Student understanding of the application of Newton's second law to rotating rigid bodies

Abstract

We report on an investigation of student understanding of rigid body dynamics in which we asked students in introductory calculus-based physics to compare the translational motions of identical rigid bodies subject to forces that differed only in the point of contact at which they were applied. There was a widespread tendency to claim that forces that cause rotational motion have a diminished effect on translational motion. A series of related problems was developed to examine whether similar errors would be made in other contexts, and interviews were conducted to probe student thinking in greater depth. In this paper, we describe the results of our investigation and also describe a series of different interventions that culminated in the development of a tutorial that improves student ability to apply Newton's second law to rotating rigid bodies.