measured <italic toggle=\"yes\">g</italic> is found to be less than the accepted value as the size of the bob increases. With a given bob’s size, the simple pendulum measures <italic toggle=\"yes\">g</italic> to be slightly higher than the physical pendulum does.","PeriodicalId":39773,"journal":{"name":"Physics Education","volume":"2014 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140929996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}