Welcome to the Student
Difficulties in Physics Information Center
This website is for use as an information center and diagnostic
tool. The authors of this website have read through Physics Education
Research literature and compiled a list of documented student
misconceptions and difficulties, along with questions that you can
use in your classroom to discover if your students have these
misconceptions and/or difficulties. This website will not tell you
how to remedy any particular misconceptions/difficulties; we feel
that each individual instructor is better suited to meet the needs of
their classrooms once they know that a problem exists. Finding out
that there is a problem is more than half the battle.
Common student difficulties and/or misconceptions have been
separated into the following categories:
This website was written by Tom
Brown and Jeff
Crowder. Please let us know if you encounter any
difficulties in accessing the site, or if you have any suggestions on
how we may improve it.