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1. distinguish between mass and weight using base units in the
standard international (SI) system.
Your
Weight on Other Worlds - This Exploratorium site gets your students' attention
by showing that their weight will vary with different gravitational attraction
(you will not believe what you would weigh on a Neutron star!).
Then, a very good presentation of the difference between weight and mass is given.
A
weight and mass converter
is provided by ConvertMe.com. (this link opens in a new window)After your students use this converter, perhaps
you could discuss if it is appropriate to perform this type of conversion.
Mass
vs Weight - discussion of the difference and interactive questions to check
for understanding
2. relate time in the (SI) system to the independent experimental
variable in most situations.
Ticker
Tape Diagrams - A common way of analyzing the motion of objects in physics
labs is to perform a ticker tape analysis. The practice problems included will
help your students evaluate the time variable.
Design
and Test - This project simulates the Design and Test process through the
development of a virtual paintball catapult. The student must build catapults
capable of performing a variety of tasks, stay within the allotted budget, and
interpret test results to fine tune their design.
Newton's Second Law Experiment
- This Java applet simulates an air track glider setup, as it is used for experiments
on constant acceleration motion.
Mass,
Force and Acceleration - Watch as you fill out the chart to see how mass,
force, and acceleration are related. When you are done, see if you can write a
rule.
Vector
Direction - practice with the use of scaled vector diagrams for the representation
of the magnitude and direction of a vector.
Resultant Vector - explore the effects of combining different vector quantities
Resultant of Forces
- This applet deals with forces exerted on a body.You can vary the number of single
forces by using the choice box at the ride side. It is possible to change the
sizes and directions of these forces by dragging the arrowheads to the intended
positions with pressed mouse button.
Design a Roller Coaster - Try your hand at designing your own roller coaster.
You will be building a conceptual coaster using the physics concepts that are
used to design real coasters. You won't need to compute any formulas.
Kinetic
Energy - more good diagrams and practice problems
Mechanical
Energy - no practice problems, but excellent illustrations
Power
- six practice problems accompany this tutorial
6. explore
velocity and acceleration.
Speed
and Velocity - This Physics Classroom tutorial helps students distinguish
between speed and velocity. An animation and two practice problems are included.
Follow that lesson with the Acceleration
tutorial. Two animations and two practice problems are included with the acceleration
tutorial.
Vector
Addition - This java applet shows how to add two vector A and B into vector
C (A 3-D version is available at the bottom of the page)
Resultant Vector - explore the effects of combining different vector quantities
2. explore
characteristics of rectilinear motion and analyze distance-time graphs (velocity),
velocity-time graphs (acceleration and distance).
Graphing
of One-Dimensional Motion - You can do experimentation to discover concepts.
Follow the directions below the picture depending on which one you want to do.
Kinematics
Equations and Graphs (use of velocity-time graphs to describe the motion of
objects) Six practice problems are provided, each requires the student to construct
a velocity-time graph. Answers, including graphs, are provided.
Moving
Man Simulation- Learn about position, velocity, and acceleration graphs. Move
the little man back and forth with the mouse and plot his motion. Set the position,
velocity, or acceleration and let the simulation move the man for you.
3.
investigate the characteristics of centripetal motion and centripetal acceleration.
Funderstanding Roller Coaster! - Your mission is to design a coaster so that
you can achieve maximum thrills and chills without crashing or flying off the
track. You must decide on a number of factors; the height of hill #1, hill #2,
the size of the loop, the initial speed of the coaster, its mass, the gravity
at work and the amount of friction on the track
Bar
Chart Illustrations - A work-energy bar chart represents the amount of energy
possessed by an object by means of a vertical bar.
6. relate work and power
to various simple machines, mechanical advantage of different machines and recognize
simple machines utilized in compound machines.
Pulley
- Investigate mechanical advantage of a pulley with this interactive java applet
Pulley
System - (raise or lower the load with the mouse) If you click on the mouse
button, a spring balance will appear showing the tension in the string.
Inclined
Plane - This Java applet demonstrates a motion on an inclined plane with constant
velocity and the corresponding forces.
7. describe
rotational equilibrium and relate to torque.
Ballistic
Simulator - Each new shot has a trajectory which is color coded. You get a
maximum of 4 shots to hit the target with a cannon ball
Design
and Test - This project simulates the Design and Test process through the
development of a virtual paintball catapult. The student must build catapults
capable of performing a variety of tasks, stay within the allotted budget, and
interpret test results to fine tune their design.
Projectile
Tutorial - You can do experimentation to discover concepts or you can check
your problem-solving progress. Follow the directions below the picture depending
on which one you want to do.
1. apply elementary calculus to solve motion problems.
Describing
Motion with Equations - There are three components of this tutorial from the
Physics Classroom; The Kinematics Equations, Kinematics Equations & Problem-Solving,
and Kinematics Equations & Free Fall. These are followed by Sample
Problems & Solutions
Mass, Force
and Acceleration - Watch as you fill out the chart to see how mass, force,
and acceleration are related. When you are done, see if you can write a rule.
[use this site for data collection]
2. experiment with elastic and inelastic
collisions.
Height of a Goal Post – After
being introduced to the acceleration due to gravity and the equation d = 1/2gt2,
students are given a baseball and a stopwatch. As an entire class, they develop
a method and determine the height of the football goal posts.
How
Fast? and How Far? - Illustrations and equations from this Physics Classroom
tutorial should help your class determine the height of those pesky goal posts.
Standard
Number: 2.0 Thermodynamics: The student will examine the properties and laws of
thermodynamics.
Equipartition
Theorem (java applet) - The kinetic energy of a particle can be due to motion
in the x, y, and z directions, as well as to rotations. The equiparition of energy
theorem says that the kinetic energy of an atom or particle is, on average, equally
distributed between the different modes (different degrees of freedom) available.
What
is the Lowest Temperature ever produced? The limit of all temperature is absolute
zero. For many years physicists have been closing in on absolute zero. No one
will ever succeed in reaching it, but many have come very close.
PhysLink
presents - "What will happen to the gas at absolute zero temperature
(0 K)?"
At
Level 2, the student is able to:
1. identify the characteristics of internal energy and temperature/heat (joules/calories).
This java
applet shows Brownian motion for gas molecules. Qualitative evidence of the
microscopic nature of gases is shown by an effect called Brownian motion.
2. relate the First Law of Thermodynamics
as an application of the Law of Conservation of Energy (hot to cold) and heat
transfer through conduction, convection and radiation.
Thermodynamic
Equilibrium - an applet designed to simulate the diffusion process which occurs
when gases of different temperatures are mixed (seven experiments can be performed
with this applet)
3. relate change in heat content (quantity
of thermal energy) to kinetic energy and specific heat (Q=mc?T).
Ideal
Gas Law - Using an interactive applet, you will control the action of a piston
in a pressure chamber which is filled with an ideal gas. Three experiments are
outlined.
4. investigate potential energy changes
(phase changes) of heat of fusion, heat of vaporization, and heat of sublimation.
At
Level 3, the student is able to:
1. explore thermal expansion and contraction.
Physics
Lab: Linear Thermal Expansion - The purpose of this lab experiment is to measure
the linear expansion coefficients of up to three different metals
2. investigate and analyze
wavelength, frequency and amplitude of longitudinal and transverse waves.
3. identify a wave interaction
as reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference.
Beat Frequencies
in Sound - A beat frequency or beat wave is a sound of fluctuating volume
caused when you add two sound waves of slightly different frequencies.
Beats - a java applet
to investigate this sound phenomenon
Standing
Wave - Explanation by Superposition with the Reflected Wave
At
Level 2, the student is able to:
1. compare mechanical and electromagnetic
waves.
Electromagnetic
Spectrum - In this applet, you can click on the wavelength/frequency scale
and change the wavelength and frequency by dragging the mouse or by using the
arrow keys on the keyboard. Holding the shift key down while pressing the left
or right arrow keys changes the wavelength by a factor of 10.
2. explore Hooke’s
Law.
Hooke's
Law - This java applet allows students to change variables and investigate
Hooke's law.
3. investigate reflection,
refraction, diffraction, and interference of waves.
Beat
Frequencies in Sound - A beat frequency or beat wave is a sound of fluctuating
volume caused when you add two sound waves of slightly different frequencies.
Explore
standing waves created by waves moving in opposite direction (no reflection)
with this java applet
Standing
Longitudinal Waves - This Java applet demonstrates the harmonics of the air
in a tube as an example of standing longitudinal waves.
Standing Wave -
Explanation by Superposition with the Reflected Wave
Create
standing waves (with reflection at a boundary) with this excellent java applet.
Change parameters or step the animation forward slowly while viewing the component
waves to investigate interference. To isolate wave reflection, you might want
to view the reflection
of a single pulse.
Hearing
Subtraction - (an activity on frequency and beats) This site allows students
to hear beat frequency caused by two sounds.
Reflection and Refraction
of Light Waves [Huygens' Principle] - This applet is a tutorial which explains
the reflection and the refraction of waves by the principle of Huygens.
Refraction of Light
- The applet shows the reflected and the refracted ray and calculates the corresponding
angles. Students can change the incident angle and the media.
4. demonstrate and explain
the Doppler Effect.
This police
car applet might make an interesting introduction to the subject of the Doppler
effect
Beat
Frequencies in Sound - A beat frequency or beat wave is a sound of fluctuating
volume caused when you add two sound waves of slightly different frequencies.
Create
standing waves with this excellent java applet. Change parameters or step
the animation forward slowly while viewing the component waves to investigate
interference. To isolate wave reflection, you might want to view the reflection
of a single pulse.
6. compare wave characteristics
to natural auditory phenomena.
Beat
Frequencies in Sound - A beat frequency or beat wave is a sound of fluctuating
volume caused when you add two sound waves of slightly different frequencies.
Decibel
Levels - This Cool Math page contains a list of decibel levels of everything
from guitars to jet engines!
Decibels
- from Hyperphysics, includes an interactive decibel calculation section
Electromagnetic
Spectrum - In this applet, you can click on the wavelength/frequency scale
and change the wavelength and frequency by dragging the mouse or by using the
arrow keys on the keyboard. Holding the shift key down while pressing the left
or right arrow keys changes the wavelength by a factor of 10.
Electromagnetic Wave
- This animation (java applet) shows an electromagnetic wave, namely a plane polarized
wave, which propagates in positive x direction.
Boundary
Behavior - the concepts behind the math known as Snell's law
Snell's
law Java applet from Northwestern University - manipulate the variables on
both sides of the boundary, and see a wave front view or a laser view
Refraction and Reflection - change the indices of refraction of the two media,
and drag the incoming ray to any angle between 0 and 90 degrees
Shadows
from overlapping colored light - This java applet let you play with shadow
and image. To make it more fun, there are 3 different colors (Red/Green/Blue)
light source.
At
Level 3, the student is able to:
1. draw, explain, and solve problems for the optics of mirrors and lenses.
Make
a permanent rainbow - Study thin film interference by making this "permanent
rainbow." There is a good color calculator at the bottom of this page. (scroll
down, you did arrive at the right page)
1. analyze a given group of charges for repulsion and attraction.
Lorentz Force
- This Java applet demonstrates the Lorentz force, exerted on a current-carrying
conductor
swing in the magnetic field of a horseshoe magnet
2. distinguish between charged particles related to repulsion
and attraction.
Voltage
Circuit Simulator - This exercise will help you determine the relationship
between voltage (V), amperage (I) and resistance (R). This relationship is called
Ohm's Law.
Ohm’s Law - This
applet shows a simple circuit containing one resistor. In addition there is a
voltmeter (parallel to the resistor) and an ammeter (in series with the resistor)
Simple AC Circuits
- This Java applet shows a simple circuit consisting of an alternating voltage
source and, depending on the selected radio button, a resistor (without inductivity),
a capacitor or an ideal coil (without resistance).
2. describe the properties and location
of subatomic particles.
How
can we see the structure of atom? This java applet allows a simulation of
the same situation as in Rutherford's experiment. (Don't judge the physics of
this Japanese physicist by his spelling)
Physics java applets | Java Applets on Physics | Virtual Labs and Simulations | Physlets | More Physlets | Fear of Physics | Shockwave Physics | Virtual Laboratory | Physics Education Technology 
a site for teachers | 
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sound | 
video format | 
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