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2- You are familiar with the fact that a rifle recoils when fired. The bullet pushes
backwards upon the rifle. The force that the rifle exerts on the bullet is...
a) Smaller than the force the bullet exerts on the rifle.
b) The same magnitude as the force the bullet exerts on the rifle.
c) greater than the force the bullet exerts on the rifle.
d) Zero since the rifle recoils at uniform velocity.
The correct answer is “b”.
This is similar to question #1 and tests a fundamental understanding of Newton’s
Third Law.
3- You are familiar with the fact that a rifle recoils when fired. The bullet pushes
backwards upon the rifle. The acceleration of the recoiling rifle is ...
c) Smaller than the acceleration of the bullet.
d) The same magnitude as the acceleration of the bullet.
c) greater than the acceleration of the bullet.
d) Zero since the rifle recoils at uniform velocity.
On a STEM school midterm administered during the 2014-2015 school year, only 35% of
students got #3 correct by answering “A”.
This question works together with question 2 to describe the compete situation:
Because of Newton’s Third Law the bullet and the rifle each experience the same force.
Since the forces are the same, the less massive object (the bullet) experiences more
acceleration. This is true because of Newton’s Second Law, F=ma.
Misconceptions:
1. Many students confuse equal force with equal acceleration. The force on the bullet
and on the rifle are equal, but because F=ma the larger-mass object (the rifle) has a
smaller acceleration.
2. Some students do not understand “uniform velocity”. For the rifle to recoil, it starts
with 0 magnitude velocity and then later has a velocity of greater magnitude. Thus, the
velocity is NOT uniform and the acceleration is NOT zero.
4N A
4- Using the figure at right, how many action and reaction forces 6N B
involving book B can be identified?
a) one action force and one reaction force
b) two action forces and two reaction forces
c) three action forces and three reaction forces
d) three action forces and one reaction force
Only 54% of students got #4 correct by answering “C”.
First action/reaction pair: Book A presses down on Book B, while Book B presses up on
Book A.
Second action-reaction pair: Book B presses down on the table, while the table presses
up on book B.
Third action-reaction pair: Because of gravity, the Earth pulls down on book B while
book B pulls up on the Earth.
Misconceptions:
1. 29% of students answered “B”. They probably believed that action-reaction pairs
only happen with contact forces, and therefore ignore the action-reaction pair between
the book and the Earth. In Day 2 the worksheet “Newton’s Third Law: Forces at a
distance” is meant to address this misconception.
5- A metal block is suspended by your hand through a string. The reaction to
the force of gravity on the block is the force exerted by:
a) the string on the block
b) the block on the string
c) the string on your hand
d) the block on Earth
8- In the previous question, the man succeeded in moving the chair at constant
velocity.
Then, the frictional force with the floor is …
a) Equal to 50 N
b) greater than 50 N
c) less than 50N
d) zero
Misconceptions:
1. Students don’t realize that the two forces in an action-reaction pair always act on
different objects and therefore never cancel each other out. The two forces cannot be
added.
Note: This is a rewritten problem, so we are not sure how well students would have
done.
10- A child leaves a small wagon on the street and goes indoors. A few minutes
later, a large car accidentally crashes into the child’s small wagon. Which of the
following is true?
a) the car exerts a greater amount of force on the small wagon than the
small wagon exerts on the car
b) e small wagon exerts a greater amount of force on the car than the car
exerts on the small wagon.
c) neither exerts a force on the other, the small wagon gets smashed simply
because it gets in the way of the car.
d) the car exerts a force on the small wagon but the small wagon does not
exert a force on the car.
e) the car exerts the same amount of force on the small wagon as the small
wagon exerts on the car.
On a similar item, only 49% of students got #10 correct by answering “E”.
Misconceptions:
1. 46% of students incorrectly answered “A”. This is the opposite difficulty from the
difficulty students had with problem #3 on this worksheet. Students do not realize that
the smaller object experiences more acceleration because it has less mass—but the
FORCES are the same.