Momentum Conservation Before Newton: Writing and Reasoning Activities for Introductory Physics Students

There are many reasons for exposing physics students to primary source material in the sciences. These works can illuminate the history of science and give students a more vivid picture of the development of physics than most textbooks attempt to provide. They can also serve as pedagogical tools for exploring the misconceptions and “wrong answers” of the past as a way to clarify physical laws and definitions, and as assessment tools for probing students’ conceptual understanding of these laws and definitions in their modern form.