Teaching Einsteinian Physics at Schools: Part 2, Models and Analogies for Quantum Physics

TL;DR

This paper explores teaching quantum physics in schools using models and analogies, focusing on photons and interference to foster intuitive understanding of quantum concepts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to teaching quantum physics with physical models and visualizations, emphasizing photon particle nature and interference phenomena.

Findings

Toy projectile models effectively illustrate photon properties.

Videos demonstrate photon-by-photon interference patterns.

Students can intuitively grasp quantum uncertainty and wave behavior.

Abstract

The Einstein-First project approaches the teaching of Einsteinian physics through the use of physical models and analogies. This paper presents an approach to the teaching of quantum physics which begins by emphasising the particle-nature of light through the use of toy projectiles to represent photons. This allows key concepts including the spacing between photons, and photon momentum to be introduced. This in-turn allows an intuitive understanding of the uncertainty principle. We present optical interference in the context of individual photons, using actual videos showing the development of images one at a time This enables simple laser interference experiments to be interpreted through the statistical arrival of photons. The wave aspects of quantum phenomenon are interpreted in terms of the wavelike nature of the arrival probabilities.