Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties
written by
Rachel E. Pepper, Stephanie Viola Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, and Katherine Perkins
We discuss student conceptual difficulties with Gauss's law observed in an upper-division Electricity and Magnetism (E&M) course. Difficulties at this level have been described in previous work; we present further quantitative and qualitative evidence that upper-division students still struggle with Gauss's law. This evidence is drawn from analysis of upper-division E&M conceptual post-tests, traditional exams, and formal student interviews. Examples of student difficulties include difficulty with the inverse nature of the problem, difficulty articulating complete symmetry arguments, and trouble recognizing that in situations without sufficient symmetry it is impossible (rather than "difficult") to calculate the electric field using Gauss's law. One possible explanation for some of these conceptual difficulties is that even students at the upper level may struggle to connect mathematical expressions to physical meanings.
Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series
Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010
Volume 1289, Pages 245-248
<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=10464">Pepper, R, S. Chasteen, S. Pollock, and K. Perkins. "Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>
R. Pepper, S. Chasteen, S. Pollock, and K. Perkins, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924).
R. Pepper, S. Chasteen, S. Pollock, and K. Perkins, Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924>.
Pepper, R., Chasteen, S., Pollock, S., & Perkins, K. (2010, July 21-22). Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved June 2, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924
Pepper, R, S. Chasteen, S. Pollock, and K. Perkins. "Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924 (accessed 2 June 2025).
Pepper, Rachel, Stephanie Viola Chasteen, Steven Pollock, and Katherine Perkins. "Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 245-248 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 2 June 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924>.
@inproceedings{
Author = "Rachel Pepper and Stephanie Viola Chasteen and Steven Pollock and Katherine Perkins",
Title = {Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss’s Law: Characterizing their difficulties},
BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010},
Pages = {245-248},
Address = {Portland, Oregon},
Series = {PER Conference},
Volume = {1289},
Month = {July 21-22},
Year = {2010}
}
%0 Conference Proceedings %A Pepper, Rachel %A Chasteen, Stephanie Viola %A Pollock, Steven %A Perkins, Katherine %D July 21-22 2010 %T Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss's Law: Characterizing their difficulties %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 245-248 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10464&DocID=1924
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