Soon the largest fusion project in the world, ITER, will attempt to produce more fusion power than required to sustain the fusion reaction, this is known as ignition. The tokamak (a toroidal fusion device) being built in France will be running at such high temperatures that heat distribution is a...
There are many reasons toward why students withhold such negative mindsets toward the subject of mathematics. This thesis builds upon previously conducted research concerning affect and confidence in mathematical problem solving, confidence that students exhibit about themselves, and combinatorial thinking and activity.
Mathematical sophistication increases rapidly as students transition from lower- to upper-division physics courses. Complex algebra is one of the mathematical tools that is not introduced or used in lower-division physics courses but is pervasive throughout upper-division courses. In this dissertation, I study middle-division physics students' developing fluency with complex number...
At the macroscopic scale, we have pumps that use the classical laws of physics to move liquids at a well defined rate. In the microscopic world, physicists are exploring pumps that make use of quantum mechanical behavior to build analogous pumps for quantum particles. The importance of such “quantum pumps”...
I had to write again. My research lay in science, and it was a science of three parts. The first part made a careful, introductory chapter, begged for by things that were lacking. It summarizes the von Neumann measurement model, derived from the Stern-Gerlach experiment, and it explains how weak...
Loop quantum gravity is a theoretical framework which aims to quantize general relativity. One of the unique aspects of this theory is that it imposes a discrete structure on space-time. One toy model of loop quantum gravity is loop quantum cosmology, which maintains the idea of a discrete spatial structure...
This work aims to broaden use of the organic semiconductor pentacene (Pn) by means of improving its oxidation and photodimerization stability. In particular, we study the photophysical properties of functionalized Pn derivatives with side groups R in amorphous thin film, referred to as Pn-R-F8 when fluorinated. Using the optics experiments...
We now have broad consensus in the mathematics education research community that active, inquiry-based classrooms provide a wealth of learning benefits for students (Freeman et al., 2014; Laursen et al., 2014; Theobald et al., 2020). Classrooms that utilize inquiry throughout the entire structure of the course, as opposed to the...
The standard interpretation of quantum mechanics (known as the Copenhagen interpretation) divides the world into quantum phenomena and classical observers that perform measurements upon the phenomena. This provides a quite functional framework for calculating probabilities of measurement outcomes, but it lacks the generality necessary for such things as retrodiction, and...