The Electrodynamics of Charges in Capacitors-Pulley System & Teaching of Physics Discovery Lessons

G. Tremberger, Jr., V. Shekoyan, S. Dehipawala, T. Holden, D. Lieberman, and T. Cheung

CUNY Queensborough Community College

A novel method in the solving of the College Physics II standard 2-capactor parallel reconnection problem was presented with a focus on the motion of the transferred charges. The reduction in electrostatic field energy of the higher voltage capacitor would be equal to the work required to move the charges to the lower voltage capacitor. A spring with a movable gap capacitor model would connect the teaching of College Physics II field energy concept to College Physics I stored energy concept with some introduction to radiation. The addition of a pulley and mass to a movable gap capacitor in the Atwood machine configuration would serve as a numerical model for the teaching of oscillation, starting with an example of computation using energy conservation principle in a spring-mass system with a simple period formula. The discovery spirit in electrodynamics development was modeled as extensions of mechanics topics in Physics I and was taught to the students in Physics II. Good Physics Education delivery would be vital for doing Physics Education Research on the collected student performance data to assess student learning in physics problem solving skill and discovery spirit.