Challenge-by-modification pattern: learners modify a minimal working program to test their own model

Design · All designs
Evidence · 5 claims (5 for) · 1 study (1 design), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description

The QRC's instructional pattern is a minimal, transparent computer realization of an experiment that learners modify to embody their own favored model. The article states "Any directly real model whatever needs modification of only three lines of the code", covering hidden-variable construction and the measurement parts, while the random angle choice stays unaltered. Because any directly real model can in principle be realized on classical computers, modification is trivial, so the difficulty lies in the physics, not the programming.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• The experimental setup must be simple (restricted angle choices, exactly 800 photon pairs) so the program stays minimal and lay-accessible
• Hidden variables may have any complexity; simplicity comes from the setup, not from restricting the model

Constraints

• The rest of the program, like the random choice of angles, must stay unaltered
• The article notes the envisioned multiplayer game distributed over three computers would need internet communication cut at appropriate times to prevent cheating via artificial non-locality

Target Learners

• educated lay audience
• high-school level students (envisioned)
• programmers and online physics community members

Target Goals

• understanding what local hidden variable models entail
• distinguishing measurement prescriptions from hidden variables
• learning through modifying and running simulations

Claims

• Qrc Simulation Violates Bell 99 Percent 800 Pairs [+M]
• Classical Indeterminism Model Fails Anticorrelation [+M]
• Demanding anti-correlation is argued to be didactically superior to employing the CHSH inequality in the QRC [+W]
• Hidden variables that skip preparing certain pair classes violate the Bell and CHSH inequality in half of all runs [+W]
• An initial QRC deployment terminated artificially created pseudoscience debates on several popular web portals [+W]

Related Patterns

Examples

• Quantum Randi Challenge: a modifiable computer game teaching quantum mechanics

Key Sources

• Vongehr, S. (2012). Quantum Randi Challenge. arXiv:1207.5294. doi:10.48550/arXiv.1207.5294

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	modify-minimal-program-challenge-pattern
title	Challenge-by-modification pattern: learners modify a minimal working program to test their own model
description	The QRC's instructional pattern is a minimal, transparent computer realization of an experiment that learners modify to embody their own favored model.
status	review
generated	by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-09-26
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — vongehr-2012

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