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Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law
written by Colin S. Wallace and Stephanie Viola Chasteen
This study presents and interprets some conceptual difficulties junior-level physics students experience with Ampère's law. We present both quantitative data, based on students' written responses to conceptual questions, and qualitative data, based on interviews of students solving Ampère's law problems. We find that some students struggle to connect the current enclosed by an Ampèrian loop to the properties of the magnetic field while some students do not use information about the magnetic field to help them solve Ampère's law problems. In this paper, we show how these observations may be interpreted as evidence that some students do not see the integral in Ampère's law as representing a sum and that some students do not use accessible information about the magnetic field as they attempt to solve Ampère's law problems. This work extends previous studies into students' difficulties with Ampère's law and provides possible guidance for instruction.
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education Foundations
- Alternative Conceptions
Electricity & Magnetism
- Magnetic Fields and Forces
= Ampere's Law
= Fields and Currents
= Magnetic Fields
- Upper Undergraduate
- Graduate/Professional
- Reference Material
= Research study
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Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevST…
Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Rights Holder:
American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020115
NSF Number:
0737118
PACSs:
01.40.Di
01.40.Fk
01.40.Ha
41.20.Cv
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created February 27, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
July 29, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
September 27, 2010
Other Collections:

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AIP Format
C. Wallace and S. Chasteen, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020115 (2010), WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208).
AJP/PRST-PER
C. Wallace and S. Chasteen, Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 (2), 020115 (2010), <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208>.
APA Format
Wallace, C., & Chasteen, S. (2010, September 27). Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 6(2), 020115. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208
Chicago Format
Wallace, Colin, and Stephanie Viola Chasteen. "Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, no. 2, (September 27, 2010): 020115, https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208 (accessed 29 March 2024).
MLA Format
Wallace, Colin, and Stephanie Viola Chasteen. "Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6.2 (2010): 020115. 29 Mar. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Colin Wallace and Stephanie Viola Chasteen", Title = {Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {6}, Number = {2}, Pages = {020115}, Month = {September}, Year = {2010} }
Refer Export Format

%A Colin Wallace %A Stephanie Viola Chasteen %T Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %D September 27, 2010 %P 020115 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Wallace, Colin %A Chasteen, Stephanie Viola %D September 27, 2010 %T Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampère's law %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 6 %N 2 %P 020115 %8 September 27, 2010 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10749&DocID=2208


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