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Physics Computer Simulations, Demonstrations & Examples

This page is home to computer simulations, demonstrations and example files relevant to my courses. Some of them may be for assignments; others are files that I may use or may have used in class as demonstrations or concept illustrations. See the end of the page for links to players & plugins for some media types and notes concerning specific applications.

Files not specifically created for assignments may not contain much or even any explanation as to their contents or how to use them. (This will normally be the case, for example, in files that I create for in-class demonstrations.) Most of them are works-in-progress — some more so than others. I nonetheless encourage you to play around with them! If you have any questions, always feel free to ask me.

Unless otherwise noted, files linked from this page are authored by me and I retain full copyright. They may not be used outside the context of my courses for any purpose without express permission from me.


If your browser tries to open a file in a browser window rather than simply downloading it, right-click (Windows)/control-click (Macintosh) or click and hold to select "Save File As..." directly. (The precise wording of this option varies from browser to browser.)


SHORTCUTS
Newtonian Kinematics & Dynamics
Rotational Kinematics & Dynamics
Gravitation
Simple Harmonic Motion
Waves & Sound
Fluids
Optics
Electrodynamics
Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics
Special Relativity
General Relativity
Quantum Mechanics
Vector Calculus & Coordinate Systems
Analytic Geometry
Calculus
Mathematical Physics



Newtonian Kinematics & Dynamics

Rotational Kinematics & Dynamics

Gravitation

Simple Harmonic Motion

Waves & Sound

Fluids

Optics

Electrodynamics

Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Special Relativity

General Relativity

Quantum Mechanics

Vector Calculus & Coordinate Systems

Analytic Geometry

Calculus

Mathematical Physics
Key to File Types:    ( Graphing Calculator gcf) ( IMG gif) ( IMG jpg) ( IMG png) ( Maple mws) ( Adobe pdf) ( QuickTime mov) ( WWW html) ( Zip Archive zip)


Media Formats

Application Notes

Graphing Calculator

Graphing Calculator is installed on all the lab machines in Coyne 210, both Macintosh and Windows. It should also be on the newest Windows boxes in both Coyne 140 and Coyne 112. It's an amazing program — far more powerful than its simple interface may suggest — but it is also a bit quirky, and can take some practice to master. That said, for simple plotting tasks it is very easy to use. The "Help", "Demo", and "Examples" menus are a great way to learn your way around the program if you're curious.

Something to warn you of right off the bat: Graphing Calculator reserves a large number of symbols for its own use. As one particular, this means that x is always the dependent variable (i.e. on the x-axis), even if what you are plotting is a function of time. More generally, x, y, z, t, n, u, v, w all have special meanings to Graphing Calculator, and at present you cannot redefine them for your own use. (Studying the examples and help will alert you to the usage of most of these reserved symbols; search the help for "special symbols" for a list.) Moreover, the only greek characters Graphing Calculator recognizes are those reserved for its own use. These limitations are one reason my choices of notation in these files is sometimes awkward. One consequence in particular is that my notational choices in the files are often different from what you may see in class or in the book. For example, if you study the files I write, you will note that I normally use uppercase letters in my definitions.

A final word of caution: the Macintosh version of Graphing Calculator supports some features that the Windows version does not. If a file fails to open in the Windows version, it probably employs one of those features, and will only work properly on a Macintosh.

Igor Pro

Igor Pro is installed on the machines in Coyne 140, 137, and 112, as well as in 210, both Macintosh and Windows.

Logger Pro

Logger Pro 3 is installed on the machines in Coyne 140 and 112, as well as in 210, both Macintosh and Windows. It will eventually also be in the Application Explorer on Windows machines. In the introductory physics lab (Coyne 109) the version of Logger Pro currently installed is 2. Files created by Logger Pro 3 will almost certainly not open in it.

Maple

Maple files were created in Maple 9.5 or 10; those created in Maple 10 — the current version of Maple installed on campus machines — will probably not open properly in Maple 9.5. (If you don't see Maple installed on a Windows machine, it can usually be installed through the Application Explorer. If it's not installed on a Mac that you would like to use, let me know and I'll try to arrange for it.)




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Last modified Saturday, November 7, 2009 1:34 AM
Page URL: http://web.lemoyne.edu/~craigda/Physics/Sims/Files/filelibrary.html

The views and opinions expressed on this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Le Moyne College. © David A. Craig.