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

André Koch Torres Assis; Ricardo Avelar Sotomaior Karam

doi:10.1088/1361-6404/aaa91d

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

André Koch Torres Assis, Ricardo Avelar Sotomaior Karam

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	035003
Journal	European Journal of Physics
Volume	39
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	1-14
Number of pages	14
ISSN	0143-0807
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aaa91d
Publication status	Published - 23 Mar 2018

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title = "The free fall of an apple: conceptual subtleties and implications for physics teaching",

abstract = "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.",

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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

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JO - European Journal of Physics

JF - European Journal of Physics

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

Abstract

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