Modeling Potential Energy of the Gaussian Gun

Leslie Atkins Elliott, André Bolliou, Hanna Irving, Douglas Jackson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Gaussian gun is an arrangement of magnets and ball bearings (pictured in Fig. 1) such that—when the leftmost ball is released—the rightmost ball is ejected at high speeds. The device has been described in several articles on energy education. The sudden appearance of kinetic energy offers a productive context for considering a range of challenging ideas: the often-counterintuitive relationship between force and potential energy, the escape velocity for attractive forces, why energy is required to break bonds, and why energy is released when bonds form. Beyond these ideas, it is also useful for motivating the representation of a potential well and bound states for both quantum mechanics and chemistry.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)520-522
Number of pages3
JournalPhysics Teacher
Volume57
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2019

Keywords

  • education
  • friction
  • history and philosophy of science
  • materials
  • news and events
  • teaching

EGS Disciplines

  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Science and Mathematics Education
  • Teacher Education and Professional Development

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