Day 82 – Newton’s Third Law

Physics 11 – One thing that I think I do very well in my physics class is set up foundations for some core understandings.  In general, my classes seem to have a relatively easy time with Newton’s Third Law.  This is because over time they are exposed to some key ideas:

1. a whole set of thought experiments on the nature of gravity and it having mutual, equal sized forces
2. labeling interactions on force diagrams
3. viewing an interaction using hoop springs as surrogates for force

We’ll see how the students do in testing, but in our peer instruction/voting, they perform quite well.