Finding Unknown States Leaving the Oven in a Spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ System

Highlights of the activity

1. Students are placed into small groups and asked to find the probability that an unknown quantum wave state $\vert \psi \rangle$ will leave an x,y, or z-oriented Stern-Gerlach analyzer in either the spin-up or spin-down state.
2. The probabilities can then be used to find the coefficients of the unknown wave state.
3. This process is repeated for all four unknown wave states on the Spins program, with each unknown wave state more challenging to find than the last.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Given an unknown wave state, most students would not know how to uncover what the wave state is in bra-ket notation. This activity provides students the chance to practice finding unknown wave states with only the information that can be found in the probabilities acquired from performing the experiment. Students will also develop a strategy as to how to find the coefficients of the wave function in the fastest manner, since some of the calculations will give identical information about the wave state.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version

Student Handouts

spspinhalfunknownshand.doc

spspinhalfunknownshand.pdf

spspinhalfunknownshand.tex