Common Misunderstandings and Challenges in Learning Gauss’s Law in a Junior Level Electromagnetic Engineering Course

Comparing students' understanding of Gauss's and Ampere's laws with field sources in square-like symmetries

“…To make this statement evident, we even encountered answers such as "yes, because Gauss's law is almighty." Studies like [11] and [13] point out that some students functionally reduce these laws to formulas applied to every scenario. We think this idea could be the basis of the categories "Identifies only an enclosed field source" and "Turns to an authority fallacy."…”

“…These studies have identified possible causes that underlie these difficulties, such as a lack of mathematical tools [6]. Research has shown that, in order to achieve a conceptual understanding of these laws, the students need to develop some abilities, like a) to identify the symmetry between the field and the surface (or trajectory) [4,[9][10][11][12][13], b) to move between visual representations [9,14] or c) to recognize and solve inverted problems [9][10], among others. This study will focus on the difficulty of identification and use of symmetry in Gauss's and Ampere's laws.…”

“…Previous studies identified several problems and confusions students have for using symmetry in Gauss's and Ampere's laws. For instance, [4,[10][11][12] have pointed out that some students try to analyze the symmetry of a Gaussian surface, confusing it with the symmetry of the charge distribution. Studies report that students usually disregard the symmetry and properties of the magnetic field for Ampere's law [13,15], functionally reducing Ampere's law to a formula (as in, using the equation as a 'magic box' where they 'input' values and get a result as an 'output,' without analyzing its validity).…”

Addressing Some Physical Misconceptions in Electrostatics of Freshman Engineering Students

“…The same authors pinpointed that failure of students in plotting may cause not only to hinder the grasping of concepts but rather causes their deviations to discern the relevance of any further supportive arguments. Based upon the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria, Byford and Chahal [10] conducted a study on the common difficulties in learning Gauss's law at the junior level of students in electromagnetic engineering course. Five misconceptions were identified, among which three were reported consistent with physics educational literature.…”

Addressing Some Physical Misconceptions in Electrostatics of Freshman Engineering Students

“…Focusing on teaching Gauss's law, challenges rise at the end of students' acquirement in grasping the concept. Being a universal trend, this challenge has attracted many educators to think about possible existing solutions by investigating the reasons behind students' misconceptions [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”