Science High-School Students Understanding of Velocity & Acceleration and of the Motion of Bob When Tension is Removed in a Simple Pendulum

The aims of this study are to investigate science high school students' understanding of velocity and acceleration of a simple pendulum bob, and to investigate their understanding of inertia and gravitational force in the motion of a pendulum bob when the tension is removed. For the study, 46 students that had already studied the physical, concepts in simple pendulum were sampled from a science high school in a large city in Korea. For a comparison with general high school students' conceptions, 49 students were sampled from a general high school in the same city. The test tool for the investigation consisted of four drawing and simple-answering type questions developed by the authors. The outcomes of the study revealed that a substantial number of science high school students have misconceptions concerning acceleration in pendulum motion, and that many of them do not understand the relationship between force and acceleration. In addition, the results of the study showed that more than 30% of the students drew the path of a bob going along the tangential direction at the highest point of the motion, and approximately 20% of them drew the path of a bob falling straight down at the lowest point of the motion.