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European Journal of Physics

A mechanical wave system to show waveforms similar to quantum mechanical wavefunctions in a potential

Sergej Faletič

Published Mar 27, 2015• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Interviews with students suggest that even though they understand the formalism and the formal nature of quantum theory, they still often desire a mental picture of what the equations describe and some tangible experience with the wavefunctions. Here we discuss a mechanical wave system capable of reproducing correctly a mechanical equivalent of a quantum system in a potential, and the resulting waveforms in principle of any form. We have successfully reproduced the finite potential well, the potential barrier and the parabolic potential. We believe that these mechanical waveforms can provide a valuable experience base for introductory students to start from. We aim to show that mechanical systems that are described with the same mathematics as quantum mechanical, indeed behave in the same way. We believe that even if treated purely as a wave phenomenon, the system provides much insight into wave mechanics. This can be especially useful for physics teachers and others who often need to resort to concepts and experience rather than mathematics when explaining physical phenomena.

DOI
10.1088/0143-0807/36/3/035023

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Abstract Interviews with students suggest that even though they understand the formalism and the formal nature of quantum theory, they still often desire a mental picture of what the equations describe and some tangible experience with the wavefunctions. Here we discuss a mechanical wave system capable of reproducing correctly a mechanical equivalent of a quantum system in a potential, and the resulting waveforms in principle of any form. We have successfully reproduced the finite potential well, the potential barrier and the parabolic potential. We believe that these mechanical waveforms can provide a valuable experience base for introductory students to start from. We aim to show that mechanical systems that are described with the same mathematics as quantum mechanical, indeed behave in the same way. We believe that even if treated purely as a wave phenomenon, the system provides much insight into wave mechanics. This can be especially useful for physics teachers and others who often need to resort to concepts and experience rather than mathematics when explaining physical phenomena.
Abstract Quantum mechanics (QM) forms the most crucial ingredient of modern-era physical science curricula at undergraduate level. The abstract ideas involved in QM related concepts pose a challenge towards appropriate visualization as a consequence of their counter-intuitive nature and lack of experiment-assisted visualization tools. At the heart of the quantum mechanical formulation lies the concept of ‘wavefunction’, which forms the basis for understanding the behavior of physical systems. At undergraduate level, the concept of ‘wavefunction’ is introduced in an abstract framework using mathematical tools and therefore opens up an enormous scope for alternative conceptions and erroneous visualization. The present work is an attempt towards exploring the visualization models constructed by undergraduate students for appreciating the concept of ‘wavefunction’. We present a qualitative analysis of the data obtained from administering a questionnaire containing four visualization based questions on the topic of ‘wavefunction’ to a group of ten undergraduate-level students at an institute in India which excels in teaching and research of basic sciences. Based on the written responses, all ten students were interviewed in detail to unravel the exact areas of difficulty in visualization of ‘wavefunction’. The outcome of present study not only reveals the gray areas in students’ conceptualization, but also provides a plausible route to address the issues at the pedagogical level within the classroom.
Most engineers need a basic understanding of quantum mechanics, and for this the typical college introduction is enough. Such an introduction tends to be axiomatic but physically unenlightening. The rules of quantum mechanics (QM) are a fait accompli; justified because they work. This is a good beginning, but those needing to learn more face a special quantum barrier: more advanced texts often continue in the axiomatic tradition. Infinite-dimensional spaces, amplitude vectors, matrices, and operators in lieu of momentum and energy-these and other concepts may be introduced with little rationalization or intuition. To an inquiring student, QM can quickly become bizarre; something to be manipulated but not understood. This need not be so. Here the authors present one teaching solution. They show that many of QM's key ideas can be reasoned out from just a few physical assumptions with mathematics that is low in dimension, linear and accessible to many. Some results include a simple reason for believing probability amplitudes are more natural to use than probabilities, the duality of functions as vectors and vice versa, an example of how a matrix, an operator and a physical value might be related, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and Schrodinger's equation.
Quantum mechanics is generally an abstract theory that challenges intuition since it cannot be understood using ordinary experiences. Quantum tunneling is one of the topics which is more counterintuitive and challenges students' conceptual understanding. The study was aimed at investigating if final year undergraduate quantum mechanics students have alternative conceptions regarding quantum tunneling phenomena after a full course of instruction. In this study, students’ alternative conceptions are referred to as any student ideas related to the incorrect belief of scientific principles. Using the deep structured interviews involving 36 students who were registered in a quantum physics course from the University of Malawi, we found that some students hold on to the idea that the energy of a quantum tunneling electron is lost, the wave function graph depicts the physical wave, and the “potential step,” and “barrier” means a physical object/barrier. The study further established that the possible sources of these alternative conceptions emanated from students’ experience with classical tunneling / classical mechanics, quantum mechanics lecturer notes, and previous quantum mechanics lessons. The findings of this study further portray that traditional pedagogy has its limitation in facilitating students' comprehension of quantum tunneling. We recommend that further research into the design of instructional technology for quantum physics should consider these students' alternative conceptions when designing visual, interactive, and mental models, which may help establish students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics.
In this paper we present a proposal for teaching basic aspects of quantum mechanics in high school. Our proposal is based on a wave approach that makes use of the analogies between wave phenomena at macroscopic scales and phenomena at atomic or subatomic scales. Although the classical and the quantum model are completely different, there is a common underlying wave mathematical layer. This allows to address, via analogies, quantum aspects that are not accessible to direct experience. The quantization of energy levels, the quantum interference and the uncertainty relations are examples of quantum aspects having an analog concept in classical physics wave phenomena. In our approach we break the wave-particle “duality”, which is totally counterintuitive. Instead we enhance the underlying wave mathematical structure as a path to reach and explain emerging features of particles and quantum systems in general.
We have developed an app for iOS-based smart-phones/tablets that allows a 3-D, complex phase-based colorful visualization of hydrogen atom wave functions. Several important features of the quantum behavior of atomic orbitals can easily be made evident, thus making this app a useful companion in introductory modern physics classes. There are many reasons why quantum mechanical systems and phenomena are difficult both to teach and deeply understand. They are described by equations that are generally hard to visualize, and they often oppose the so-called “common sense” based on the human perception of the world, which is built on mental images such as locality and causality. Moreover students cannot have direct experience of those systems and solutions, and generally do not even have the possibility to refer to pictures, videos, or experiments to fill this gap. Teachers often encounter quite serious troubles in finding out a sensible way to speak about the wonders of quantum physics at the high school level, where complex formalisms are not accessible at all. One should however consider that this is quite a common issue in physics and, more generally, in science education. There are plenty of natural phenomena whose models (not only at microscopic and atomic levels) are of difficult, if not impossible, visualization. Just think of certain kinds of waves, fields of forces, velocities, energy, angular momentum, and so on. One should also notice that physical reality is not the same as the images we make of it. Pictures (formal, abstract ones, as well as artists' views) are a convenient bridge between these two aspects.