A review of the history of Newton's Laws of Motion illustrates that the historical development gradually shifted away from intuitive experiences and daily life conventions towards a scientific regulated perspective. Three stages of the historical development are discussed, i.e. prior to the Principia, the 3rd (last) edition of the Principia,…

End-pipe corrections seldom come to mind as a suitable topic for an introductory physics lab. Yet, the end-pipe correction formula can be verified in an engaging and inexpensive lab that requires only two supplies: plastic-tube toys called boomwhackers and a meter-stick. This article describes a lab activity in which students model data from…

Humans have evolved to follow their intuition, but as any high school physics teacher knows, relying on intuition often leads students to predict outcomes that are at odds with evidence. Over the years, we have attempted to make this intuition-outcome disparity a central theme running throughout our physics classes, with limited success. Part of…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the cognitive processes used by individuals who read a refutational text about physics and demonstrated conceptual change learning. Four high school readers whose initial conceptions differed from the scientific conception of Newton's first law thought aloud while reading a refutational…

We present results from a study that categorizes and assesses the quality of questions and explanations authored by students in question repositories produced as part of the summative assessment in introductory physics courses over two academic sessions. Mapping question quality onto the levels in the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy, we find…

This paper analyses shifts in the representation of history and physics as named organisational units on Australian university websites over the last 15 years in the context of broader questions about the production of knowledge in contemporary times. It derives from a broader project concerned with disciplinarity, changing university contexts and…

The two-stage exam is a relatively simple way to introduce collaborative learning and formative assessment into an exam. Their use is rapidly growing in the physics department at the University of British Columbia, as both students and faculty find them rewarding. In a two-stage exam students first complete and turn in the exam individually, and…

The temperature dependence of the Gibbs energy and important quantities such as Henry's law constants, activity coefficients, and chemical equilibrium constants is usually calculated by using the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation. Although, this is a well-known approach and traditionally covered as part of any physical chemistry course, the required…

Each fall the Statistical Research Center (SRC) conducts its Survey of Enrollments and Degrees, which asks all degree-granting physics and astronomy departments in the U.S. to provide information concerning the number of students they have enrolled and the counts of recent degree recipients. In connection with this survey, SRC asks for the names…

Physics bachelor's degree production has more than doubled since the recent low in 1999, and enrollment in U.S. undergraduate physics programs continues to increase. The all-time high of 7,329 bachelor's degrees in the class of 2013 represents the 14th consecutive year that the number of physics bachelor's conferred has increased.…

The E[superscript 2]Coach project from the Department of Physics at the University of Michigan (UM) addresses the challenge of providing individual student support in high-enrollment introductory science courses. This web application employs tailored communications technology, course experiences, student data, and analytics to deliver customized…

A cappuccino is prepared by adding about 50 mL frothing, foaming milk to a cup of espresso. Whole milk is best for foaming and the ideal milk temperature when adding it to the espresso is 65 [degrees]C. The espresso itself may be warmer than that. During the heating the milk should not burn, as that would spoil the taste. The best way is to heat…

A variety of simple classical mechanics energy conservation experiments are used in teaching laboratories. Typical one-dimensional (1-D) setups may involve falling balls or oscillating springs. Many of these can be quite satisfying in that students can confirm--within a few percent--that mechanical energy is conserved. Students generally have…

As a new physics teacher, I was explaining how to find the weight of an object sitting on a table near the surface of the Earth. It bothered me when a student asked, "The object is not accelerating so why do you multiply the mass of the object by the acceleration due to gravity?" I answered something like, "That's true, but if the table were not…

Nonlocality arises from the unified "all or nothing" interactions of a spatially extended field quantum such as a photon or an electron. In the double-slit experiment with light, for example, each photon comes through both slits and arrives at the viewing screen as an extended but unified energy bundle or "field quantum." When the photon interacts…