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Re: Demos, simulations, and activities for Modern Physics



Check out the Visual Quantum Mechanics home page at Kansas State University.
It's developers gave a presentation at the Nebraska AAPT fall meeting last
week, and it has some very impressive software, and some hands-on experiments.
One goal was to introduce Quantum Mechanics at an earlier stage than is
currently done.

Their URL is
http://bluegiant.phys.ksu.edu/dvi/vqm/vqm.html

At 08:24 AM 10/29/96 -0400, you wrote:
Hi, Everyone,

Next semester I will be teaching a conceptual physics course for
non-science majors. I plan to use the text "Physics for Poets" by Robert
March, focusing on the development of classical physics, special and
general relativity, and quantum mechanics. While there are many great
demonstrations available to illustrate concepts in classical physics, I
don't know of many for topics in modern physics (relativity and quantum
mechanics) since they are removed from our everyday experience.
I would like to enlist the help of all those on this list for
suggestions on how to make the topics of modern physics more real to my
students. What demonstrations, computer simulations, and/or other
activities have you found useful in illustrating (in a fun and stimulating
way!) the far-out concepts of relativity (special and general) and quantum
mechanics to non-science students?
Thanks in advance for your help!!!


Dennis


***********************************************************************
* Dennis E. Krause Phone:(413) 597-3306 *
* Department of Physics Fax: (413) 597-4116 *
* Williams College Dennis.E.Krause@williams.edu *
* Williamstown, MA 01267 *
***********************************************************************





Stanley J. McCaslin Inet: mccaslin@bobcat.peru.edu
Assistant Professor, Computer Science Phone:402/872-2208
Peru State College, Peru, NE 68421 Home: 402/872-7595

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