Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XXXV: Free-body Diagrams

Free-body diagrams are ubiquitous in introductory physics courses. They should be straightforward, but I’ve noticed that student frequently struggle with them at first because they want to include velocity or momentum in addition to forces. For this question, choose an arbitrary (the more arbitrary, the better) physical situation. It could be something from your or […]

Matter & Interactions I, Week 7

I will edit this post at a later date to include diagrams (SURPRISE: That didn’t happen!). This was a pretty good week. Students are beginning to ask deeper, more insightful questions and that tells me they’re engaging in the material more than before. We formally began chapter 2 on the momentum principle, but I did […]