This work was originated from an educational object developped at the Physics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil by Michel Betz, Ismael de Lima and Gabriel Musssatto. It combines a series of computer animations with short explicative texts and more detailed complementary documents. The original version was programmed in Flash/ActionScript but, as these techniques are now obsolete, it has been recently reprogrammed in HTML5/JavaScript, with minor differences.
An experimental setup frequently used to illustrate basic aspects of quantum mechanics and of wave-particle duality is the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Our animations present a schematic representation of this device.
The resource presented here can be described as a learning objet, as it focuses on a well-defined topic, integrating computer animations, associated explicative texts and some more detailed supporting documents.
The subject is presented by successive steps, starting from classical geometric optics, then moving to plane wave propagation and finally reaching the level of wave packets associated to individual photons. The phase shift introduced by an interposed propagation medium and the effect of an intervening observation device are also considered. Specifically, the animation sequence is as follows:
Two complementary documents are included.
The techniques employed are the standard ones for up to date internet content, namely HTML5 for hypertext document structure, JavaScript for dynamic interactivity and CSS for styling of presentation. Two versions have been developed; they offer equivalent functionality but differ somewhat in the programming resources employed.