TEACHING COMPLEX FIELDS OF SOFT MATER, PROPOSAL OF A NEW LIQUID CRYSTAL ANALOGY
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2014, Vol 61, Issue 10
Abstract
The key reason behind the richness of different structures and patterns displayed in nature is the universal mechanism of symmetry breaking. It shapes confgurations at all length scales encountered in universe. Structures reached via symmetry breaking transitions are commonly described in terms of order parameter felds. One of the simplest systems where symmetry breaking concepts have already been explored in detail, are various liquid crystal (LC) phases. The reason behind this is rich variety of structures exhibited by LCs and their convenient experimental accessibility. Consequently, a wide spectrum of different theoretical tools have been developed in LCs. In this contribution the orientational ordering of housing block in San Francisco, which we choose as a typical large-city representative, was studied. Following nematic LC analogy we determine the local degree of ordering. The structural pattern of the city displays a domain-type pattern. The average degree of ordering within a domain strongly correlates with crime rate within it. Therefore, the results confrm an intuitive expectation that structures defne properties. This model can be used as a helpful tool in education as it provides a way of understanding complex topics with the help of well-known every day phenomena.
Authors and Affiliations
Jagodič, U, Staines, J, Kralj, S, Repnik, R
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP35343
- DOI -
- Views 343
- Downloads 0
BALANCING CHEMICAL EQUATIONS USING SANDWICH MAKING COMPUTER SIMULATION GAMES AS A SUPPORTING TEACHING METHOD
Writing and balancing equations of chemical reactions is one of the \most difcult elements of chemistry education for students, which is why it was decided to analyse part of the process which is the most difcult. The...
RESEARCH OF ICT EDUCATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Information or ICT education in various forms has become an obligatory part of curriculum in all developed school systems. However, the approach to ICT education is not uniform across countries. There are substantial d...
psychological and pedagogical problems of distance education for adults
Our main focus is to highlight the most important challenges in distance education aimed at adults: specifc psychological challenges coming from adult development, the problems of quality and evaluation, and the effect...
A DILEMMA IN UPPER SECONDARY TEACHER EDUCATION
There is a consensus about primary and lower secondary teacher education in that Faculty of Education is actively responsible for preparing them for their future teaching careers. However, a struggle between Faculty of S...
INVESTIGATION OF TEACHING THE INTEGRATED TOPICS ON DRUG ABUSE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM
The problem of this study was to investigate the teaching of the integrated topics on drug abuse in the secondary school curriculum as a strategy to wipe out the problem of drug abuse among students in Machakos Distric...