| 1. |
- Svensson, Kim, et al.
(author)
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Active and passive transductions—definitions and implications for learning
- 2022
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 1361-6404 .- 0143-0807. ; 43:2, s. 025705-025705
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To move between different semiotic systems, such as graphs and formulas, is a necessary step in learning physics or solving problems. In social semiotics, this movement of semiotic material is called a transduction and during a transduction a student must unpack, filter, and highlight different aspects of the concept or problem. Unpacking, filtering, and highlighting have been shown to be important to the meaning-making process and transductions should be seen as indicators of meaning-making and learning. However, in this paper we argue that not all transductions performed by students requires unpacking, filtering, or highlighting, and hence the definition of transduction needs to be refined in its description. We introduce the ideas of passive and active transductions that separates transductions that may lead to meaning-making from transductions that may not. This separation is done through shown engagement with the semiotic material of the transduction. We connect shown engagement with the semiotic material to the already established anatomy of disciplinary discernment to create a useful tool when evaluating student engagement and discernment. In the paper, we showcase examples of passive and active transductions and provide a short description of how to identify them in different learning situations.
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| 2. |
- Pendrill, Ann-Marie, 1952
(author)
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Student Investigations of Forces in a Roller Coaster Loop.
- 2013
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In: European journal of physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 34:6, s. 1379-1389
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Abstract. How does the experience of a riding in a roller coaster loop depend on your position in the train? This question has been investigated by first year engineering physics students, using multiple representations of force and motion. Theoretical considerations for a circular loop show that the differences between the forces on a rider in the front, middle or back of the train depend on the ratio between train length and radius of the loop, which can be estimated from a photograph. Numerical computations complement the analysis of a video clip, accelerometer data and measurements of time needed for the train to move over the highest point. A roller coaster ride gives striking examples of Newton’s laws applied to your own body, and demonstrates that the experience depends on the vector character of velocity and acceleration.
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| 3. |
- Eriksson, Moa, et al.
(author)
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Using social semiotics and variation theory to analyse learning challenges in physics : a methodological case study
- 2020
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In: European journal of physics. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 41:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of the paper is to create a way of extending the utility of using variation theory of learning (VTL) as an analytic tool for exploring student learning in interactive environments for highly complex disciplines such as physics that aims at obtaining additional insights and understanding of students' learning challenges in physics drawing on a phenomenography perspective. To do this we propose an analytical combination of two perspectives-social semiotics and the VTL-using theoretical constructs from both. Here, in keeping with the phenomenographic perspective that underlies VTL, learning is taken to mean coming to experience things in distinctly new ways. As a case study, students were video recorded during a group problem-solving session while working on circular motion tutorial problems. Through the combined analytic approach, we were able to identify the students'relevance structureas enacted as a function of what was in focal awareness and what dimensions of variation that were presented. A social semiotic multimodal transcription is used to illustrate the proposed methodology, which is made up of the semiotic systems that the students chose to use to build their discursive engagement on. As a methodology paper, and because such discussion already exists in the literature, how this kind of analytic combination can provide additional teaching insights and how these insights could be used to enhance teachers' understanding of their students' learning are not presented in this paper.
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| 4. |
- Nässén, Nina, et al.
(author)
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Forces on hockey players : Vectors, work, energy and angular momentum
- 2019
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 40:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Non-traditional examples can be very inspiring for students. This paper applies classical mechanics to different ways of skating in ice hockey. Skating blades glide easily along the ice in the direction of the blade. Horizontal forces on the skates are thus essentially perpendicular to the blade. Speed skaters glide long distances on each skate before pushing off for the next stride. A hockey player running for the puck may take a number quite short steps in a short explosive rush before shifting to longer strides, where the recurring need to change direction requires additional work by the skater. This paper investigates an alternative stride, with a longer gliding phase in a circular arc, where the centripetal force provided by the ice acting on the skates changes the direction of motion, without the need for additional energy. In addition, the conservation of angular momentum leads to increased speed as the centre of mass is shifted closer to the centre of the circular arc. Finally, we discuss an angular-momentum-based technique to reverse the direction of motion as fast as possible.
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| 5. |
- Nässén, Nina, et al.
(author)
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Reply to comment on ‘Forces on hockey players : Vectors, work, energy and angular momentum’
- 2021
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 42:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bracko has commented on our paper ‘forces on hockey players: vectors, work, energy and angular momentum’and refers to extensive studies on skaters using traditional techniques. We note that results based on one skating technique, such as a correlation between stride rate and speed, cannot be immediately applied to a different technique.
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| 6. |
- Pendrill, Ann-Marie, 1952
(author)
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Mathematics, measurement and experience of rotations around three axes
- 2019
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 40:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An amusement ride involving rotations around three axes offers a large-scale illustration for the study of dynamics in three dimensions. The forces on the rider can be measured with co-moving accelerometers. As a first approximation, the different motions can be treated separately, but the combination of rotations is found to lead to a relatively large Coriolis effect. A mathematical description of the motion automatically combines all the different effects and offers a useful programming exercise.
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| 7. |
- Pendrill, Ann-marie, et al.
(author)
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Round and round in circles-shifting relevance structures as students discuss acceleration and forces during circular motion in a vertical plane
- 2023
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In: European journal of physics. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 44:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Working out the relations between the forces involved in circular motion in a vertical plane can be challenging for first-year students, as illustrated in this analysis of a 30 min group discussion of a textbook problem where a remote-control model car moves with constant speed inside a cylinder. The analysis includes timelines of semiotic resources used, as well as of topics brought up by individual students. Questions from the students include: what is that force you drew on the paper? Does it act on the car or on the wall? What keeps the car from falling down? The normal force and the 'centripetal force' both point to the center-does it mean they are the same? Is it only a gravitational force at the top? Does the normal force at the bottom just cancel gravity or does it need to be larger? What is 'normal' about the normal force? Arriving at the correct numerical result is insufficient evidence for student understanding of forces in circular motion! Can students with fragmentary understanding bring their pieces together to solve the puzzle? From the timelines, we can identify a few critical moments where the discussion changes focus. This happens when one of the students in the group introduces a new dimension of variation, e.g. a reminder about the force of gravity, a free-body diagram drawn, as well as diagrams drawn in other parts of the circle than the top or bottom, where the centripetal and normal forces are no longer in the same direction. Embodied experiences are invoked, but only at a very late stage in the discussion. For teachers, an awareness of the different ways students use terms and think about the forces can be a guide to offering a larger variation in the interventions, as well as in problems assigned.
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| 8. |
- Reistad, Nina
(author)
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The jerk and the vertical fall of a shuttlecock
- 2022
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 43:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Jerk, the derivative of acceleration with respect to time, is a physical concept of great practical significance. However, this concept is rarely mentioned in textbooks and is often neglected in physics education. This paper describes how the concept of jerk can be easily introduced in the study of the dynamics of falling bodies, which are significantly affected by air resistance. In this regard, the vertical fall of two different feather shuttlecocks, a standard and a miniature one, is studied. In this simple vertical fall experiment, air resistance is significant and measurable, implying that the acceleration changes, and thus, the jerk can be determined. The velocity, acceleration, and jerk measurements with time during the vertical fall are described and compared with those from different standard air resistance models. The proposed setup can help initiate a discussion of well-known basic physics concepts and modeling approaches, such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, and particularly the often-neglected jerk concept.
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| 9. |
- Schilder, Jurnan P., et al.
(author)
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The Coriolis effect and coupled oscillations in a rotating swings amusement ride
- 2024
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In: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 45:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rotating swings are found in many different versions in parks around the world. They are beautiful examples of the equivalence between gravitational and inertial mass: empty swings and swings with heavy adults hang at the same angle to the vertical. However, sometimes one can notice empty swings moving in a different pattern in an outdoor ride, where wind can induce additional motion, sideways or back to front-in addition to any oscillations caused by a tilted carousel head. This paper focuses on oscillations for the simpler case of a non-tilting roof. Even for this case, the oscillating motion is found to be complicated by the Coriolis effect, which leads to a gyroscopic coupling between sideways oscillations and back-to-front oscillations. This coupling is illustrated for a few special cases.
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| 10. |
- Anderson, Dan, 1943, et al.
(author)
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Approximate solution of a Thomas-Fermi model equation for bulk self-gravitating stellar objects in two dimensions
- 2017
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In: European journal of physics. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 38, s. 1-8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Direct variational methods are used to find simple approximate solutions of the Thomas–Fermi equations describing the properties of self-gravitating radially symmetric stellar objects both in the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic cases. The approximate solutions are compared and shown to be in good agreement with exact and numerically obtained solutions.
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