On the limitations of thought experiments in physics and the consequences for physics teaching

Details On the limitations of thought experiments in physics and the consequences for physics teaching On the limitations of thought experiments in physics and the consequences for physics teaching

Oct 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..4cf.bc008b&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, Four Corners Meeting 2002, October 4-5, 2002 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, MEETING ID: 4C

Computer Science

Learning

Scientific paper

Thought experiments (TEs) play a central role in innovations in physics. We suggest that erroneous TEs are as important as correct TEs, and that both have a special role in an ongoing process of conceptual refinement for physicists and naive physics learners. We analyze TEs related to stellar evolution and general relativity made by Schwarzschild, Eddington, Landau, and Einstein. Next we discuss TEs made by high school physics students. Using the same analysis scheme for both physicist TEs and student TEs, we argue that necessary conditions for a successful TE (i.e., drawing of correct conclusions) are self-consistency and comprehensiveness of the relevant picture of the world. We show that the naive learners' TEs and the physicists' TEs are similar on a metacognitive level, but different in details. Students' erroneous reasoning occur in all stages of a TE, whereas physicists usually make errors in the first two stages of TEs. Then we bring evidence that TEs are more prone to errors than laboratory experiments. We discuss the consequences for physics learning and teaching and suggest that computer simulations and virtual reality environments may provide the reasoning tools naive learners lack.

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