The concept of a sinusoidal wave traveling along a string is included in all secondary education physics books and as a result is being taught in undergraduate lectures around the globe. The didactic approach that follows is advantageous since it provides in a simplified way (through basic mathematical tools) a description of a disturbance that…

A simple model of parallel motion of two point charges and the subsequent analysis of the electromagnetic field transformation invariant quantity are considered. It is shown that ignoring the coupling of electric and magnetic fields, as is done in some introductory physics books, can lead to miscalculations of the force between moving charges.…

This paper examines the representation of women in Irish Leaving Certificate Physics textbooks. Findings show that women are significantly underrepresented, both in terms of scientific characters (historic and current) described within the textbooks, and also in terms of more general non-scientific characters within the books. Furthermore,…

During their first physics courses, most students struggle with mathematical concepts that are used but not fully understood, for example, the appearance of infinity in introductory physics exercises. In many cases, these concepts are critical to understanding the underlying physical phenomenon. Typically, most books do not place much emphasis on…

Examines the traditional role of textbooks in physics teaching, looks at new trends in physics teaching, examines use of books in new courses, and describes the Danish physics project. (GS)

Reviews books on practical physics available through English publishers. Each review includes author, title, publisher, number of pages, and cost. (SL)

Discusses several aspects of physics education in China. These include the school system, physics curriculum, physics textbooks and reference books used, preservice training for teachers of senior and middle schools, and in-service programs and activities for qualified physics teachers. (JN)

One way to ease the solution of physics problems is to visualize the situation. However, by visualization we do not mean the pictorial representation of the problem. Instead, we mean a sketch for the solution of the problem. In this paper a new approach to solving physics problems, based on decomposing the problem into with and without gravity, is…

Creativity can be viewed from different perspectives, such as the creative thinking process, the product, the creative environment and the individual. The physics domain, which is based on experiments, research, hypotheses and thinking outside the box, can serve as an excellent grounding for creativity development. This article focuses on creative…

Any teacher of physics is likely to consider super-curricular reading as an important strategy for successful students. However, there are many more ways to extend a student's interest in a subject than reading books, and undirected reading (such as providing a long out of date reading list) is not likely to be as helpful as targeted or directed…

Critical analysis is universally advocated as a key goal of science teaching. In that context, the article explores the responses of beginning teachers (BTs) to explanations used in science education. Specifically, the study asks how BTs can be helped to ground their pedagogical choices in a critical analysis of explanations introduced during…

This study is aimed at first introducing a well-known discrepant event; inseparable phone books and second, turning it into an experiment for high school or middle school students. This discrepant event could be used especially to indicate how friction force can be effective in producing an unexpected result. Demonstration, discussion, explanation…

In this article we consider the well-known demonstration of friction by two interleaved books. We consider a factor that has not been part of the popular explanation--atmospheric pressure. We provide three control experiments to demonstrate the role of atmospheric pressure in the two-book experiment and an additional simple demonstration of the…

Throughout the long history of astronomy, scientists have repeatedly written fictional stories, which often lend themselves to use in the classroom thanks to the authors' in-depth knowledge and an appealing storyline. This article uses the novel 'The Black Cloud', written by the well-known astronomer Fred Hoyle, to show which physical-astronomical…

Presents a rationale for the use of a variety of reading materials in Nuffield Physics and describes how this approach works in practice. Presents a list of books that have been found most useful in the A level course. (GS)