Re: Demos, simulations, and activities for Modern Physics

["Paul Camp" <pjcamp@coastal.edu>]

> Dennis Krause asked:
>
> >        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?
>
> and he was rewarded with computer simulations. Will these really help any
> students (especially humanities students) appreciate the reality of the
> phenomena under discussion? I don't think they will; they certainly would
> not have convinced me.
....Some good suggested activities deleted...

> While it may be impossible to demonstrate the quantization of charge to a
> class, it is possible to show them the apparatus and to get a TV view of
> what happens when one switches the electric field.
>
>
> Leigh

It is a little difficult to understand how this activity is a 
material improvement on a simulation however.

And at any rate, there are some things you only have a hope of doing 
by simulation, either because the equipment to do them properly is 
far too expensive to be accessible to the class (e.g. a particle 
accelerator) or doesn't exist (e.g. a spacecraft that travels at 
relativistic speeds).

An example of the value of a simulation is the program Spacetime. If 
you want your students to understand the importance of distinguishing 
between spacelike and timelike sequences of events, the loss of any 
notion of simultaneity, and the importance of these ideas in 
resolving some of the bizarre "paradoxes" of relativity, your choises 
are: natter on and on about it, give them paper and pencil exercises 
that are rather tedious and impose a great distance between the 
problem and the solution, or simulate a few of them on Spacetime and 
play around with the reference frames until you get it to work out. I 
think that has some value. Practical experiments at relativistic 
speeds don't exist for the most part. The alternative is a completely 
abstract experience.

Paul J. Camp                   "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics  consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University     in variety but also of 
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