Students’ conceptions about rolling in multiple contexts

Research has shown that students have several misconceptions about rotational motion and rolling [1]. Students often do not understand the relationship between the speeds of various points on a rolling wheel. They also do not understand the relationship between the translational and rotational speeds of a wheel that rolls without slipping. We conducted a study to extend existing research on this topic. Specifically, we explored the reasoning resources that students used with regard to rolling without slipping in three different contexts: a single rolling bicycle wheel, a horizontal plank pushed forward on a rolling drum, and two differently sized wheels in a penny-farthing bicycle. We explored the reasoning resources used by students in two different introductory physics classes at two Midwestern universities. We describe students’ reasoning resources about rolling in these different contexts.