Navigate to course home page

Visualizing Complex Time Dependence for Spin 1/2 System

Keywords:

sptimedepcomplex.jpg

Highlights of the activity

  1. This kinesthetic activity is designed to help students visualize complex time dependence of the Spin 1/2 system.
  2. In pairs, students use their arms to represent the different time dependencies of eigenstates and superposition states of the Spin 1/2 system.
  3. The whole class discussion focuses on how different states vary with time.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

This activity provides a concrete and physical way of representing spin-1/2 states which have complex coefficients. By providing a geometric representation of states at particular times as well as time evolved states, students may begin to understand the importance of relative phases in quantum mechanics.

Reflections

Instructor's Guide


Authors:
To edit this page, go here