摘要:

Prepared at the request of the AAPT Committee on Resource Letters; supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.This is one of a series of Resource Letters on different topics, intended to guide college physicists to some of the literature and other teaching aids that may help them improve course contents in specified fields of physics. No Resource Letter is meant to be exhaustive and complete; in time there may be more than one letter on some of the main subjects of interest. Comments and suggestions concerning the content and arrangement of letters as well as suggestions for future topics will be welcomed. Please send such communications to Professor Arnold Arons, Chairman Resource Letter Committee, Department of Physics, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.Notation:The letterEafter an item number indicateselementarylevel, useful principally for freshman liberal arts through sophomore physics courses; the letterIindicatesintermediate(junior, senior) level; and the letterAindicatesadvancedmaterial principally suited for senior, graduate study. An asterisk (*) indicates items particularly recommended for introductory study.Additional copies:Available from American Institute of Physics, 335 East 45 Street, New York, New York 10017. When ordering, request Resource Letter MOP-1 and enclose a stamped return envelope. A small booklet containing reprints of some of the fundamental references will soon be available for purchase from the American Institute of Physics.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970865

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The concept of gyroscopic precession is frequently one of the most difficult encountered by beginning physics students. A new method of presenting this material is suggested which follows logically from the usual studies of uniformly accelerated linear and angular motions.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970867

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

It is pointed out that, if classical mechanics is to be regarded as a limiting case of quantum mechanics, then it must admit superpositions of states, which are generally regarded as unacceptable. To avoid this it is proposed that classical mechanics be described by a nonlinear equation which is equivalent to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and is not always the limit of the Schrödinger equation. It is conjectured that the transition from the wave-mechanical equation to the classical equation is characterized by a massm0 = ħc/γ12 ≈ 10−5g. This nonlinear equation may help one to understand the process of measurement of a quantum-mechanical system by means of a classical measuring instrument.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970870

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

In Aristotle's physics, any motion of a heavy body was either natural (toward the earth's center) or forced (away from the center). Every forced motion was required to have an external mover. For projectiles, the medium was invoked as mover. These rules precluded a true science of dynamics. Galileo, following some earlier critics, noted that rotatory motion of homogeneous spheres would be neither natural nor forced under Aristotle's definition. Investigating such “neutral” motions, he saw that they would include the motion of a heavy body over a frictionless surface concentric with the earth. Hence, motion once imparted to a body on a horizontal plane would be perpetual, and Galileo declared that a heavy body is indifferent to motion or rest in the horizontal plane and would forever remain in whichever state it was given. This restricted principle of inertia enabled Galileo and his followers to found the science of dynamics, by which physics was immeasurably advanced, though he neglected to state explicitly the general inertial principle as formulated two years after his death by Pierre Gassendi and René Descartes.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970872

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

In the usual treatment of the field theory of the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation, there are more dynamical variables than is warranted by the number of degrees of freedom. This causes difficulties in the canonical quantization. Working in momentum space it is possible to eliminate the extra dynamical variables, leaving a number of independent dynamical variables appropriate to the number of degrees of freedom. The canonical commutation relations can then be applied in a straightforward manner.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970873

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

A straightforward derivation is given for the Hermitian operatorpr ≡ 1r ħi δδrrcorresponding to the radial component of linear momentum in the central force problem. The purpose is purely pedagogical; we believe that the radial term of the Schrödinger equation in spherical coordinates is more comprehensible when it appears in the form(pr2/2m)ψ = [(1r ħi δδrr)2/2m]ψthan when it appears, as it does in most textbooks, in the form−ħ22mr2 δδr[r2δδr]ψ. The latter expression is usually arrived at by a tedious transformation of variable done “in the appendix”; instead one may deriveprwith a minimum of algebra and with the focus where it belongs, on the concepts of quantum mechanics.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970875

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

It is shown that the sign of a magnetic monopole can be given an absolute significance, and not merely a relative significance. This is a consequence of the following three properties of our universe: (a) the existence of electromagnetism, (b) the existence of parity nonconserving weak interactions, and (c) the nonsymmetry with respect to the two directions of time which is manifest in the second law of thermodynamics and the expansion of the universe.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970877

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The intensities of known electron, proton, and photon beams are compared to the intensity of a saturated beam of fermions, providing direct experimental evidence for the boson nature of photons.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970879

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

After reviewing trends in general courses in college physics, the author discusses potential objectives in teaching the history of physics, viz., cultural, pedagogical, research. He emphasizes the necessity for a cultural bridge that will include history, philosophy, and science (the basic course preferably given by a scientist, if an understanding of science is a primary goal). With respect to pedgagogy, he stresses the need for an approach that is immediately functional, but directed toward ultimate understanding. The author's particular concern here is the unique contribution of the history of physics to comprehensive understanding and research training (preferably in the senior year). In addition to the correlating review, a course along this line affords insights into important lessons of the past, the ensnaring involvment of the present and guiding directions for the future, as well as hereditary physics and its social matrix.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970881

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

This paper presents relatively unknown, though not new, theorems applicable to a real axially symmetrical optical system. It treats the situation where rays leaving a particular axial object pointOin object space are assumed to image perfectly at axial image pointO′. A ray throughOat angle α with the axis passes throughO′at angle α′ with the axis. The Abbe and Herschel conditions state the required functional relationship between α and α′ to ensure that rays fromPimage perfectly intoP′, whenPis infinitesimally displaced fromOperpendicular to, or parallel to the axis, respectively. The formulas derived here give the detailed variation ofβ1,β2, and γ in terms of the functional relation between α and α′, independent of the further specification of the system. They are derived using Fermat's theorem and the second law of thermodynamics. Hereβ1,β2, and γ represent, respectively, the meridional (primary) lateral magnification, the sagittal (secondary) lateral magnification, and the longitudinal magnification relative to small displacements fromO. The variation ofβ1andβ2with α specifies the coma figure, while the variation of γ gives the longitudinal spherical aberration for an axially displaced object point.

ISSN:0002-9505    

DOI:10.1119/1.1970883

出版商:American Association of Physics Teachers    

年代:1964

数据来源: AIP