Modelagem do Paradoxo da Queda Livre : uma análise de mudança conceitual

Abstract

The work was developed around the experiment and phenomenon called “Paradox of the Free Fall”, in which the end of a inclined plane, fixed and articulated to a base by a hinge, falls in a shorter or longer time interval than a ball in a same height. In Free Fall model, two objects fall of the same height in the same time interval, so this model is not able to explain the Paradox. So, this work was divided in two stages: the first aimed to present the theoretical model for the Paradox of the Free-fall phenomenon and test it empirically through experiment, discussing the modeling process and verifying the model based on Mario Bunge's scientific modeling theory. The analysis of the experiment was performed using the video analysis program Tracker. The second stage aimed to apply a sequence of activities, developed for Emergency Remote Teaching, which uses the experiment “Paradox of the Free Fall”, together with the class of Mechanics at the Federal University of Mato Grosso of the Degree course Natural Sciences and Mathematics - Physics, with the purpose of broadening students’ conceptions about falling objects under the action of gravity. The answers of participating students to the questions proposed were categorized and analyzed according to the method of categorical content analysis based on the Conceptual Change theory. In the first stage, the analyzes of the “Paradox of the Free Fall” experiment showed that the theoretical model developed for the phenomenon is consistent with the empirical results, so it was corroborated. In the second stage of the work, it was verified that the sequence of activities developed was able to highlight the previous conceptions of the participating students about the Free Fall model and falling objects in general, in addition to presenting same new phenomena of falling under the action of gravity.