Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements

Li, Jing; Singh, Chandralekha

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Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements

written by Jing Li and Chandralekha Singh

We discuss an investigation exploring students' difficulties with equations involving resistance, capacitance and inductance. We find that introductory physics students have great difficulty understanding, e.g., how the resistance of an ohmic resistor can be written in terms of the potential difference across it and the current through it, but it does not change when the potential difference across the resistor is varied. Similar confusions arose in problems relating to capacitors and inductors. We discuss these difficulties with equations in the context of introductory physics students' performance on questions about circuit elements both in the free-response and multiple-choice formats.

Physics Education Research Conference 2011
Part of the PER Conference series
Omaha, Nebraska: August 3-4, 2011
Volume 1413, Pages 243-246

download 47kb .pdf
Published: February 6, 2012

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education - Basic Research - Alternative Conceptions Electricity & Magnetism - Capacitance - Inductance - Resistance	- Lower Undergraduate - Graduate/Professional	- Reference Material = Research study

PER-Central Type	Intended Users	Ratings
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Formats:: application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3680040
Access Rights:: Free access and
Available for purchase; A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2011 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
Restriction:: © 2011 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.3680040
PACS:: 01.40.Fk
Keywords:: Circuit Elements, PERC 2011, RLC
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created April 25, 2012 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:: May 15, 2012 by Vince Kuo
Last Update when Cataloged:: February 6, 2012

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=11857">Li, Jing, and Chandralekha Singh. "Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2011, Omaha, Nebraska, August 3-4, 2011.</a>

AIP Format

J. Li and C. Singh, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2011, Omaha, Nebraska, 2011, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707).

AJP/PRST-PER

J. Li and C. Singh, Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2011, Omaha, Nebraska, 2011, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707>.

APA Format

Li, J., & Singh, C. (2011, August 3-4). Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2011, Omaha, Nebraska. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707

Chicago Format

Li, Jing, and Chandralekha Singh. "Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2011, Omaha, Nebraska, August 3-4, 2011. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707 (accessed 3 December 2024).

MLA Format

Li, Jing, and Chandralekha Singh. "Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements." Physics Education Research Conference 2011. Omaha, Nebraska: 2011. 243-246 Vol. 1413 of PER Conference. 3 Dec. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Jing Li and Chandralekha Singh", Title = {Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2011}, Pages = {243-246}, Address = {Omaha, Nebraska}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {1413}, Month = {August 3-4}, Year = {2011} }

Refer Export Format

%A Jing Li %A Chandralekha Singh %T Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements %S PER Conference %V 1413 %D August 3-4 2011 %P 243-246 %C Omaha, Nebraska %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2011 %O August 3-4 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Li, Jing %A Singh, Chandralekha %D August 3-4 2011 %T Students' difficulties with equations involving circuit elements %B Physics Education Research Conference 2011 %C Omaha, Nebraska %V 1413 %P 243-246 %S PER Conference %8 August 3-4 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=11857&DocID=2707

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