Students' difficulties in understanding the basic principles of relativity after standard instruction

Abstract

Theory of Relativity (Special and General) is one of the most influential theories of the 20th century and has changed the way we view the world. It is part of many undergraduate curriculums and it is often suggested that it should be integrated into an upper secondary curriculum. Special Theory of Relativity combines time and space whereas General Theory of Relativity describes gravity as a geometric property of spacetime. As it describes abstract phenomena, students encounter several difficulties understanding its basic principles and consequences. In this paper, we present the research that we conducted in order to detect the aforementioned difficulties. This research constitutes a part of a more general study concerning the integration of Special and General Relativity into an upper secondary and undergraduate curriculum. The sample consisted of 45 non-major physics undergraduate students. The purpose of our study was to determine and categorize the difficulties students face when they study the principles of the Theory of Relativity and its consequences. The results of our research indicate that student face many obstacles when trying to interpret phenomena described by the Relativity and confuse Special and General Relativity principles. These results dictate us to create an educational approach that tackle the difficulties found.