Posts

Nov 15, 2020 --- I’ve been using these sims in courses for the last few years. However, like so many projects, I’ve let the regular maintenance and updating of this site fall a little bit behind. Since the spring will no doubt involve a lot of online teaching for me, it’s time to dust...

Oct 11, 2018 --- The question has come up: “What can we do with p5.js?” The answer is of course a lot. But here are some short write-ups that help to make that answer clearer: Tutorial 1: What is p5 good at part 1 and part 2: Tutorial 2: What is p5 good at...

Jul 15, 2018 --- Have an idea for a sim? Or see something that’s not quite right on an existing sim? Go ahead and make it an issue on our github repo: If it’s related to a sim, use this link: https://github.com/ccny-physics-sims/sims/issues If it’s related to the website, then try this one: https://github.com/ccny-physics-sims/ccny-physics-sims.github.io/issues

Jan 15, 2018 --- If you participated in a general astronomy class at any point in the last 30 years, it’s likely you were shown a classic demonstration of how in our expanding universe, there is no central point from which everything else is receding. In fact, no matter where you are, on earth,...

Oct 11, 2016 --- (If you missed part 1 of this discussion, the following won’t make a ton of sense. Read Part 1 here.) Recap: we’ve used a seemingly valid way to change the position and velocity of a moving particle. However, upon closer inspection, it turned out to not give physically realistic motion....

Sep 19, 2016 --- The first weeks of intro physics class focus on kinematics, or the study of motion. Chances are you came across an equation that looks like this: \[x(t) = x_0 + v_0t + \frac{1}{2} a t^2\] This equation, derived using integral calculus usually, gives the position as a function of time...

Sep 4, 2016 --- Physics simulations have been around for a long time. Since the earliest days of computer programming, physicists have been using the powers of computer generated graphical visualization to make models of physical phenomena, both for education and fundamental research. What follows are a few design principles to keep in mind...

Aug 10, 2016 --- In the late 1960’s, Frank Sinden, a mathematician at Bell Labs, created one of the earliest computer animations. It featured some basic examples of elementary physics: how a mass will respond to a force, the effects of the familiar inverse square law of Newtonian gravitation on particles, and even non-physical...

Jul 5, 2016 --- This is a new site for hosting our science sims. Yay!