Newton was obliged to give his laws of motion as fundamental axioms. But today we know that the quantum world is fundamental, and Newton's laws can be seen as consequences of fundamental quantum laws. This article traces this transition from fundamental quantum mechanics to derived classical mechanics.
This article shows how relativity can be introduced in four stages, each building on those before it, but the teacher can choose to stop after whichever stage he/she believes the pupils are capable of tackling.
Choosing how far to goMany A-level students are eager to know something about relativity. They are excited by the strange ideas they have heard about: for example, time dilation and the mysterious equation E = mc 2 . But their initial interest is liable to evaporate quickly when faced with Lorentz transformations and some quite intricate algebra.My message in this article is that doing less may achieve more. I shall suggest a sequence of steps, after each of which-even after the first-one might reasonably stop, satisfied that something of the essence of relativistic thinking has been put on show.The steps are
A game is described in which students can use random numbers according to simple rules to simulate an Einstein model of a crystal and produce a Boltzmann distribution. Computer films exploit the game further to show heat flow rom hot to cold as a random process and to establish other results as a basis for further teaching on entropy. The theoretical status of the game is discussed in detail, and possible developments of other games are briefly considered.
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