group Small Group Activity

10 min.

Cross Product
This small group activity is designed to help students visualize the cross product. Students work in small groups to determine the area of a triangle in space. The whole class wrap-up discussion emphasizes the geometric interpretation of the cross product.

Use the cross product to find the components of the unit vector \(\mathbf{\boldsymbol{\hat n}}\) perpendicular to the plane shown in the figure below, i.e.  the plane joining the points \(\{(1,0,0),(0,1,0),(0,0,1)\}\).

  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell, Problem-Solving course(s)

group Small Group Activity

10 min.

Angular Momentum in Polar Coordinates
Students learn how to express Angular Momentum as a vector quantity in polar coordinates, and then in Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates

None

Vectors

Let \begin{align} \boldsymbol{\vec a} &= \boldsymbol{\hat x}-3\boldsymbol{\hat y}-\boldsymbol{\hat z}\\ \boldsymbol{\vec b} &= \boldsymbol{\hat x}+\boldsymbol{\hat y}+2\boldsymbol{\hat z}\\ {\boldsymbol{\vec c}} &= -2\boldsymbol{\hat x}-\boldsymbol{\hat y}+\boldsymbol{\hat z}\\ \boldsymbol{\vec d} &= -\boldsymbol{\hat x}-\boldsymbol{\hat y}+\boldsymbol{\hat z} \end{align}

Which pairs (if any) of these vectors

  1. Are perpendicular?
  2. Are parallel?
  3. Have an angle less than \(\pi/2\) between them?
  4. Have an angle of more than \(\pi/2\) between them?

  • Found in: AIMS Maxwell, Static Fields, Problem-Solving course(s)

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Flux through a Cone
Students calculate the flux from the vector field \(\vec{F} = C\, z\, \hat{z}\) through a right cone of height \(H\) and radius \(R\) .
  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell course(s) Found in: Integration Sequence sequence(s)

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Vector Surface and Volume Elements

Students use known algebraic expressions for vector line elements \(d\boldsymbol{\vec{r}}\) to determine all simple vector area \(d\boldsymbol{\vec{A}}\) and volume elements \(d\tau\) in cylindrical and spherical coordinates.

This activity is identical to Scalar Surface and Volume Elements except uses a vector approach to find directed surface and volume elements.

  • Found in: AIMS Maxwell, Static Fields, Surfaces/Bridge Workshop, Problem-Solving course(s) Found in: Integration Sequence sequence(s)

group Small Group Activity

5 min.

Maxima and Minima
This small group activity introduces students to constrained optimization problems. Students work in small groups to optimize a simple function on a given region. The whole class wrap-up discussion emphasizes the importance of the boundary.
  • Found in: Vector Calculus I course(s)

  • Find \(dA\) on the surface of an (open) cone in both cylindrical and spherical coordinates. Hint: Be smart about how you coordinatize the cone.
  • Using integration, find the surface area of an (open) cone with height \(H\) and radius \(R\). Do this problem in both cylindrical and spherical coordinates.

  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell, Problem-Solving course(s)

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Magnetic Field Due to a Spinning Ring of Charge

Students work in small groups to use the Biot-Savart law \[\vec{B}(\vec{r}) =\frac{\mu_0}{4\pi}\int\frac{\vec{J}(\vec{r}^{\,\prime})\times \left(\vec{r}-\vec{r}^{\,\prime}\right)}{\vert \vec{r}-\vec{r}^{\,\prime}\vert^3} \, d\tau^{\prime}\] to find an integral expression for the magnetic field, \(\vec{B}(\vec{r})\), due to a spinning ring of charge.

In an optional extension, students find a series expansion for \(\vec{B}(\vec{r})\) either on the axis or in the plane of the ring, for either small or large values of the relevant geometric variable. Add an extra half hour or more to the time estimate for the optional extension.

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Scalar Surface and Volume Elements

Students use known algebraic expressions for length elements \(d\ell\) to determine all simple scalar area \(dA\) and volume elements \(d\tau\) in cylindrical and spherical coordinates.

This activity is identical to Vector Surface and Volume Elements except uses a scalar approach to find surface, and volume elements.

  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell, Problem-Solving course(s) Found in: Integration Sequence sequence(s)

Find the upward pointing flux of the electric field \(\vec E =E_0\, z\, \hat z\) through the part of the surface \(z=-3 s^2 +12\) (cylindrical coordinates) that sits above the \((x, y)\)--plane.

  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell, Problem-Solving course(s)

accessibility_new Kinesthetic

10 min.

Curvilinear Basis Vectors
Students use their arms to depict (sequentially) the different cylindrical and spherical basis vectors at the location of their shoulder (seen in relation to a specified origin of coordinates: either a set of axes hung from the ceiling of the room or perhaps a piece of furniture or a particular corner of the room).

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Time Dependence for a Quantum Particle on a Ring Part 1
Students calculate probabilities for energy, angular momentum, and position as a function of time for an initial state that is a linear combination of energy/angular momentum eigenstates for a particle confined to a ring written in bra-ket notation. This activity helps students build an understanding of when they can expect a quantity to depend on time and to give them more practice moving between representations.

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Visualization of Divergence
Students predict from graphs of simple 2-d vector fields whether the divergence is positive, negative, or zero in various regions of the domain using the geometric definition of the divergence of a vector field at a point as flux per unit volume (here: area) through an infinitesimal box surrounding that point. Optionally, students can use computer algebra to verify their predictions.
  • Found in: Static Fields, AIMS Maxwell, Vector Calculus II, Surfaces/Bridge Workshop, Problem-Solving course(s)

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Working with Representations on the Ring
This activity acts as a reintroduction to doing quantum calculations while also introducing the matrix representation on the ring, allowing students to discover how to index and form a column vector representing the given quantum state. In addition, this activity introduces degenerate measurements on the quantum ring and examines the state after measuring both degenerate and non-degenerate eigenvalues for the state.

group Small Group Activity

60 min.

Raising and Lowering Operators for Spin