Overview
This page presents information about a Writing-Intensive Quantum Mechanics course that I teach at Berry College. The course
is part of Berry's Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Program. Most of the course focuses on developing the mathematical
formalism of quantum mechanics (using Griffiths' Introduction to Quantum Mechanics as a text). The writing
assignments focus on conceptual difficulties and interpretations of quantum mechanics. My goal is to force students to think
carefully aobut the concepts of quantum mechanics, but also to ground their thinking in the results of experiments. Each of
the major writing assignments focuses on a particular experiment that illustrates important quantum concepts.
Below you will find the slides of my talk (presented at the 2006 AAPT Winter Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska), handouts describing
the writing assignments I use in quantum mechanics (in pdf format), and a listing of resources that
are used in conjunction with the writing assignments.
Slides from my AAPT Talk
Writing Assignments
- Long Paper: This assignment focuses on the Stern-Gerlach experiment. The goal is to show students how the
results of experiments force us into some of the strange ideas of quantum mechanics. Students conduct their own experiments
using the SPINS applet (see below) and interpret the results.
- Short Paper 1: This assignment focuses on the double-slit experiment. Students respond to John Wheeler's
analysis of the double-slit experiment in his article "Law without law" (see below). This paper forces students to
confront the "measurement problem" in quantum mechanics.
- Short Paper 2: This assignment focuses on the EPR experiment. Students read an article by Alain Aspect
on recent experimental verifications of the violation of Bell's Inequality. The writing assignment forces students
to address the possible conclusions that can be drawn in light of these experiments, and also to evaluate which of these
conclusions is the most sensible (in their own view).
- Short Paper 3: This assignment focuses on an experimental verification of decoherence using thermal
emission from buckyballs conducted by Anton Zeilinger and colleagues. Students are asked to analyze the experimental
data to determine whether or not this experiment constitutes a clear demonstration of decoherence. They are then
asked how decoherence applies to the behavior of macroscopic systems (like Schrodinger's Cat).
- Brief Essays: This document lists a series of brief essay questions that are used to ensure that students
keep up with their reading and think about what they have read. These questions deal with material from Lindley's
Where does the weirdness go? (see below).
Resources
- David Lindley, Where does the weirdness go? (Basic Books, 1996).
- SPINS applet: available
online. See also Schroeder and Moore, "A computer-simulated Stern-Gerlach laboratory," American
Journal of Physics 61, 798-805 (1993).
- John Wheeler, "Law without law," in Quantum Theory and Measurement ed. by Wheeler & Zurek (Princeton Univ. Press, 1983).
- Alain Aspect, "BellÕs inequality test: more ideal than ever," Nature 398, 189-190 (1999).
- Lucia Hackermuller, Klaus Hornberger, Bjorn Brezger, Anton Zeilinger, and Markus Arndt, "Decoherence by the emission of thermal radiation"
available online.
Todd K. Timberlake (ttimberlake@berry.edu)