Abstract

NUNES, Ricardo Capiberibe; QUEIROS, Wellington Pereira de  and  CUNHA, Jefferson Adriany Ribeiro da. Concept of mass and the mass-energy relationship in the special relativity content of the physics text books. Rev. enseñ. fís. [online]. 2022, vol.34, n.1, pp.8-20. ISSN 0326-7091.  http://dx.doi.org/10.55767/2451.6007.v34.n1.37933.

The Theory of Special Relativity promoted, in the beginning of the 20th century, a paradigmatic revolution and introduced new interpretations on the concept of mass (inertia) and how it is related to energy. Over the years, several authors have tried to present these concepts to a more general public through scientific dissemination and didactic transposition. Unfortunately, these adaptations have shown the presence of some conceptual errors and inconsistencies. In this paper, we analyze the topics of Special Relativity in physics textbooks approved in the National Textbook Program (PNLD) - 2018 address the concepts of mass and the mass-energy relationship and we point out that these present inconsistencias. As they are persistent and recurrent problems, they have already become epistemological obstacles and therefore require a more careful analysis to show their origin and they are or have become incongruous. For this reason, our work is not limited to pointing out which books they appear in, but it brings a broad reflection on each of these inconsistencies, dialoguing with various authors, aiming to serve as a subsidy for undergraduates, teachers, students and book authors and publishers of the science.

Keywords : Science teaching; textbooks; Special relativity theory; Mass concept; Mass energy relation.

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