The complexity of simplifications in the teaching of mechanics at the university initial cycle: the case of the treatment of pulleys in textbooks

We present a study on mechanics textbooks widely used in physics courses of the university initial cycle of scientific and technological careers that form part of Spanish-speaking universities. Through a content analysis, we investigated the explanations given by the authors of the textbooks about the "simplifying" hypotheses adopted to address the study of the behavior of pulleys in the initial mechanics topics. Those consist in considering pulleys massless and frictionless. On the other hand, we analyzed if these assumptions are reconsidered in the study of solids in rotation. We concluded that, although simplifying assumptions are included in teaching to facilitate the understanding of physics phenomena by students, they are not always clarifying, leading to hinder, rather than simplify, the conceptualization applied to the behavior of physical systems when they study from textbooks. Issues that could be useful to teachers are warned.