http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ 2020-01-26T18:41:25-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2012-07-08T14:36:19-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/whitepapers:variables:start?rev=1341783379 Student Understanding of Variables vs. Constants by Len Cerny Overview Professional physicists have an understanding of variables and constants that is far more sophisticated than most junior-level physics students, which enables them to do problem-solving more efficiently. These differences are very noticeable when students are asked to deal with challenging problems such as creating an elliptic integral as an “answer” to a problem. In one example, we asked to students in their first j…