When describing motion in physics, the selection of a frame of reference is crucial. The graph of a moving object can look quite different based on the frame of reference. In recent years, various tests have been developed to assess the interpretation of kinematic graphs, but none of these tests have specifically addressed differences in reference…

Tanzanian secondary school students have consistently performed poorly in the topic of motion in a straight line, which involves kinematics formulas and graphs. Despite instruction, many struggle to plot and interpret these graphs, largely due to limited conceptual understanding among both learners and teachers. This study examines the conceptual…

The well-known artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT-4 has become able to process image data as input in October 2023. We investigated its performance on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics to inform the physics education community of the current potential of using ChatGPT in the education process, particularly on tasks that…

At the undergraduate level, the composite motion of simple harmonic vibrations has always been the main content of physics as well as several other scientific disciplines. Many textbooks tell us clearly that when the frequency ratio [omega][subscript 1]/[omega][subscript 2] of two perpendicular vibrations is simple integer ratio n[subscript…

Student difficulties with making sense of graphs in physics have been thoroughly reported. In the study of one-dimensional waves, the issue is even trickier since the amplitude is a function of two variables (position and time). In this work, we investigate students' reasoning and difficulties with interpreting the graphical representation of the…

The recent works of oscillators are mainly focused on underdamped oscillation. Therefore, the writer proposes an experimental apparatus to demonstrate all types of damped harmonic oscillation. The apparatus utilizes an Arduino for data acquisition and an Excel spreadsheet for data analysis. By using this apparatus, the type of damped harmonic…

Using a joystick module, we followed the movement of a chaotic magnetic pendulum. The pendulum bar was attached to a joystick that served as a pivot point and biaxial angular motion sensor. Using an Arduino board, we could follow the position as a function of time along both the "x" and "y"-axis and draw a graph showing the…

A spreadsheet plotting assignment of real-life data from a racecar is employed to help students master the relationships among speed, acceleration, and distance. The racecar application will capture the imagination and interest of the student. The data is obtained by reading speedometer values from a YouTube video for 40 s as a racecar accelerates…

This paper is a continuation of an earlier discussion in this journal about adhering to principles of mathematics while presenting function graphs in physics. As in the previous paper, the importance of the vertical line test was examined, this paper delves more in-depth, and it pinpoints a need for presenting graphs with a continuous rate of…

The drag effect on a falling ball caused by air is a conventional subject in the most well-known textbooks of classical mechanics and fluid dynamics. Further, there are some papers that employ video analysis to track objects movements in the air making it possible to obtain position data as a function of time and its graphs. However, none of them…

The conical pendulum provides a rich source of theoretical and computational analysis and the present work presents a seamless continuation of the previous publication. The tension force F[subscript T] and centripetal force F[subscript C] are explored further in linearization analyses and the appropriate slopes are explained. A similar analysis is…

A social semiotic lens is used to characterise aspects of representational competence for a discipline such as physics, to provide science teachers with a practical suggestion about how student learning might be organised to develop representational competence. We suggest that representational competence for some areas of science can be…

This article describes the implementation of an activity with a Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning cycle to teach the concepts of velocity and acceleration to physics students aged 17-19. The study indicates how the instructor enacted the activity and provides sample student responses and group discussions. The description includes an example…

Traditional school laboratory exercises on a system of moving objects connected by strings involve deriving expressions for the system acceleration, a = (?F)/m, and sketching a graph of acceleration vs. force. While being in the form of rational functions, these expressions present great opportunities for broadening the scope of the analysis by…

The goal of this paper is to illustrate different ways that cardsorting activities (or "card stacks") can be implemented in the introductory physics classroom, along with various tips and resources for getting started. My first attempt at developing a card stack came about from simply wanting to try out a fun way to change student…