Research methods in teaching physics

The need for knowledge of the world at the beginning led to attempts to explain the world immediately as a whole, to immediately receive answers to all-encompassing questions: where did the universe come from? What is the essence of life? What principles govern all events in the world? etc. However, it turned out to be difficult to give any reasonable answers to these questions, so they began to invent various myths, and religion appeared. Only about 500 years ago, mankind embarked on the path of scientific knowledge, on the path of a detailed experimental study of nature. It was the birth of science in the form that we know today.

The development of science in the modern sense began with the fact that instead of trying to immediately get answers to global questions, they began to be interested in simple, at first glance, insignificant facts. Instead of asking general questions and getting private answers, scientists began to set private questions and find common answers. In the process of knowing the laws of nature, the thoughts of the English philosopher Bacon about the possibility of finding general laws as a result of the study of particular facts established by accurate experiments have clearly manifested and continue to manifest themselves.

• 1.    Features of the physical research method. The purpose of physics: physics is engaged in the study of specific phenomena occurring in nature, its purpose is to find the most general laws, and explain the specific processes of action of these general fundamental laws. The most in-depth explanation of the processes can be given on the basis of certain ideas about the structure of matter; identifying the structure of matter is also a task of physics. There are relatively few fundamental physical theories (for example, classical Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, for example), but each of them encompasses an enormous totality of phenomena and many particular laws.

• 2.    The experimental nature of physics. The goals of physics determine the features of its method of study. The laws of physics are based on facts established empirically. Moreover, often the interpretation of the same facts changes during the historical development of physics. Facts accumulate as a result of observations. But at the same time it is impossible to be limited to them. This is only the first step to knowing. Next comes the experiment, the development of concepts that admit qualitative characteristics in the form of numbers. In order to draw general conclusions from observations, to find out the causes of the phenomena, it is necessary to establish quantitative relationships between the quantities. If such a dependence is obtained, then a physical law is found. If a physical law is found, then there is no need to put experience in each case, it is enough to perform the corresponding calculations. Having studied experimentally the quantitative relationships between the quantities, it is possible to identify patterns. On the basis of these laws, a general theory of phenomena is developed, uniting particular laws. Theory is the result of creative work, reflection and imagination. The theory allows not only to explain facts, phenomena, but also to predict new ones (for example, Mendeleev, on the basis

of the periodic law he discovered, was able to predict the existence of several chemical elements that were not known at that time. English physicist Maxwell based on the theory of the relationship between magnetic and electric fields predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves.)Any phenomenon, any process, properties of any particular body are infinitely complex. Therefore, proceeding to the study of a physical phenomenon, it is necessary to single out the main thing on which this phenomenon depends in a substantial way and discard secondary circumstances that do not play a significant role in the issue under consideration. Without such simplification, the study of physical phenomena would be impossible: the simplest phenomena would lead to complex, unsolvable problems. For example, the fall of a stone is one of the simplest phenomena. The main factor here is gravity. But there are still a number of circumstances affecting the fall of the stone: air resistance. Earth rotation, Earth shape, attraction to surrounding bodies. Therefore, when studying any phenomenon, it is necessary to highlight the essential in it. In this case, it is necessary to find a simplified model of the complex phenomenon that is actually happening. Examples: material point, point charge, ideal gas.

When studying the ground level of the state of gases, it is necessary to simplify real gases (real gas molecules make complex movements: translational, rotational, vibrational; have kinetic and potential energy, have dimensions, volume, optical properties are complex), discarding all these circumstances, we need to pose the problem: from What does gas pressure depend on? (based on molecular - kinetic theory).I bring students to solve the problem: we are only interested in the mechanical and thermal properties of the gas, therefore, gas molecules can be roughly considered small elastic balls moving randomly, colliding with each other and with the walls of the vessel. The pressure on the walls of the vessel is due to such vascular collisions, therefore, it depends on the number of molecules, on their mass speed.