Physics Links, Resources & Activities

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See a list of links related to each physics standard

Page last edited 4/8/2011

Physics java applets | Java Applets on Physics | Virtual Labs and Simulations | Physlets | More Physlets | Fear of Physics | Shockwave Physics | Annenberg Interactive Labs | Virtual Laboratory | Physics Education Technology

1. The Physics Classroom! hosted by Glenbrook High School District 225 in Glenview and Northbrook, Illinois
   1. Multimedia Physics Studio - Is physics difficult for you to visualize? Do you need to see it to understand it? Then visit the Multimedia Physics Studio.
   2. Problem Sets - Problem sets are currently available for the following topics in Mechanics (Physical Science). Each problem set consists of 25-35 problems which vary in difficulty. A problem set includes the problems, a concealed answer which can be revealed by clicking a button, and an audio-guided solution.
   3. Shockwave Physics Studios
2. Aeronautics - An Internet Textbook on the topic covering: Mythology, History, Fundamentals, Atmosphere, Propulsion, Structures and Controls, Vehicles, Animals and Sports & Recreation
3. Albert Einstein Online - Before you quote Einstein on relativity, read Einstein on relativity. You can do that and much more from this site.
4. Amusement Park Physics - How do physics laws affect amusement park ride design? In this exhibit, you'll have a chance to find out by designing your own roller coaster. Plan it carefully--it has to pass a safety inspection. You can also experiment with bumper car collisions.
5. Applet Thumbnails from Physics 2000 - Examples; demonstration of an X-ray machine called a fluoroscope, put marshmallows into the microwave oven, a color laptop screen, how a television creates color.
6. The Atoms Family - general physics topics related to energy presented at the middle school level.
7. Basics of Space Flight - This starts with the basics of the solar system and quickly moves on to physics. A recap feature is provided at the end of each section of this project.
8. 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.
9. Circles of Light: The Mathematics of Rainbows - This lab includes a good explanation of reflection and refraction.
10. Diffraction of Light by a Single Slit - an applet to investigate diffraction
11. Doppler Effect Example - java applet
12. 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.
13. Electromagnetic Wave - This animation (java applet) shows an electromagnetic wave, namely a plane polarized wave, which propagates in positive x direction.
14. Fear of Physics - Save your money, don't buy the simulation software. You can do a lot of simulations from this site.
15. 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
16. General Tables of Units of Measurement from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
17. Great Bridge - the viaduct that broke all records, at Viaduc de Millau, France
18. H2O - The Mystery, Art, and Science of Water: The Physics of Water in the Universe
19. How Stuff Works - Explanations about all sorts of things that you might want to know. There is a lot of physics here, but don't limit this just to physics classes.
20. How Things Work - The author of How Things Work: the Physics of Everyday Life offers to answer your questions. If you ask how something works he will try to provide an explanation. The site includes an exhaustive list of questions and answers. Caution, there is no topical index here.
21. Interference of Light at a Double Slit - an applet to investigate interference
22. Kepler's laws by Bill Drennon (Well, the laws are by Johannes Kepler!) Though originally stated to describe the motion of planets around the sun, Kepler's Laws also apply to comets.
23. Light - a ThinkQuest site
24. 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.
25. Nobel Prize in Physics - from 1901 to 2007
26. NOVA - index to previous NOVA exhibits on the subject of physics and math
27. On-Line Physics Tutorials Written for High School Physics Students - This could be used in place of your physics textbook!
28. Photoelectric Effect - a Java applet which simulates an experiment for the determination of the Planck constant and the work function
29. Physics at TutorSpree - Click on topics on the right side of this page to investigate the college prep tutorials explaining physics concepts
30. Physics 24/7
    1. Physics terminology - Not sure you know Ohm's Law (or some other physics term)? Check this list of definitions, examples and links.
    2. Physics tutorials - explanations of physics concepts, laws, and principles
    3. Practice quizzes - Prepare for tests by practicing the kinds of problems that physics teachers like to ask. Complete solutions are available for all practice problems.
31. Physics in Pictures from Physics Central - Check out their Picture of the Week for exciting illustrations of nature's infinite variety and humankind's unlimited ingenuity.
32. Physics Links from Physics Central
33. Physics Question of the Week from The University of Maryland Department of Physics - Each week a new question will be posted and the answer for the previous Question of the Week will be shown. The questions involve real experimental physics, so part of the answers will be photographs and even short videos of the experiments carried out in determining the answers.
34. Physics Today
35. PhysLink - physics and astronomy online education and reference.
36. Radioactive Decay Series - use this java applet to investigate radioactive decay
37. 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.
38. 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.
39. Resultant Vector - explore the effects of combining different vector quantities
40. 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 right 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.
41. Resolution of a Force into Components - java applet
42. Roller Coaster Physics for Middle School Students - Thrills and Chills Without the Spills
43. Science Museum - this London museum has lots of "online stuff"
44. Science Toys - Make toys at home with common household materials, often in only a few minutes, that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles.
45. Scientific Notation - a lesson on why and how to use scientific notation.
46. Significant Digits - an interactive site to allow practice on identifying the number of significant digits in a displayed number. A student gets immediate feedback regarding the correctness of their answer, however there are no clues given if a student is wrong.
47. Significant Figures - Scientific notation is the most reliable way of expressing a number to a given number of significant figures. In scientific notation, the power of ten is insignificant.
48. Simple Machines
    1. 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.
    2. Inclined Plane - This Java applet demonstrates a motion on an inclined plane with constant velocity and the corresponding forces.
    3. Lever - attach a new mass piece or put it to another place with pressed mouse button
    4. Lever an Obelisk - this NOVA site provides a shockwave animation for students to investigate a lever
    5. Machines Make Life Easier - a set of lessons and activities about simple machines
    6. Pulley - Investigate mechanical advantage of a pulley with this interactive java applet
    7. 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.
    8. Rube Goldberg Machines - a simple machines PowerPoint show by Matt Aufman and Steve Case, University of Mississippi [23 slides]
    9. Simple Machines Activities : Learn about simple and compound machines while you explore the House and Tool Shed at E-Heads!
    10. Simple Machines game from Harcourt School
    11. Simple Machines - An excellent overview from the Franklin Institute On-Line
    12. Move Our Principal - Students learn about the six simple machines then use their knowledge to assist their principal. ( middle school level )
    13. Simple Machines Made Simple - an introduction to the six simple machines
    14. Sunken Millions - a Simple Machines review game
    15. Work and Simple Machines - this show includes questions and practice problems, and provides answers
49. Simulations
    1. Fear of Physics - index page - physics explained using computer graphics and animations
    2. Interactive Physlets - index page of physics applets
       1. More Physlets
    3. Interactive Shockwave Physics - index of four pages of topics
       1. Boil Water with Shockwave - Run this experiment, changing the water amount, the starting water temperature, and the heating power. Enter how long you think it will take to boil the water. The accuracy of your guess, as a percentage of the actual time, will be displayed.
       2. Matter - learn about the structures and properties of the four states of matter, including plasma
       3. Electricity & Magnetism - static charge, moving charge, voltage, resistance, current, and the properties of magnets
       4. Energy - see how energy flows through different states as it affects our world
       5. Fusion - discover the forces that are needed for fusion
    4. Java Applets on Physics - index page
    5. Multimedia Physics Studios - animations, not simulations
    6. Physics Education Technology - large number of simulations, look through the index on the left
    7. Physics Java Applets - index page
    8. Shockwave Physics Studio - guest access is provided
    9. Stretching a Spring - select masses and springs
    10. Virtual Laboratory - index of physics applets
    11. Virtual Physics Simulations - index page
    12. Work and Energy in Projectile Motion - a very detailed java applet - let your students use this to collect data.
50. Solar Cookers
    1. The "Minimum" Solar Box Cooker - A great solar oven you can build quickly from two cardboard boxes
    2. Cook hot dogs with the Sun in minutes - how to make a powerful solar concentrator that can cook four or five hot dogs in minutes. ( scroll down, you did arrive at the right page )
    3. Plans for over two dozen solar cookers
    4. Make a pizza box solar oven
    5. Make a solar powered marshmallow roaster ( scroll down, you did arrive at the right page )
    6. Solar Box Cooker - a great solar oven you can build quickly from two cardboard boxes
51. Special Processes of an Ideal Gas - an applet to investigate ideal gases
52. Sports sites
    1. Baseball Science from the Exploratorium - The latest in the Exploratorium's Sport Science series includes features on hitting a fastball, throwing a curve, putting something on the ball and more.
    2. Physics of Baseball - includes lots of links related to the subject
    3. Physics of Basketball - it can be very useful to understand the physics behind some of the skills in basketball
    4. The physics of sports - links to several sports physics pages
    5. The Science Behind Baseball - Ira Flatow of NPR's Science Friday gives a 35 minute report
    6. The Science of Ballooning with topics like density, atmosphere, and jet stream covered by this PBS special
    7. The Science of Baseball - from the Why files
    8. The Science of Cycling - From aerodynamics to the wheel, bicycles make for interesting science. Check out an interview with top mountain biker, Ruthie Matthes. Learn about frames and materials from a custom bike maker. Try interactive javascripts that calculate braking distances and energy consumption and lots more!
    9. The Science of Hockey - mechanics, energy, motion and other physics concepts are covered. There is an excellent section on how to calculate reaction time (remember the dropping meter stick or dollar?)
    10. The Science of Skateboarding - Skaters use laws of physics to perform cool style skateboard tricks
    11. The Science of the Slam - how high a player jumps depends on how much force he uses to push off the floor when he jumps
    12. Tennis sport science
53. Tacoma Narrows Bridge Failure - a set of 8 b&w photos with short captions. You can also go to page with a download link for a short film clip of the twisting of the bridge.
54. Then and Now - A Science Odyssey takes you on a journey through the most spectacular 100 years in the history of science and technology.
    1. Mysteries of the Universe; Physics and Astronomy
    2. Bigger, Better, Faster; Technology
55. Time Dilation Model - The applet demonstrates that the clock in the spaceship goes more slowly than the two clocks of the system in which Earth and Pluto are motionless.
56. Tutorials by Bill Byles
    1. Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion
    2. Sound - Calculating decibel levels
57. U.C. Berkeley Physics Lecture Demonstrations
58. Understanding Sound Intensity - a good decibel scale is included
59. The Universal Law of Gravitation as stated by Sir Isaac Newton - An excellent explanation from the Astronomy department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
60. A Virtual Laboratory of Physics/Astronomy Applets
61. Waves - an index of information about a variety of topics
62. Work and Energy in Projectile Motion - a very detailed java applet - let your students use this to collect data.

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