American Journal of Physics

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Current Issue

Volume 91,

Issue 12,

December 2023

Focus and Coverage

The American Journal of Physics publishes papers that will support, inform, and delight a diverse audience of college and university physics teachers. Contents include novel approaches to classroom and laboratory instruction, insightful articles on topics in classical and modern physics, apparatus notes, historical or cultural topics, book reviews, resource letters, and award talks.

Editor

Beth Parks

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Featured Articles

December 01 2023

Numerical simulation of mirages above water bodies

Anna Horváth, Balázs Bámer et al.

A mirage or fatamorgana is typically an upside-down “mirror” image of a scenery in deserts, over sun-heated roads, or above bodies of water. When the temperature gradient of air is large, as can ...

October 01 2023

All objects and some questions

Charles H. Lineweaver, Vihan M. Patel

We present an overview of the thermal history of the Universe and the sequence of objects (e.g., protons, planets, and galaxies) that condensed out of the background as the Universe expanded and ...

August 01 2023

An experimental demonstration of level attraction with coupled pendulums

Chenyang Lu, Bentley Turner et al.

We have experimentally demonstrated dissipative coupling in a double pendulum system through observation, which shows three distinctly different patterns of motion over the accessible parameter ...

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Editor's Picks

December 01 2023

Thermal physics in the data age—Students judge the applicability of the equipartition theorem

J. D. D. Martin

Providing students of introductory thermal physics with a plot of the heat capacities of many low density gases as a function of temperature allows them to look for systematic trends. Specifically, ...

November 01 2023

S-matrices for simple quantum systems

Leo de Wit

Scattering processes are a standard topic covered in introductory courses on quantum mechanics and particle physics. Unfortunately, a full mathematical treatment tends to be overwhelming for ...

November 01 2023

Electric field lines of an arbitrarily moving charged particle

S. G. Arutunian, M. A. Aginian et al.

Electromagnetic fields of relativistic charged particles have a broad frequency spectrum and a sophisticated spatial structure. Field lines offer a visual representation of this spatial structure. In ...

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