%0 Journal Article
%T Upper-division students¡¯ difficulties with Amp¨¨re¡¯s law
%A Colin S. Wallace
%A Stephanie V. Chasteen
%J Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research
%D 2010
%I 
%X This study presents and interprets some conceptual difficulties junior-level physics students experience with Amp¨¨re¡¯s law. We present both quantitative data, based on students¡¯ written responses to conceptual questions, and qualitative data, based on interviews of students solving Amp¨¨re¡¯s law problems. We find that some students struggle to connect the current enclosed by an Amp¨¨rian loop to the properties of the magnetic field while some students do not use information about the magnetic field to help them solve Amp¨¨re¡¯s law problems. In this paper, we show how these observations may be interpreted as evidence that some students do not see the integral in Amp¨¨re¡¯s law as representing a sum and that some students do not use accessible information about the magnetic field as they attempt to solve Amp¨¨re¡¯s law problems. This work extends previous studies into students¡¯ difficulties with Amp¨¨re¡¯s law and provides possible guidance for instruction.
%U http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020115