Few students understand how conservation of momentum follows from Newton’s Third Law

Forces and Motion

Misconception RESEARCH REVIEW

Students may also struggle to understand that the time interval during which the forces act is necessarily the same for both objects.

Resources to Address This

  • Skateboard forces (11-16)

    This resource demonstrates the forces on a student and skateboard are equal and opposite.

    View Resource

  • Episode 212: Newton's third law of motion

    There are a number of difficulties in teaching this concept and recognising these difficulties is half the battle; the other half is ensuring that your own understanding is sound. 

    View Resource

References

  • Watts, D. M. () A study of schoolchildren's alternative frameworks of the concept of force. International Journal of Science Education, 5 (2), 217-230.

    This study used an interview approach to identify the conceptions of force of 12 students aged 11-17. Students were drawn from a range of schools in the Greater London area, from both junior science classes and advanced-level physics classes.

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RESEARCH REVIEW Forces and Motion

Many students think that an object's acceleration is always in the direction in which the object is moving

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RESEARCH REVIEW Energy and Thermal Physics

Few students use ideas about energy and energy conservation and are more likely to use ideas like speed or force

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RESEARCH REVIEW Forces and Motion

Many students think of a force as a property of objects, not as something that arises when two objects interact

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