Misconceptions in Special Relativity – An Argument for Augmentation of the Modern Physics Course
Date
2019-04
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Florida Southern College
Abstract
[...] The data seems to imply that the physics community is not as well aware of the capabilities of special relativity as they should be. This data also hints that the issue is a systemic one, as faculty may not truly understand what they are teaching at the level necessary to teach the subject. The rectifying of this misconception is not difficult, especially with
the mathematical background every physicist must obtain over the course of their undergraduate career. The only mathematical tools necessary to eradicate this misconception from the students’ (or faculty members’) mind is a background through Calculus 2, which is a course taken by most physicists their freshman year in college.Since Modern Physics is sophomore level course, there appears to be no good reason not to address this misconception head-on by solving non-inertial problems in a Modern Physics course. It would be prudent moving forward to identify and employ an expedient teaching method that can effectively rectify this misconception directly, and
this will be a topic of future work.
Description
Honors thesis Spring 2019
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Keywords
Special relativity (Physics), Physics