Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Investigating student understanding of heat engine: a case study of
  Stirling engine   We report on the study of student difficulties regarding heat engine in the
context of Stirling cycle within upper-division undergraduate thermal physics
course. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken
by three classes, and the students were asked to perform one of the most basic
activities---calculate the efficiency of the heat engine. Our data suggest that
quite a few students have not developed a robust conceptual understanding of
basic engineering knowledge of the heat engine, including the function of the
regenerator and the influence of piston movements on the heat and work involved
in the engine. Most notably, although the science error ratios of the three
classes were similar ($\sim$10\%), the engineering error ratios of the three
classes were high (above 50\%), and the class that was given a simple tutorial
of engineering knowledge of heat engine exhibited significantly smaller
engineering error ratio by about 20\% than the other two classes. In addition,
both the written answers and post-test interviews show that most of the
students can only associate Carnot's theorem with Carnot cycle, but not with
other reversible cycles working between two heat reservoirs, probably because
no enough cycles except Carnot cycle were covered in the traditional
Thermodynamics textbook. Our results suggest that both scientific and
engineering knowledge are important and should be included in instructional
approaches, especially in the Thermodynamics course taught in the countries and
regions with a tradition of not paying much attention to experimental education
or engineering training.

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The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
22
The categories of this paper are: chao-dyn
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The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
15
The categories of this paper are: nucl-ex
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
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The categories of this paper are: q-alg
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
11
The categories of this paper are: hep-lat
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The categories of this paper are: adap-org
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The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
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The categories of this paper are: q-fin
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The categories of this paper are: astro-ph
7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
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The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
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The categories of this paper are: eess
14
The categories of this paper are: math-ph