Student understanding of the impulse‐momentum and work‐energy theorems was assessed by performance on tasks requiring the application of these relationships to the analysis of an actual motion. The participants in the study were undergraduates enrolled in either the honors section of a calculus‐based introductory physics course or in the regular algebra‐based course. The students were asked to compare the changes in momentum and kinetic energy of two frictionless dry‐ice pucks as they moved rectilinearly under the influence of the same constant force. The results of the investigation revealed that most of the students were unable to relate the algebraic formalism learned in class to the simple motion that they observed.