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The study of the motion of a rigid body on a plane (RBP motion) is usually one of the most challenging topics that students face in introductory physics courses. In this paper, we discuss a couple of problems which are typically used in basic physics courses, in order to highlight some aspects related to RBP motion which are not usually well understood by physics students. The first problem is a pendulum composed of a rod and disk. The angular frequency of the pendulum is calculated in two situations: disk fixed to the rod and disk free to spin. A detailed explanation of the change in the angular frequency from one case to another is given. The second problem is a ladder which slides touching a frictionless surface. We use this problem to highlight the fact that the contact forces applied by the surface perform translational and rotational work despite that the total mechanical energy of the ladder is conserved.
The Principle of Least Action (PLA) in Optics can be confusing to students, in part due to the Calculus of Variations, but also because of the subtleties of the actual principle. To address this problem, three simulations of the PLA are presented so
A bouncing rubber ball under a motion sensor is a classic of introductory physics labs. It is often used to measure the acceleration due to gravity, and can also demonstrate conservation of energy. By observing that the ball rises to a lower height u
This work analyzes the difficulties in learning and teaching Einsteins theory of special relativity. An extensive bibliographic review has been performed, considering articles published in the most relevant journals on science education, which were s
Within the framework of Lagrangian mechanics, the conservativeness of the hydrostatic forces acting on a floating rigid body is proved. The representation of the associated hydrostatic potential is explicitly worked out. The invariance of the resulti
A set of virtual experiments were designed to use with introductory physics I (analytical and general) class, which covers kinematics, Newton laws, energy, momentum, and rotational dynamics. Virtual experiments were based on video analysis and simula