physics _simulation  (2010-Feb-06 13:10 EST)

by <>  (2010-Sep-03 7:42 EDT)

This is a physical simulation for light reflection and projectile motion in physics.

by <>  (2010-Sep-03 7:42 EDT)

Great idea! Each of the 5 simulations are excellent and give some leeway to experiment. The last one, Projectile Motion, didn't require me to put in any different value. It hit the target without my even changing it. I'd set the initial angle to be something that misses in order to encourage experimentation.

by <>  (2010-Sep-03 7:42 EDT)

Great effort on one hand. But on the other hand, I get slightly uneasy when I see this kind of elaborated physics simulation. Physics is about validating the model by the real world phenomenon, and thinking why a mapping from the phenomenon to particular equations makes sense. But in an elaborated simulation, the mapping with the real world tends to get lost.

In th "refraction of light" for example, there is no indication that it "is" what actually happens, and the degree of bending is right other than saying it is Snell's law in the explanation.

I could imagine that a nice illustration of
Huygens?Fresnel principle would be more powerful idea when using a computer (may not be simple in Etoys, though). And I would hope that the scripts are readily available to the user...