Re: [Phys-l] Interactive Physics Simulations

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Physlets are not as easy to use because you have to program them.  But you
can program any type of interaction you wish including unphysical ones.
With freedom comes difficulty.  But they have made many tasks easier so you
do not have to start from scratch by creating your own graphs from scratch.
Objects can be animated by equations, or by specifying forces and masses.
They have a number of good examples on their website.
http://webphysics.davidson.edu/applets/applets.html

I have created a number of physlets for classroom use at
www.hal-pc.org/~clement/science.htm

I also have links to a variety of other simulations which can be useful.  In
particular the MOP and Tools for Scientific Thinking sections are mine.
There is a 2 cart collision which can be either elastic or inelastic.  It
was faked, by putting in the equations for position.

Physlets do not have built in capability for rotating objects, but simple
rotating objects can be built from other objects.  They also do not have
sticky objects which can be used for inelastic collisions, but they do have
bouncy objects for elastic collisions.

They also have a variety of advanced things far beyond mechanics.

If you want students to build systems, IP is ideal.  If you want to build
things, Physlets may be OK in a number of situations, but neither is a
complete substitute for the other.  The physlet library is not completely
documented, but you can steal the examples and look at them as templates.
It is actually ideal for building simulations where you wish to guide the
students and not allow free play.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> I haven't made much use of Wolfgang Christian's Physlets, so I really
> can't say whether they are a good alternative to IP or not. I suspect
> that they might be, for at least some types of problems.