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Re: Demos, simulations, and activities for Modern Physics



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?


One of the most popular and memorable demonstrations from the one
time I had a chance to teach an introductory modern physics course
was a cloud chamber. You get get a table top cloud chamber for a
couple of hundred bucks. An aluminum plate rests on a big cake of
dry ice, and cloths soaked in alcohol produce a cloud for about 10cm
above the plate. Clear pexiglass sides keep out breezes. All you
need is a desk lamp to illuminate the rig from the side, and you can
clearly see the tracks from cosmic ray debris. You can also see
radon decays, but you have to stare long and hard to identify those
in real time.

I fear I don't recall what company made the unit I used; they were
located in Madison WI and advertised in Physics Today about five
years ago.

JEG

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John E. Gastineau
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