PHYSICS MISCONCEPTIONS
Misconceptions are located on the left side of the tables, and references about the corresponding misconception are on the right.
STANDARD III: Students will understand the factors determining the strength of gravitational and electric forces.
Objective 1: Relate the strength of the gravitational force to the distance between two objects and the mass of the objects (i.e., Newton's law of universal gravitation).
| Students believe that gravity "holds" things | Driver, 1994, p. 163. |
| Students believe objects are pushed down rather than being pulled down by gravity. | Driver, 1994, p. 77. |
| Students believe big means the same thing as heavy, massive means the same thing as big, and weight means the same thing as mass. | Arizona, 2001; Driver, 1994, p. 78. |
| Students believe air and gas are weightless and have no mass. | Arizona, 2001; Driver, 1994, p. 77. |
| Students believe the higher the altitude, the stronger the gravity until outside the atmosphere. | Driver, 1994, p. 163. |
STANDARD IV: Students will understand transfer and conservation of energy.
Objective 1: Determine kinetic and potential energy in a system.
| Students believe potential energy is a thing that objects hold (like cereal stored in a closet). | UWSP |
| Students believe that the only type of potential energy is gravitational. | NASA |
| Students believe that doubling the velocity of a moving object will double its kinetic energy. | NASA |
| Students believe stored energy is something that causes energy later. It is not energy until it has been released. | NASA |
| Students believe objects do not have any energy if they are not moving. | Arizona, 2001 |
Objective 2:Describe conservation of energy in terms of systems
| Students believe energy is a thing that can be created and destroyed. | Tomatosphere |
| Students believe energy is literally lost in many energy transformations. | AIP |
| Students believe gravitational potential energy depends only upon the height of an object. | AIP |
| Students believe conservation of energy means energy should be conserved. | Arizona, 2001 |
Objective 3: Describe common energy transformations and the effect on availability of energy
| Students believe energy can be recycled. | Arizona |
| Students believe energy can be changed completely from one form to another with no loss of useful energy. | AIP |
| Students believe heat is a substance and not energy. | AIP |
REFERENCES
AIP - http://amasci.com/miscon/opphys.html
Arizona State Study on Student Preconceptions and Misconceptions as reported in June 2001 and found on the net at http://www.daisley.net/hellevator/misconceptions/misconceptions.pdf
Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P., & Wood-Robinson, V. (1994). Making sense of secondary science: Research into children's ideas. New York: Routledge.
NASA - http://www.nasalearn.org/teacher_support_alerts_misconceps_physci.htm
Tomatosphere - www.tomatosphere.org/EngManual/what_is_energy.html
UWSP - www.uwsp.edu/cnr/wcee/keep/Mod1/Unitall/QuizAnswers_further_discussions.htm#stored