Re: free fall animations

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

What is an animation? It it is a programmed display of a
moving object, or objects. Michael's message took me to

http://electron6.phys.utk.edu/animspread/

from where I grabbed two Excel documents. They produced
tabular results of numerical calculations and corresponding
graphical displays. One can change initial conditions and see
new data and new graphs. I did not see displays of moving
objects and I do not think these Excel documents are true
animations. What is their pedagogical value?

I also downloaded Michael's file but was not able to use
it as an animation. Where is the instruction? Am I probably
not the only one who would like to see a little tutorial on
how to animate Excel documents. Please post it here, or
make it available on your web site. Assume the reader
knows only how to generate numerical results, for
example, y=yo+v0*t+0.5*g*t^2, for different t, where
vo and yo are initial conditions.
Ludwik Kowalski

J. Moloney" wrote:

> A (very) poor-man's version of a falling body animation is given at
>
> http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~moloney/BoiseSSWorkshop/Animation/monkey3.xls
>
> This uses a scroll bar to provide the pseudo-animation of the monkey and
> the bullet. Probably not what is wanted for students pulling values from
> genuine animations.
>
> Its virtues?  26k, done in Excel (at least everybody has excel) and a
> do-it-yourself animation scheme.
>
> When you try it you may decide that doing animations in Excel is easy!
>
> Hold down the triangle at the right and you get the time stepping by one
> unit at a time. Hold down in the gray area to the right of the bar and
> you get a 10 x animation speed.
>
> Instructions on how to install sliders (scroll bars) are provided on my
> home page under the spreadsheet heading, then under the Boise
> spreadsheet workshop. Lots of examples too. The original method of
> animation (presented during the workshop) is much inferior to this
> present scheme with sliders.
>
> I'll be glad to answer questions (offline probably is best).
>
> Mike
>
> --
> Mike Moloney, Physics & Optical Engineering Department
> Rose-Hulman Inst of Tech, 812 877 8302
> moloney@rose-hulman.edu   http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~moloney
>
> This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.