A significant approach that should be followed by physics teachers at the secondary education level in order to enhance students' understanding is to highlight the generality of the mathematical procedures that describe different physical phenomena. In this paper, the common procedure that is used to calculate the duration of various physical…

Newton's cradle is a well-known physics toy that is commonly used by teachers to demonstrate conservation laws in mechanics. It can also be used to investigate the physics of colliding objects, by recording motion of the balls on video film. Various experiments are described using 3-ball and 5-ball cradles, showing how different types of collision…

The vertical bounce of a plastic egg was investigated by dropping the egg on a horizontal surface and filming the result with a video camera. If the egg is dropped on one end then it bounces just like a spherical ball. If the top end of the egg is pointing forwards or backwards when it lands on the surface, or if the egg is spinning when it lands,…

This study assesses the level of application of the 5E's educational model by Rwandan physics teachers and how the model affects the learning of basic classical mechanics in secondary school physics classrooms. For this analysis, quantitative data were collected using the classroom observation tool framed at the 5E's educational model. A sample of…

Physics education research is replete with observations and proposed explanations for gender disparities in physics. In this work, we operationalize a definition for equity as everyone has access to the learning environment and everyone's voice is heard (adapted from previous definitions). We review prior research that observed inequities in…

Viscous and Coulomb's friction combined contribute to the damping of a pendulum; however, they are usually treated as a silo effect. In this study, we investigate the combination of viscous and Coulomb damping in compound pendulum oscillation, employing two modern instruments that are cheap and handy to quantify the experiments, which are video…

We introduce the basics of the Monte Carlo method that allows computing areas and definite integrals, by means of the generation of long sequences of random numbers. The areas of some nontrivial shapes are computed, showing the convergence towards their exact values. The application of the method to the computation of definite integrals is also…

The Metapendulum is a combination of both the simple gravity pendulum and the spring pendulum. Both excite each another and, therefore, can be used as an example of mechanical resonance phenomena. The data of a smartphone's accelerometer can be used to record the acceleration of the pendulum during the oscillation movement. With that, the…

An atlatl or spearthrower is perhaps humanity's oldest technology for accelerating projectiles. The dynamics prior to launch of the dart projectile have been much discussed in the literature. In this article we present a simple new model of launch dynamics and show that dart flex is not an important factor in determining launch speed, but it…

Part 1 of the series looked at teaching speed and velocity. Part 2 considers the teaching of acceleration in physics. Teachers may find it okay to hurry through the concepts of speed and velocity because they are intuitive. But teachers cannot hurry through acceleration quite so quickly because it is not intuitive. Whereas velocity is a rate of…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Investigating and Improving Quantum Education through Research.] The modern physics course is a crucial gateway for physics majors as it provides an introduction to concepts beyond the scope of the K-12 education. This study collected 167 modern physics syllabi from 127 U.S. research-intensive…

So many fundamental physics problems involve rigid body rotation that mastery of the subject is essential to many science and engineering undergraduate degrees. Rigid body rotation is typically taught in introductory mechanics courses and while students are generally comfortable with the corresponding kinematic equations, torques and moments of…

In contrast to the determinist and non-discrete structure of classical physical concepts, the probabilistic and discrete/quantised structure of quantum physics embeds certain difficulties in deeper understanding and teaching activities. In this study, in order to understand and to teach the concept of quantization more effectively, a clear analogy…

Design is often accepted as a fundamental aspect of engineering (Dym, et al., 2005). The design process is frequently portrayed as a set of steps. However, the design process is more complex than just a set of steps in a relatively fixed process. The complex nature of design, design thinking, questioning, and decision making is exactly what…

In this paper, we seek to evaluate the extent to which students can follow a deductive reasoning chain when it is presented to them. A great deal of instruction in introductory physics courses is centered on presenting students with a logical argument that starts from first principles and systematically leads to a particular conclusion. This…