Legendre Transforms on the PDM

Highlights of the activity

1. This small group activity is designed to gives students a chance to work with physical analogues of Legendre transforms.
2. Students use their PDMs to measure a list of partials that are not directly physically measurable.
3. The whole class discussion focuses on how to know when a Legendre transform is necessary.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Many students will have difficulty understanding the purpose and process behind the Legendre transform. This activity is designed to help students form a physical understanding of the Legendre transform, and from that, further their conceptual understanding of it.

For a description of the Partial Derivative Machine visit this page.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version