Re: [Phys-L] Physics "applets" in HTML5/JavaScript

["Daniel V. Schroeder" <dschroeder@weber.edu>]

John Denker wrote:
> For example, I recently wrote
>    http://www.av8n.com/physics/wavefunctions.htm#sec-animation
>  which uses Javascript.  I ported it from an older Java thing.
>  It uses somewhat-modern Javascript features.  As others have
>  pointed out, the /canvas/ feature is crucial.
>
>  Does this applet depend on HTML5?  I've never thought about
>  it.  AFAICT it depends on semi-modern Javascript features
>  but not any bleeding-edge HTML features.
Thanks, John--that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.  It's good to know that others are adopting this technology.  And I know I could have worked harder on my Google incantations.  The canvas element is definitely considered part of HTML5.  When I said "HTML5" I really meant "canvas"; the only other HTML5 feature I've used is the slider control ("input type=range"), which I find extremely handy though unfortunately it's not yet supported by Firefox or by several of the mobile browsers.
>  Also, I enjoy seeing quantitatively-correct righteous
>  electron probability distributions, as opposed to the 
>  kooky "artist's impressions" that you all-too-often 
>  see in the literature.
Have you seen Falstad's fantastic hydrogen wavefunction applet (modeled on Dauger's old Mac program, now ported to an iOS native app)?  Falstad's applet is here: http://falstad.com/qmatom/
> Seriously, rather than writing a physics engine from
>  scratch for research and/or educational purposes, I
>  would strongly recommend you at least /consider/
>  the idea of co-opting an open-source game platform. 
>  I'm not saying it will be exactly what you need, 
>  but there should be something like 80% commonality.

There's no way that a game development "physics" library is going to include 80% of what I want.  But yeah, for projectile motion and collisions, I'm sure it would be quite powerful.
Dan