A microcomputer-based quantum mechanics cal package

Abstract

A complete quantum mechanics CAL package for the TRS-80 microcomputer is presented. This includes a Teacher's Guide, Program Documentation, a Student's Workbook and a full Program Listing. Two STUDIES are incorporated. In the first, the computer program solves the time-independent Schrödinger equation for a particle trapped in a finite, rectangular potential energy well. Students are able to define the well depth and half-width, particle mass, wavefunction parity, and total particle energy. Both the potential energy well and the particle wavefunction corresponding to the selected parameters are automatically plotted on the TRS-80 VDU screen. In the second STUDY students explore a simple model of the deuteron which assumes that the proton and neutron interact via a rectangular potential energy well. The deuteron wavefunction and the potential energy well are plotted on the VDU screen. The package has been fully tested and evaluated in a second year undergraduate physics laboratory.