Dramatic (and Simple!) Demonstration of Newton's Third Law

Abstract

An operational understanding of Newton's third law is often elusive for students. Typical examples of this concept are given for contact forces that are closer to the students' everyday experience. While this is a good thing in general, the reaction force can sometimes be taken for granted, and the students can miss the opportunity to really think about what is going on. In the case of magnetic forces, however, the notion of action at a distance actually requires a careful inspection of the forces involved and thereby promotes a more detailed analysis of the situation. In this paper, a simple demonstration of Newton's third law is presented in the context of a magnet falling through a hollow conducting tube. The results are unambiguous and lead the students to an irrefutable verification of Newton's third law.

A Simple Approach to Teach Newton’s Third Law

“…They can feel the force of 'resistance' (as a reaction) upon pulling the rope one end of which was tied to a window. The findings of this research regarding the contributions of demonstrations to learning reinforce finding that demonstration is a remarkably simple but strikingly effective approaching requiring the use of specialized equipment (Feldman, 2011).…”

“…Other research found junior secondary school students, senior high school and university students to experience difficulty when distinguishing between interaction and balance forces (Zhou et al, 2015). In Feldman's (2011) work, a simple demonstration of NTL is presented in the context of a magnet falling through a hollow conducting tube. The results are unambiguous and lead students to an irrefutable verification of NTL.…”

A few simple classroom experiments with a permanent U-shaped magnet

“…More and more, classical bar magnets give place to modern technological solutions. Strong and robust neodymium magnets contribute to fresh educational innovations [3,4].…”

Hubungan antara Nilai Ujian Nasional Fisika dengan Penguasaan Konsep Fisika Dasar pada Mahasiswa Tadris Fisika

“…Penguasaan konsep Fisika Dasar sebagai sesuatu yang terkait dengan materi fisika sebelumnya bukan dari salah satu atau konsep fisika yang baru (Ingerman & Booth, 2000). Hasil penelitian Yuruk, Beeth, & Andersen, 2009;Shaw, 2012;Stocklmayer, Rayner, & Gore, 2012;Feldman, 2011;Terzella, et.al., 2008;Portillo-Velez, et.al., 2013 menunjukkan bahwa memahami konsep fisika dengan pemikiran konsep yang sederhana. Berbagai upaya telah ditemupuh untuk menyajikan pembelajaran yang meminimalisir kesalahan konsep Fisika (Budhi, 2018).…”