Links
ASTRONOMY
Those of you interested in planets, stars, and galaxies, might find this web site of interest: it is called 'Home Planet' (look at Sky Map, Earth Map, and further down, Orrery) and is downloadable as a file (the 'lite' file is only about 1.6 meg, and is sufficient. The full version is over 8 megs primarily because it has pictures of the planets, some stars, nebulae, and galaxies. If you like pictures, well, then the choice is clear but it takes a while to download). Also it comes compressed. They offer an unzip file called PKUNZIP, but I'll try to have a file available called 'Expander'. This worked well for me.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html
Try the Orrery below (its the solar system orbits). When it comes up, set the "Heliocentric" number to zero (0) and click on Update. You'll see the solar system edge-on: notice what happens to Pluto. Then try clicking on "Images" instead of "Icons" and then click Update. You'll see planetary images instead of their symbols. (To find their symbols click on "Show"). Have fun and please ask questions about any of the sites or programs if you're having trouble with them....
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Solar/action?sys=-Sf
Okay, for those of you who just can't get enough of this stuff, there's a website below that has a few good interactive "experiments". I've listed a brief outline below of some of these
1. Vector addition - a graphical interactive solution. just set your own vectors by grabbing the arrow tips and stretching the vectors to the length and direction desired. Click on 'solve' and the resultant appears. You can add from two to four vectors
2. Newton's Law - (it's last on the list of 'Applets') This is very similar to the experiment we did in class: a cart on a rail with hanging weights supplying the accelerating force. My suggestion: try setting some of the values to what YOU used (although the length of the drop is slightly different).
3. Spring - This is the reaction of a spring including its acceleration and velocity. (you first must set a displacement to get it to work - in English, that means stretch the spring!). This will come in handy when we study Hooke's Law (and its companion, Smee's corollary).
4. Pendulum - let's you study the motion of a pendulum by varying mass, length, etc
5. They have other experiments, but I don't think all the graphics are working. If you find out otherwise, let me know....have fun.
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/7716/VAPApplets.html
also
Click here to see the "Great men in Physics Slide Show"