Common Student Difficulties with Acceleration

Below are some common student misconceptions about the concept of acceleration:

Same velocity means same acceleration for two objects. (description) (discover) (references)

Larger (smaller) velocity means larger (smaller) acceleration. (description) (discover) (references)

Zero velocity means zero acceleration. (description) (discover) (references)

Students fail to see acceleration as the ratio Dv/Dt. (description) (discover) (references)

 

 

 

 

 

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