The concept of weight

in physics education

13th Conference of the Society of Physicists of Macedonia – CSPM 2020 (16-19. September)
Virtual meeting

Autors: Miljana Milentijevic, Ljubisa Nesic, Darko Radovancevic

 The idea of work:
• Examining the ways of explaning the concept of weight.
• Textbooks analysis for Elementary (6th grade) and High school (1st.
grade)
• Finding the best ways of explaning.
• Do not cause misconceptions.
 Why weight?

• It is a problem that has been around for years.

• In 80s and 90s numerous researches have been done.
• Interrelationship between the concept of weight and gravity.
• Interrelationship between the concept of weight and mass.
• It can cause missunderstanding other key terms in physics.
 Definition of weight
• Force acting on a body in the gravitational field of Earth:

where m is the mass of the body and g is the local acceleration of free fall (ISO* 80000-
3)
• Treba istaci da se ovo drasticno razlikuje od nase definicije tezine. Tj. definicije u nasim
knjigama.
*ISO (the International Organisation for Standardization is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies).
Definition of weight in textbooks in R. Serbia

• Treba reci da mi vec neko vreme imamo otvoreno trziste sa vise izdavaca.
I da je zanimljivo uraditi analizu def. tezine. Sa ciljem uporedjivanja
razlicitih def. njihove kompletnosti I tacnosti.
• Elementary school textbooks publishers: Saznanje, Zavod za udzbenike,
Logos, Gerundijum, Vulkan... Klett, Novi Logos

• High school textbooks: Zavod za udzbenike, Krug...Klett, Novi Logos

Definition of weight in textbooks in R. Serbia

• Textbook for 6th grade of elementary school – publisher: Saznanje, autor: Mico
Mitrovic:
• The weight of the body is the force by which, due to the force of gravity,
the body presses the horizontal surface or tightens the body for which it is
hung at the point of suspension. (rope, thread, ceiling, spring, or anything
else)
• Textbook for 6th grade of elementary school – publisher: Zavod za udzbenike, autor:
Milan O. Raspopovic

• Weight is the force by which the body, due to the Earth's gravity, acts on a horizontal
surface, stretches a metal spring, tightens the thread, the thread on which the body is
hung.
• Textbook for 6th grade of elementary school – publisher: Zavod za udzbenike,
autors: Jovan P. Setrajcic, Darko V. Kapor
• If the body is at rest or moving on a horizontal surface, the weight of the
body coincides with the force of the Earth's gravity in size, but the weight
and the force of the Earth's gravity that causes it do not act on the same
body. The force of the Earth's gravity acts on ours, and that is why we act
on the surface with our weight.
• There is no graphical representation
• Textbook for 6th grade of elementary school – publisher: Logos, autors:
Aleksandar Kandic, Goran Poparic
• The weight of the body is the force with which the body presses the ground
on which it is located or tightens the rope or wire on which it is hung. It is
important to notice the difference between these two forces: the force of the
Earth's gravity and the weight of the body.

• There is no graphical representation

• Treba pomenuti disertaciju j. balukovic na temu kontroverzi o tezini, tezi.. Sta je vec tamo dato. Da
potkrepi da je to polje na kome se aktivno vrse istrazivanja.
• Ovde sada treba uraditi analizu definicija raznih udzbenika.
• Evo josnekoliko skica za razmisljanje
• Pomenuti situacije na strmoj ravni. Pricali smo o tome. Tj. kolika je tezina tela koje se nalazi na
strmoj ravni I ne klizi npr. Itd.
• Slabo ste eksploatisali cini mise onaj rad iz hrvatske. U njemu ima dosta toga.
• Takodje mozda treba napraviti analizu razlicitih nacina definisanja fiz. Velicina. Jedan je operaciona
definicija, mislim da to ima na vikipedii kod tezine. Navedena je I takva definicija. Treba videtei
kakve su jos druge moguce I da li je Q definisano kod nekih I na taj nacin.