PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2012
Portland, Oregon
Student Troubles with Simple Harmonic Motion Models
Page: 2-430
Many studies exist on student difficulty transferring mathematical knowledge to physics, on student understanding of trigonometry, and student ability to create graphical representations of functions. However, there are no studies that exist in the intersection of these issues. This study sought to explore student understanding of simple harmonic motion by examining how their approach to graphing the sine and cosine functions impacted their ability to graph sine and cosine based models of simple harmonic motion. The findings of this study conclude that neither an object perspective or process perspective of the graphical representations of sine and cosine is sufficient for the ability to graph simple harmonic motion modeled based on cosine. There seems to be an element missing, a connection students must make between the changes in input type, that needs to be addressed in order for students to create a graphical representation of a cosine-based simple harmonic motion model.