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Why is Ampère's law so hard? A look at middle-division physics

American Journal of Physics -- April 2006 -- Volume 74, Issue 4, pp. 344-350

Issue Date: April 2006
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0002-9505 (print)  
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Corinne A. Manogue
Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Kerry Browne
Department of Physics, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013

Tevian Dray
Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Barbara Edwards
Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331
Because mathematicians and physicists think differently about mathematics, they have different goals for their courses and teach different ways of thinking about the material. As a consequence, there are a number of capabilities that physics majors need in order to be successful that might not be addressed by any traditional course. The result is that the total cognitive load is too high for many students at the transition from the calculus and introductory physics sequences to upper-division courses for physics majors. We illustrate typical student difficulties in the context of an Ampère's law problem.

©2006 American Association of Physics Teachers
History: Received 5 December 2005; accepted 10 February 2006
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2181179

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