Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions

Quantum mechanics is often thought to be a difficult subject to understand, not only in the complexity of its mathematics but also in its conceptual foundation. In this paper we emphasize students’ depictions of the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality of quantum events, phenomena that co...

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Autores principales:	Mengesha Ayene1, Jeanne Kriek2, Baylie Damtie3
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2011
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8fa20152378b42b9a0c1cfab47130172
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8fa20152378b42b9a0c1cfab471301722021-12-02T11:08:32ZWave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions1554-9178https://doaj.org/article/8fa20152378b42b9a0c1cfab471301722011-11-01T00:00:00Zhttp://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.020113https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178Quantum mechanics is often thought to be a difficult subject to understand, not only in the complexity of its mathematics but also in its conceptual foundation. In this paper we emphasize students’ depictions of the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality of quantum events, phenomena that could serve as a foundation in building an understanding of quantum mechanics. A phenomenographic study was carried out to categorize a picture of students’ descriptions of these key quantum concepts. Data for this study were obtained from a semistructured in-depth interview conducted with undergraduate physics students (N=25) from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The phenomenographic data analysis revealed that it is possible to construct three qualitatively different categories to map students’ depictions of the concept wave-particle duality, namely, (1) classical description, (2) mixed classical-quantum description, and (3) quasiquantum description. Similarly, it is proposed that students’ depictions of the concept uncertainty can be described with four different categories of description, which are (1) uncertainty as an extrinsic property of measurement, (2) uncertainty principle as measurement error or uncertainty, (3) uncertainty as measurement disturbance, and (4) uncertainty as a quantum mechanics uncertainty principle. Overall, we found students are more likely to prefer a classical picture of interpretations of quantum mechanics. However, few students in the quasiquantum category applied typical wave phenomena such as interference and diffraction that cannot be explained within the framework classical physics for depicting the wavelike properties of quantum entities. Despite inhospitable conceptions of the uncertainty principle and wave- and particlelike properties of quantum entities in our investigation, the findings presented in this paper are highly consistent with those reported in previous studies. New findings and some implications for instruction and the curricula are discussed.Mengesha Ayene1Jeanne Kriek2Baylie Damtie3American Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 7, Iss 2 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Mengesha Ayene1 Jeanne Kriek2 Baylie Damtie3 Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
description	Quantum mechanics is often thought to be a difficult subject to understand, not only in the complexity of its mathematics but also in its conceptual foundation. In this paper we emphasize students’ depictions of the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality of quantum events, phenomena that could serve as a foundation in building an understanding of quantum mechanics. A phenomenographic study was carried out to categorize a picture of students’ descriptions of these key quantum concepts. Data for this study were obtained from a semistructured in-depth interview conducted with undergraduate physics students (N=25) from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The phenomenographic data analysis revealed that it is possible to construct three qualitatively different categories to map students’ depictions of the concept wave-particle duality, namely, (1) classical description, (2) mixed classical-quantum description, and (3) quasiquantum description. Similarly, it is proposed that students’ depictions of the concept uncertainty can be described with four different categories of description, which are (1) uncertainty as an extrinsic property of measurement, (2) uncertainty principle as measurement error or uncertainty, (3) uncertainty as measurement disturbance, and (4) uncertainty as a quantum mechanics uncertainty principle. Overall, we found students are more likely to prefer a classical picture of interpretations of quantum mechanics. However, few students in the quasiquantum category applied typical wave phenomena such as interference and diffraction that cannot be explained within the framework classical physics for depicting the wavelike properties of quantum entities. Despite inhospitable conceptions of the uncertainty principle and wave- and particlelike properties of quantum entities in our investigation, the findings presented in this paper are highly consistent with those reported in previous studies. New findings and some implications for instruction and the curricula are discussed.
format	article
author	Mengesha Ayene1 Jeanne Kriek2 Baylie Damtie3
author_facet	Mengesha Ayene1 Jeanne Kriek2 Baylie Damtie3
author_sort	Mengesha Ayene1
title	Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
title_short	Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
title_full	Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
title_fullStr	Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
title_full_unstemmed	Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
title_sort	wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/8fa20152378b42b9a0c1cfab47130172
work_keys_str_mv	AT mengeshaayene1 waveparticledualityanduncertaintyprinciplephenomenographiccategoriesofdescriptionoftertiaryphysicsstudentsdepictions AT jeannekriek2 waveparticledualityanduncertaintyprinciplephenomenographiccategoriesofdescriptionoftertiaryphysicsstudentsdepictions AT bayliedamtie3 waveparticledualityanduncertaintyprinciplephenomenographiccategoriesofdescriptionoftertiaryphysicsstudentsdepictions
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Wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle: Phenomenographic categories of description of tertiary physics students’ depictions

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