Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.
Ever wonder how a compass worked to point you to the Arctic? Explore the interactions between a compass and bar magnet, and then add the earth and find the surprising answer! Vary the magnet's strength, and see how things change both inside and outside. Use the field meter to measure how the magnetic field changes.
Explore the interactions between a compass and bar magnet. Discover how you can use a battery and wire to make a magnet! Can you make it a stronger magnet? Can you make the magnetic field reverse?
A realistic mass and spring laboratory. Hang masses from springs and adjust the spring stiffness and damping. You can even slow time. Transport the lab to different planets. A chart shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.
Learn about position, velocity, and acceleration in the "Arena of Pain". Use the green arrow to move the ball. Add more walls to the arena to make the game more difficult. Try to make a goal as fast as you can.
How do microwaves heat up your coffee? Adjust the frequency and amplitude of microwaves. Watch water molecules rotating and bouncing around. View the microwave field as a wave, a single line of vectors, or the entire field.
How did scientists figure out the structure of atoms without looking at them? Try out different models by shooting light at the atom. Check how the prediction of the model matches the experimental results.
Do you ever wonder how a greenhouse gas affects the climate, or why the ozone layer is important? Use the sim to explore how light interacts with molecules in our atmosphere.
Do you ever wonder how a greenhouse gas affects the climate, or why the ozone layer is important? Use the sim to explore how light interacts with molecules in our atmosphere.
Try the new "Ladybug Motion 2D" simulation for the latest updated version. Learn about position, velocity, and acceleration vectors. Move the ball with the mouse or let the simulation move the ball in four types of motion (2 types of linear, simple harmonic, circle).
Build your own system of heavenly bodies and watch the gravitational ballet. With this orbit simulator, you can set initial positions, velocities, and masses of 2, 3, or 4 bodies, and then see them orbit each other.
Produce light by bombarding atoms with electrons. See how the characteristic spectra of different elements are produced, and configure your own element's energy states to produce light of different colors.
Learning Goals: Explain what a normal mode is. Explain what are the frequency, the amplitude, and the phase of a normal mode. Explain why different normal modes have different frequencies and why higher-numbered modes have higher frequencies. Identify how many normal modes a given system has and be able to sketch the individual modes qualitatively, for both 1D and 2D systems. Explain the distinction between transverse and longitudinal normal modes in a 1D system. Explain how adjusting the phase of a normal mode affects the motion of the system. Explain qualitatively how any arbitrary state of the system can be written as a sum of normal modes; that is, explain the superposition principle. Explain which properties of the system are set by the initial conditions, which properties are time-independent, and which properties are time-dependent. Explain why striking a metal plate in one spot raises the temperature of the plate.
Learning Goals: Explain what a normal mode is. Explain what are the frequency, the amplitude, and the phase of a normal mode. Explain why different normal modes have different frequencies and why higher-numbered modes have higher frequencies. Identify how many normal modes a given system has and be able to sketch the individual modes qualitatively, for both 1D and 2D systems. Explain the distinction between transverse and longitudinal normal modes in a 1D system. Explain how adjusting the phase of a normal mode affects the motion of the system. Explain qualitatively how any arbitrary state of the system can be written as a sum of normal modes; that is, explain the superposition principle. Explain which properties of the system are set by the initial conditions, which properties are time-independent, and which properties are time-dependent. Explain why striking a metal plate in one spot raises the temperature of the plate.
Start a chain reaction, or introduce non-radioactive isotopes to prevent one. Control energy production in a nuclear reactor! (Previously part of the Nuclear Physics simulation - now there are separate Alpha Decay and Nuclear Fission sims.)
See how the equation form of Ohm's law relates to a simple circuit. Adjust the voltage and resistance, and see the current change according to Ohm's law. The sizes of the symbols in the equation change to match the circuit diagram.
Explore an active area of research in optical physics: producing designer pulse shapes to achieve specific purposes, such as breaking apart a molecule. Carefully create the perfect shaped pulse to break apart a molecule by individually manipulating the colors of light that make up a pulse.
Did you ever imagine that you can use light to move a microscopic plastic bead? Explore the forces on the bead or slow time to see the interaction with the laser's electric field. Use the optical tweezers to manipulate a single strand of DNA and explore the physics of tiny molecular motors. Can you get the DNA completely straight or stop the molecular motor?
Play with one or two pendulums and discover how the period of a simple pendulum depends on the length of the string, the mass of the pendulum bob, and the amplitude of the swing. It's easy to measure the period using the photogate timer. You can vary friction and the strength of gravity. Use the pendulum to find the value of g on planet X. Notice the anharmonic behavior at large amplitude.
See how light knocks electrons off a metal target, and recreate the experiment that spawned the field of quantum mechanics.