Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products

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written by Genaro Zavala and Pablo Barniol

In this article we investigate students' understanding of: 1) vector components and, 2) vector products. We administered a test to 409 students completing introductory physics courses at a private Mexican university. In the first part, based on the work of Van Deventer [1], we analyze the understanding of components of a vector. We used multiple-choice questions asking for students' reasoning to elaborate on the misconceptions and difficulties of graphical representation of the x- and y-components of a vector. In the rest of this work, we analyze the understanding of the dot and cross products. We designed opened-ended questions to investigate the difficulties on the calculation and the misconceptions in the interpretation of these two products.

Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series
Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010
Volume 1289, Pages 341-344

download 303kb .pdf
Published: August 24, 2010

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education - Basic Research - Alternative Conceptions - Assessment Mathematical Tools - Vector Algebra	- Lower Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Report = Research study

PER-Central Type	Intended Users	Ratings
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Formats:: application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3515240
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available for purchase; A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2010 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
Restriction:: © 2010 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.3515240
PACS:: 01.40.Fk
Keywords:: cross product, dot product, vector component, PERC 2010, vector
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created November 10, 2010 by Alea Smith
Record Updated:: January 23, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: August 24, 2010

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=10499">Zavala, Genaro, and Pablo Barniol. "Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>

AIP Format

G. Zavala and P. Barniol, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955).

AJP/PRST-PER

G. Zavala and P. Barniol, Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955>.

APA Format

Zavala, G., & Barniol, P. (2010, July 21-22). Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved March 15, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955

Chicago Format

Zavala, Genaro, and Pablo Barniol. "Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955 (accessed 15 March 2025).

MLA Format

Zavala, Genaro, and Pablo Barniol. "Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 341-344 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 15 Mar. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Genaro Zavala and Pablo Barniol", Title = {Students’ Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010}, Pages = {341-344}, Address = {Portland, Oregon}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {1289}, Month = {July 21-22}, Year = {2010} }

Refer Export Format

%A Genaro Zavala %A Pablo Barniol %T Students' Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products %S PER Conference %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 341-344 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Zavala, Genaro %A Barniol, Pablo %D July 21-22 2010 %T Students' Understanding of the Concepts of Vector Components and Vector Products %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 341-344 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10499&DocID=1955

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