Using 19th-Century Physics to Discover Einstein’s Most Famous Equation (Journal Article)

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Abstract: I had some very bright AP physics classes during my 35 years as a high school physics teacher. Because those students had already completed my PSSC-style first-year class, I was able to help them discover the basics of electricity and magnetism by using lab experiments and Socratic questioning. (My complete class worksheets can be downloaded from the URL in Ref. 1.) For classes with the ability to master the basics, I chose to have my students make a simple discovery that does not appear in their textbooks. I sent a carefully selected volunteer2 to the blackboard to solve the following problem with the help of classmates.