Abstract

MEDEIROS, Alexandre. A ATUALIDADE PEDAGÓGICA DA CONTROVÉRSIA HISTÓRICA SOBRE A VERDADEIRA DEFINIÇÃO DA "FORÇA DE UM CORPO". Ens. Pesqui. Educ. Ciênc. [online]. 2001, vol.3, n.1, pp.51-66. ISSN 1983-2117.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172001030105.

There was a strong dispute, in the XVIIIth century, about the "true definition" of "force of a certain body'. The controversy had to do with the ideas of vis viva and momentum, and involved the followers of Leibniz and Descartes. Despite the fact that the very idea of a "force of a certain body" may seem to us, nowadays, a little bit clumsy, that interpretative dispute was completely meaningful in that particular historical moment. If we consider D'Alembert's contribution to make a distinction between the spatial and temporal evolution of force, we may sometimes be led to believe that the above mentioned controversy is completely overcome. As we demonstrate in this paper, some experienced teachers of physics are usually encountered showing some doubts similar to those historical ones occurred in XVIIIth century. A simple piece of apparatus was constructed in order to investigate this issue. Its main goal was to provoke some doubts about the conceptual distinction between kinetic energy and linear momentum. A case study approach was adopted to investigate the opinions of three teachers of physics, all three with more than ten years experience. Their responses exhibit similar epistemological obstacles to those someone could encounter in the minds of XVIIIth century physicists.

Keywords : história da ciência no ensino; conceitos físicos; força; energia cinética; momento linear..

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