THE CONCEPT OF FORCE: AN EDUCATIONAL ITINERARY WITH A HISTORICAL SUPPORT

The problem here dealt with concerns about physics education, and specifically the concept of force. The idea behind this research is that a historical approach to the teaching of such a notion is of great help for the students to fully understand the meaning of this basic physical magnitude. For, most of scientific concepts can be better grasped by the learners if their genetic phase is presented and the problems that induced scientists to introduce them are expounded. In this way, the students will catch the rationale behind the birth of scientific notions. Furthermore, a shared educational itinerary among the teachers of physics, mathematics, history, and philosophy can be conceived so as to realize an interdisciplinary approach to science education. It is often presented as a desideratum, but is rarely concretely developed. Here, restricting to the notion of force, such an approach is presented. Since force is strictly connected to inertia and mass, a large part of this discussion is dedicated to such two notions. Keywords. Newton, physics education, history of science, mass, inertia, force, principles of dynamics, inertial reference frames, non-inertial reference frames