Many high school and first-year university courses include discussion of the magnetic effect of currents. Frequently discussed textbook examples include long, straight wires, circular current loops, and solenoids, partly because these examples are tractable mathematically. The solenoid naturally leads to discussion on magnetic materials since it…

The photoelectric effect is one of the key experiments taught during first- or second-year university and high school modern physics courses. It is usually the first experiment to introduce light quantization and the concept of photons as "packets of energy." Here, we want to point out a widespread mistake concerning the interpretation…

Researchers have shown students develop misconceptions in projectile motion for various reasons. A common misunderstanding among first-year high school physics students is the notion that the horizontal and vertical components are interchangeable in projectile motion. The students' incorrect reasoning is connected to their personal experiences…

Throughout students' careers in physics, there are some topics that they learn multiple times and in multiple ways, and other topics that are briefly, if at all, discussed. I wanted to have the students think about all of the different physics topics they had learned in, most likely, a new way. Games have been used as a way to learn new physics…

Students are exposed to a variety of unrealistic physical experiences seen in movies, video games, and short online videos. A popular classroom activity has students examine footage to identify what aspects of physics are correctly and incorrectly represented. Some of the physical phenomena pictured might be tricks or illusions made easier to…

Ask a typical high school student to draw a picture of how a bar magnet works and most of the drawings produced will show a "+" and "-" sign at the two ends. Some students will write "N" and "S." If you then ask some follow-up questions, they will often resort to talking about "charges" being responsible for the magnetism. For several years, I…

In 1879, in the midst of the debate between English and continental scientists about the nature of cathode rays, William Crookes conducted an experiment in which a small mill or "paddle wheel" was pushed along tracks inside a cathode ray tube (CRT) (similar to that shown in Fig. 1) when connected to a high-voltage induction coil. Crookes…

Heat transfer is widely taught in secondary Earth science and physics. Researchers have identified many misconceptions related to heat and temperature. These misconceptions primarily stem from hunches developed in everyday life (though the confusions in terminology often worsen them). Interactive computer simulations that visualize thermal energy,…