Coulomb's Law is a core topic in university physics electromagnetism, but the “formula-based learning” in high school can easily lead to a “superficial review” in university teaching, missing the key opportunity to cultivate students' “scientific research methodology.” This has become a typical teaching pain point of “learned in high school, how to teach again in university.” Based on the “Basic Requirements for University Physics Teaching in Science and Engineering (2023 Edition),” this teaching case proposes an innovative approach of “familiarizing the law with unfamiliarization” to address this pain point. By recreating the historical scientific process of “observation-conjecture-experiment-induction,” it deeply explores the historical background, philosophical implications, and methodological value of Coulomb's Law, shifting the teaching focus from formula memorization to the cultivation of scientific thinking skills. The case introduces a numerical simulation of “three-body motion of charges” based on the helium atom model, allowing students to intuitively discover the contradictions between classical theory and the microscopic physical world, fulfilling the requirements of a high-quality course with “high-level, innovative, and challenging” features. By integrating the science fiction work “The Three-Body Problem” with the three-body problem of charges, it incorporates ideological and political elements into the course, comparing Chinese and Western narrative styles, and discussing the practical value of collectivism and the awareness of a community with a shared future for humanity in the face of global challenges. This achieves an organic unity of knowledge transmission, ability cultivation, and value guidance, ultimately providing a replicable innovative paradigm for the teaching of core concepts in university physics for science and engineering students.
Xie et al. (Sun,) studied this question.