Related papers: The amazing normal forces
It has been reported that students often leave the introductory physics classroom believing that physics is less connected to the real world than when they entered. In this paper we aim to complicate that narrative by considering students'…
In teaching the physical sciences, a significant challenge lies in the student's tendency to consider the scientific world and the "real" world as separate. For example, Newton's 1st Law of Motion states that an object in motion remains in…
Even though there has been a tremendous amount of research done in how to help students learn physics, students are still coming away missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: why bother with physics? Students learn fundamental laws and how to…
The job of a physicist is to describe Nature. General features, hypotheses and theories help to describe physics phenomena at a more abstract, fundamental level, and are sometimes tacitly assigned some sort of real existence; doing so…
We present a simple model for the friction of two solid bodies moving against each other. In a self consistent way we can obtain the dependence of the macroscopic friction force as a function of the driving velocity, the normal force and…
Angular momentum is taught in every classical mechanics course. It is a difficult topic with misconceptions commonly forming significant barriers to student success. My intention in writing this paper is to combat some of the most common…
We develop a theory of static friction by modeling the homogeneous surfaces of contact as being composed of a regular array of compressible elastic smooth microscopic inclines. Static friction is thought of as the resistance due to having…
Prior research has demonstrated how the realist perspectives of classical physics students can translate into specific beliefs about quantum phenomena when taking an introductory modern physics course. Student beliefs regarding the…
A goal of physics is to understand the greatest possible breadth of natural phenomena in terms of the most economical set of basic concepts. However, as the understanding of physics has developed historically, its pedagogy and language have…
The concept of "force" is abstract and challenging for many physics students, and many studies have revealed misconceptions that hinder students' understanding and learning in classical physics. One reason for this may be that physics…
Even if students can make the blend, interpret physics correctly in mathematical symbology and graphs, they still need to be able to apply that knowledge in productive and coherent ways. As instructors, we can show our solutions to complex…
We introduce an approach to the foundations of physics that is more in line with the foundations of mathematics. The idea is to examine current theories and find a set of starting physical assumptions that are sufficient to rederive them,…
The formalism of classical particle dynamics is reinvestigated according to the basic requirement of causal consistency, and a new equation of particle dynamics, which is more general and more in line with classical mechanics experiments…
Physics education research has probed for the relevance of physics in students' everyday lives. Attitudinal and epistemological surveys have asked students if they think of or use physics in their daily lives. We have previously documented…
The goal of this paper is to investigate the normal and tangential forces acting at the point of contact between a horizontal surface and a rolling ball actuated by internal point masses moving in the ball's frame of reference. The normal…
Highly successful students, as measured by grades and by scores on the Force Concept Inventory, still struggle with fundamental concepts in mathematics and physics. These difficulties, which turn physics into parrot learning and include…
We describe the development of a junior-senior level course for Physics majors designed to teach Mathematica skills in support of their undergraduate coursework, but also to introduce students to modern research level results. Standard…
A precise formulation of the strong Equivalence Principle is essential to the understanding of the relationship between gravitation and quantum mechanics. The relevant aspects are reviewed in a context including General Relativity, but…
This is a write-up of a lecture at the level of a physics colloquium. There exists an idealized mathematical formulation of strong interactions which has no free parameters but is known to describe the real world quite accurately. Over the…
We show how a simple calculation leads to the surprising result that an excited two-level atom moving through vacuum sees a tiny friction force of first order in v/c. At first sight this seems to be in obvious contradiction to other…