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Students’ Responses to Different Representations of a Vector Addition Question Documents

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Students’ Responses To Different Representations Of A Vector Addition Question 

written by Jeffrey M. Hawkins, John R. Thompson, Michael C. Wittmann, Eleanor C. Sayre, and Brian W. Frank

We investigate if the visual representation of vectors can affect which methods students use to add them. We gave students one of four questions with different graphical representations, asking students to add the same two vectors. For students in an algebra-based class the arrangement of the vectors had a statistically significant effect on the vector addition method chosen while the addition or removal of a grid did not.

Published August 24, 2010
Last Modified October 25, 2010

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