Inertial and Non-Inertial Frames: With Pieces of Paper and in an Active Way

Abstract

A set of activities is described that can help the understanding of inertial and non-inertial reference frames. Using simple paper models, students can clarify and see on concrete examples how the same motion is described in different reference frames.

Models enable the investigation of various types of reference frames: inertial, accelerated (moving in one direction) and rotated frames. Also, the motion of the object which is followed can be either uniform (with respect to inertial frames) or accelerated.

This set of activities was piloted both in pre-service and in-service teacher training courses in Czech Republic.

Keywords

• Classical mechanics
• reference frames
• simple models
• active learning