Enigmas (Puzzles) in Teaching and Learning of Physics

Abstract

Teaching and learning of physics has been considered a challenge by both the teachers and students in India. The text books prescribed normally do not refer to these challenges which are mostly at conceptual level. An attempt has been made to recall some of the puzzles which are encountered by most of the students in learning physics. The historical origin of puzzles in particle physics has been brought into focus during discussion of pion-muon, tau-theeta and neutrino puzzles. The solution of these puzzles led to award of Nobel prizes in physics, with the 2015 prize awarded for solution of neutrino mass puzzle. A brief description of dual nature of matter and radiation puzzle is also given.

Keywords: Newton’s laws of motion, second law of thermodynamics, entropy, elementary particles, pi meson, mu meson, tau-theeta particles, neutrino, dual nature, parity

Cite this Article

Hardev Singh Virk. Enigmas (Puzzles) in teaching and learning of physics. Omniscience: A Multi-disciplinary Journal. 2015; 5(3): 18–21p.