On the Concept of Force: How Understanding its History can Improve Physics Teaching

Abstract

Some physicists have pointed out that we do not know what force is. The most common definition of force in textbooks has been criticized for more than two centuries. Many studies have shown that the concept of force is a problem for teaching. How to conceive force on the basis of the concepts and criticism of force in the works of Newton, Euler, d'Alembert, Lagrange, Lazare Carnot, Saint-Venant, Reech, Kirchhoff, Mach, Hertz and Poincaré is the question of the present article. This part of the article is followed by an overview of definitions of force in contemporary textbooks. In the next part, an answer to the question is given: how to understand force within the framework of the laws of motion and in applications. Finally, some educational implications are considered.

Do Students Trust in Mathematics or Intuition during Physics Problem Solving? An Epistemic Game Perspective

“…In contrast, for the students who trusted in intuitive knowledge, acceleration was not an apparent concept as they had difficulty understanding the implications of the acceleration calculation results in the race prediction task. The students' difficulty in constructing acceleration as an apparent concept mirrors the results of other studies on the learning of the acceleration concept (Coelho, 2010;Taşar, 2010;Trowbridge & McDermott, 1981). Sherin (2011) suggested that quantitative problem solving and intuitive knowledge can be used together with intuitive knowledge forming a context for interpretation of quantitative results.…”

Students’ Ability In Solving Physics Problems on Newtons’ Law of Motion

“…Students often experience difficulties when solving problems related to the dynamics of motion. Some students have difficulty in solving problems related to force (Carson & Rowlands, 2005;Matthews, 2009;Rowlands, Graham, Berry, & McWilliam, 2007) and the concept of acceleration (Coelho, 2010;Tasar, 2010). The results of the study by (Narjaikaew, 2013) showed that some students did not understand the concept of motion and force.…”

Using History to Teach Mechanics

“…The various aspects of the past concept of force -|mv|, mv and mv 2 -were seen to be constructs of the quantities involved in the study of motion (such as distance and time) and the notion of force as a cause became less dominant (see also Coelho 2010). In addition, the move from sole consideration of forces of impact in which the "force of motion" was of prime importance to an acceptance of force-at-a-distance as an external impressed force which was central to Newton's system (though not so much for his followers) meant that arguments about the force of motion became of decreasing significance (Papineau 1977).…”