Keywords

Physics -- Study and teaching, Problem solving

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to document the specific errors that introductory physics students make in each phase of the solution of Force and Motion problems. A mixed methods design was used to identify those errors, and it was determined that the errors which students made the most frequently were the omission of mgcosθ , mgsinθ, and the lack of a clearly defined coordinate system as part of the free-body diagram. Additionally, there was a negative statistically significant relationship between the quality of the free-body diagram and the quality of equations that were produced to describe the object’s motion. The results indicate that students do not have a full understanding of the role of a free-body diagram or its relationship to the system of equations that are generated as a result of the application of Newton’s Second Law to the free-body diagram

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Jeanpierre, Bobby

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Teaching, Learning, and Leadership

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003456

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003456

Language

English

Release Date

December 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education, Education -- Dissertations, Academic

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