# Pedagogical Materials and Suggestions to Cure Misconceptions Connecting Special and General Relativity

## TL;DR

This paper identifies misconceptions about the Einstein equivalence principle among physicists, presents survey results confirming special relativity's applicability to accelerated frames, and offers educational materials to improve teaching of these concepts.

## Contribution

It introduces new pedagogical materials and suggestions to clarify misconceptions connecting special and general relativity for educators and students.

## Key findings

- Survey confirms physicists' misconceptions about equivalence principle
- Proposes new teaching materials for the twin paradox and equivalence principle
- Materials suitable for sophomore-level modern physics courses

## Abstract

Many professional physicists do not fully understand the implications of the Einstein equivalence principle of general relativity. Consequently, many are unaware of the fact that special relativity is fully capable of handling accelerated reference frames. We present results from our nationwide survey that confirm this is the case. We discuss possible origins of this misconception, then suggest new materials for educators to use while discussing the classic twin paradox example. Afterwards, we review typical introductions to general relativity, clarify the equivalence principle, then suggest additional material to be used when the Einstein equivalence principle is covered in an introductory course. All of our suggestions are straightforward enough to be administered to a sophomore-level modern physics class.