The free fall of an apple: conceptual subtleties and implications for physics teaching

TY - JOUR

T1 - The free fall of an apple

T2 - conceptual subtleties and implications for physics teaching

AU - Koch Torres Assis, André

AU - Avelar Sotomaior Karam, Ricardo

PY - 2018/3/23

Y1 - 2018/3/23

N2 - The study of free fall is thoroughly present in physics teaching at all levels. From the point of view of Newtonian dynamics it appears to be extremely simple, as it consists of a two-body problem with a constant force generating a constant acceleration. However, there are several important conceptual subtleties and hidden assumptions involved in this problem, which are rarely discussed in educational settings. In this work we present some of these subtleties and argue that explicitly addressing them has significant pedagogical benefits.

AB - The study of free fall is thoroughly present in physics teaching at all levels. From the point of view of Newtonian dynamics it appears to be extremely simple, as it consists of a two-body problem with a constant force generating a constant acceleration. However, there are several important conceptual subtleties and hidden assumptions involved in this problem, which are rarely discussed in educational settings. In this work we present some of these subtleties and argue that explicitly addressing them has significant pedagogical benefits.

U2 - 10.1088/1361-6404/aaa91d

DO - 10.1088/1361-6404/aaa91d

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0143-0807

VL - 39

SP - 1

EP - 14

JO - European Journal of Physics

JF - European Journal of Physics

IS - 3

M1 - 035003

ER -