Many students find it difficult to apply certain physics concepts to their daily lives. This is
especially true when they perceive a principle taught in physics class as being in conflict with
their experience. An important instance of this occurs when students are instructed to ignore the
effect of air resistance when solving kinematics problems. To a student, this assumption disconnects
from their everyday experience. Mathematically, ignoring the effect of air resistance is crucial,
however, since it renders such problems tractable. However, this step is rarely, if ever, provided
with justification in undergraduate texts, leading students to believe that what they are taught
does not apply to their everyday experience. Taking the additional step of clarifying when it is
reasonable to ignore air resistance makes students’ reconciliation of their everyday experiences
with the physics principle of free fall more likely. In this paper we develop a graphical tool
intended to make t…