This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. This month's issue takes a deeper look at the four known forces in the universe.

"What we don't understand, we explain to each other" was Robert Oppenheimer's 1948 description of theoretical physics as a profession. Because the phrase connects research, teaching, and learning, it seemed the right approach for the talk I gave to the AAPT [American Association of Physics Teachers] on receiving the 2013 J.D. Jackson…

Many introductory and nanotechnology textbooks discuss the operation of various microscopes including atomic force (AFM), scanning tunneling (STM), and scanning electron microscopes (SEM). In a nanotechnology laboratory class, students frequently utilize microscopes to obtain data without a thought about the detailed operation of the tool itself.…

Barlow's wheel has been a favorite demonstration since its invention by Peter Barlow (1776-1862) in 1822. In the form shown in Fig. 1, it represents the first electric motor. The interaction between the electric current passing from the axle of the wheel to the rim and the magnetic field produced by the U-magnet produces a torque that turns…

Constructing ray diagrams to locate the image of an object formed by thin lenses and mirrors is a staple of many introductory physics courses at the high school and college levels, and has been the subject of some pedagogy-related articles. Our review of textbooks distributed in the United States suggests that the singular approach involves…

The calculation of the moment of inertia of an extended body, as presented in standard introductory-level textbooks, involves the evaluation of a definite integral--an operation often not fully mastered by beginners, let alone the conceptual difficulties it presents, even to the advanced student, in understanding and setting up the integral in the…

With my background in acting, stagecraft, and some knowledge of theatre history from high school and college, it was natural for me as a novice teacher to think about theatre as a metaphor for teaching. In this article I will discuss how over my career I conceived of teaching in terms of theatrical metaphors, and make a comparison with a common…

Despite a number of theories in circuit analysis, little is known about the behaviour of ideal equal voltage sources in parallel, connected across a resistive load. We neither have any theory that can predict the voltage source that provides the load current, nor is there any method to test it experimentally. In a series of experiments performed…

Anyone who has taught introductory physics should know that roughly a third of the students initially believe that any object at rest will remain at rest, whereas any moving body not propelled by applied forces will promptly come to rest. Likewise, about half of those uninitiated students believe that any object moving at a constant speed must be…

Many educators have utilized the phenomenon of the so-called "hydrostatic paradox" to actively engage students in classroom instructional activities related to hydrostatic equilibrium. Various approaches requiring different levels of mathematical knowledge have been proposed in the literature to provide students clear explanations of…

Many icebergs are vulnerable to capsizing. In doing so the gravitational potential energy of the ice is increased, while that of the displaced sea water is decreased. Applying the principle of the conservation of energy shows that by capsizing, there is also a net transfer of energy to the surrounding sea water. This will be a maximum for a…

This paper examines the chronotopic nature of physics discourse and instructional practices that are mediated through the integration of disciplinary spatial repertoires and mathematical symbolic systems. The paper addresses how meanings are constructed during instruction between bilingual international teaching assistants (ITAs) and undergraduate…

Since 2017 the Italian Space Agency (ASI) participates to so-called 'Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro' (i.e. 'school-work synergy') outreach projects promoted by the Italian government, and the ASI Space Science Data Center (SSDC) actively contributes to them, with the primary aim of bringing students closer to space-related activities before choosing…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the kinds of experiences that were critical to the physics trajectories of four purposefully selected undergraduate female physics students in central Europe. The data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and were analyzed following an inductive approach and a…

Women are underrepresented in physics. Because of the structure of the Japanese educational system, more women must choose physics as a subject for university entrance exams to increase the number of women studying advanced physics at university. In this study, we investigated the factors influencing girls' choice of physics for university…