Newton's Aquarium is a solar system construction set that allows students to create and explore situations involving any number of stars, planets, moons and asteroids. This software takes an interactive, visual approach to physics. Newton's Aquarium will help students develop an intuition for orbital mechanics. Students will gain a better understanding of the physics behind the images. By creating and exploring their own solar systems with Newton's Aquarium, students encounter the core concepts in classical physics.
Newton's Aquarium was designed for use in senior high school and college physics studies. The software offers interactive 3-D n-body simulation; display of velocity, acceleration and force vectors; collisions; center of mass and conservation of momentum; variable G and distance exponent; and mks units. Online help, lesson plans and student activities are provided to help teachers integrate the software into their curriculum.
With Newton's Aquarium, students can now explore the motion of heavenly bodies using only their computer, Living Graph Paper and their imagination.
Keywords: acceleration force gravity kinematics mass moon Newton orbit physics planet speed star velocity weight
|
