Using conceptual metaphor and functional grammar to explore how language used in physics affects student learning

This paper introduces a theory about the role of language in learning physics. The theory is developed in the context of physics students' and physicists' talking and writing about the subject of quantum mechanics. We found that physicists' language encodes different varieties of analogical models through the use of grammar and conceptual metaphor. We hypothesize that students categorize concepts into ontological categories based on the grammatical structure of physicists' language. We also hypothesize that students over-extend and misapply conceptual metaphors in physicists' speech and writing. Using our theory, we will show how, in some cases, we can explain student difficulties in quantum mechanics as difficulties with language.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. ST:PE

How and why physicists and chemists use blogs

This study examined how and why chemists and physicists blog. Two qualitative methods were used: content analysis of blog and “about” pages and in-depth responsive interviews with chemists and physicists who maintain blogs. Analysis of the data yielded several cross-cutting themes that provide a window into how physicists and chemists use their blogs and what value they receive from maintaining a blog and participating in a blogging community. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for supporting scientists’ work

Correlating Fiber Quality Assurance Tests for the NOvA Far Detector Modules

Neutrinos have perplexed the minds of particle physicists for over half a decade. Because they are massless and weakly interacting, detecting these leptons has been a challenging feat. However, large-scale collaborations, such as scientists working on NOvA, are now able to build detectors that capture information regarding a neutrino\u27s interaction with atomic matter. During their propagation through space, neutrinos oscillate between various flavor states. Physicists are interested in measuring parameters that describe these oscillations and yield important information about one of the most fundamental units of matter. Before installing a multi-billion dollar detector underground, physicists must ensure that their hardware is working properly. Two fiber quality assurance tests employed at the NOvA module factory are analyzed

Matter and Interactions: a particle physics perspective

In classical mechanics matter and fields are completely separated. Matter interacts with fields. For particle physicists this is not the case. Both matter and fields are represented by particles. Fundamental interactions are mediated by particles exchanged between matter particles. In this paper we explain why particle physicists believe in such a picture, introducing the technique of Feynman diagrams starting from very basic and popular analogies with classical mechanics, making the physics of elementary particles comprehensible even to high school students, the only prerequisite being the knowledge of the conservation of mechanical energy.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, Lecture given to degree students other than physicists during outreach seminars. Vers. 2 has better figure placement and an acknowledge section, as well as corrections in the bibliograh

Physicists, stamp collectors, human mobility forecasters

One of the two reviewers studied in high school to be a physicist. In the end, he became something else, but he never lost his awe of physics. The other reviewer never intended to become a physicist, but he sometimes asks himself why he didn’t become one. Today, they are both sociologists who practice their science on an action theory basis and believe that regularities exist in the world of social actions which can be perceived, understood, explained – and even used for making predictions

Some Aspects of the AdS/CFT Correspondence

This is a very brief review of some aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence with an emphasis on the role of the topology of the boundary and the meaning of the sum over bulk geometries. To appear in the proceedings of the 73rd Meeting between Physicists and Mathematicians ``(A)dS/CFT correspondence,'' Strasbourg, September 11-13, 2003.Comment: LaTeX, 32 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of the 73rd Meeting between Physicists and Mathematicians ``(A)dS/CFT correspondence,'' Strasbourg, September 11-13, 2003. v3: minor changes and references adde