Jeffrey M. Hawkins, John R. Thompson, Michael C. Wittmann, Eleanor C. Sayre, and Brian W. Frank
AIP Conf. Proc. -- October 24, 2010 -- Volume 1289, pp. 165-168
2010 PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE; doi:10.1063/1.3515188
We investigate if the visual representation of vectors can affect which methods students use to add them. We gave students one of four questions with different graphical representations, asking students to add the same two vectors. For students in an algebra-based class the arrangement of the vectors had a statistically significant effect on the vector addition method chosen while the addition or removal of a grid did not. ©2010 American Institute of Physics