Quantum Operators Stimulate Student Experiments in Quantum Physics

Recent educational innovations, based on an unpublished and currently unavailable museum exhibit of experimental apparatus developed by Kostas Papaliolios at Harvard in the 1960’s (as described by Gauvin, 2018)* has yielded a modern set of “Quantum Operators” (patent pending) which stimulate student hands-on play and experimentation. The Quantum Operators are based on polarized light. Various orientations and combinations of polarizing elements, housed within an octagonal prism, permit discovery and exploration of quantum superposition, probabilistic behavior, impact of observations on outcomes, and other critical departures from common sense and classical expectations. A pattern and directions will be available for free (at STEMteachersNYC.org/…), enabling anyone to build a working set of Quantum Operators for the cost of 45 cm2 of linear polarizer. The Quantum Operators enable students to become familiar through their own experience with some of the most fascinating, important, and difficult to accept ideas in modern science.

Gauvin, Jean-Francoise. Playing with Quantum Toys : Julian Schwinger’s Measurement Algebra and the Material Culture of Quantum Mechanics Pedagogy at Harvard in the 1960s. Phys. Perspect. 20 (2018) 8-42. © 2018 Springer International Publishing AG. 1422-6944/18/010008-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-018-0213.3