I have some feedback from a referee at Physics Education (PED) on the draft paper linked below, Leading Clocks Lag - A Pedagogical Memory Aide.
The reviewer comments (below, 1 referee for apparently preliminary review) can be summarized as:
1. Liked the heuristic "leading clocks lag."
2. Didn't know about and enjoyed reading the de Broglie wavelength derivation.
3. Eliminate well known (textbook-ish) derivations.
4. Include some comments on use of the material in student discussions.
Item #4 I cannot do myself. Do you teach this level of physics, or are you involved with a student physics club, and find the idea sufficiently interesting to try with some students? I would of course be happy to accept a co-author who could help meet the referee's requirements.
Yours,
Robert
REFEREE REPORT(S):
Referee: 1
COMMENTS TO THE AUTHOR(S)
The author suggest a phrase "leading clocks lag" as a memory aid to be used for discussions of synchronized clocks in special relativity, which I think is a useful phrase to add to relativity teaching.
However, I do not think that the manuscript can be published in its present form. A substantial part is devoted to derivations of different properties in special relativity, that are well-known. The application to the de Broglie wavelength is less familiar - I was not previously aware of the relation between clock synchronization and the de Broglie wavelength and I enjoyed learning about it, also by reading the more extensive presentation in reference 6.
The text has more the character of being intended as a textbook chapter than an article, apart from the few short comments expressing the view that this presentation should facilitate understanding the special theory of relativity.
The author makes educational claims e.g. that "students will understand how quantum systems automatically constitute an Einstein synchronized frame, and how observing such systems at a single point as often required by quantum measurement can produce unexpected results." However, the paper would be much more interesting if these claims were supported, e.g. by a presentation about using the material in student groups and following student discussions or evaluating their learning in some other format.
Robert,
I have not gone from your paper in detail, hence the question.
Are you going to teach relative simultaneity as something real or an illusion resulting from the choice of the clock synchronisation method?
Andrew, I am not a teacher and do not have students or teach anything, but the referee asked for student discussion. That is the problem. If you cannot read the paper and figure out what it says about the dependence of measurement on the configuration of clocks, using the deBroglie example, then I have failed as an author also, and won't try to explain it in a paragraph here.
Robert,
I said I have not properly read your paper yet but I wanted to see if you have any bias that you would put in your answer beforehand. Thank you for the clarification. I will read your paper as a critical student because I saw a few interesting figures that show it is worth reading. I liked your previous paper on the twin paradox which was very objective and it is a one stop shop if one wants to know all about it because it has so many sources cited.
I read your paper, it is interesting, and I didn't know about and enjoyed reading the de Broglie wavelength derivation. Sorry, I can't help with students discussion, but hope you will find the co-author.
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