alphabetical
http://www.stuegli.com/phyzx/vl-alpha.htm
Martindale's
Calculators On-Line Center http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html
has 18,000 calculators,
simulations, and virtual labs for just about everything!!!
edinformatics physics directory
Applets for High School Physics
Physlet Illustrations from Gustavus Adolphus College
Pre-labs for Introductory Physics Experiments
AP PHYSICS B SIMULATIONS AND VIRTUAL LABS
Cal Techs SIMS are very
good!***CalTech http://www.its.caltech.edu/~phys1/
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~phys1/java.html applet below.
Units Use the three fundamental units (mass, length, time) to describe other units. new Java Web Start version.
Inverse Square Measure the flux at different distances from a star using a noisy detector. Inverse Square Applet for Java Plugin
Atomic Emission Applet for Java Plugin
3D Atom Finally, a 3D applet that doesn't require Java3D. This started out as just an attempt to create a 3D renderer from scratch. For some reason, I decided to model an atomic nucleus. The result looked good enough that I just had to put some electrons in there too. Along the way, I accidentally produced something useful. All the electrons are displayed in their proper subshells, although relative distances are not to scale.
3D DNA Molecule Uses the same code as the Atom applet. Less useful, but it is kinda cool looking, and shows that the code is capable of rendering more complex stuff.
Elements Look up the visible spectra of the elements. Both emission and absorption lines, as well as different ionization levels.
Greenhouse
Calculates global temperatures based on population growth and increased greenhouse
gases. Be careful, raise the temperature too much and the ice caps melt.
Lunar Phases This applet shows how the phase of the moon relates to its position relative to the Earth and Sun. Lunar Phases Applet for Java Plugin
Stellar
Parallax Measure the distance to nearby stars using stellar parallax, then
plot them on a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Parallax
Applet for Java Plugin
Galaxy Crash Smash two galaxies together, sit back
and watch the destruction. GalCrash
Applet for Java Plugin
Wobble Look at
the redshift of stars and try to determine if there are large planets
influencing them.
Equivalent Width Measuring
Applet for Stellar Spectra Displays stellar spectral lines and allows you
to determine the continuum.
Solar System
Simulation A realtime n-body simulation of the solar system. Requires
Java3D Solar System
Applet for Java Plugin
3D Jupiter
Simulation N-body simulation of Jupiter and its four largest moons.
Requires Java3D 3D Jupiter
Applet for Java Plugin
2D Jupiter
Simulation A two dimensional representation of Jupiter and its moons 2D Jupiter
Applet for Java Plugin
Blackbody Curve and
Stellar Spectra measure the temperature and total flux. Blackbody Applet
for Java Plugin
Asteroid
Impact Simulator Models the cratering of a planetary surface by asteroids. Asteroid
Applet for Java Plugin
Hubble Expansion
Law Examine the emission lines of galaxies to determine their redshift
and calculate the expansion rate of the universe.
Hubble
Applet for Java Plugin
Stellar and Galactic Spectra Add stellar spectra together to create galaxy spectra.
Virtual Planetarium Stars, constellations, planets. Watch them all twirl through the sky in a realistic manner. Requires Java3D.
Electrical
Circuits Build electrical circuits out of resistors and batteries and
measure amperage and voltage. Under construction.
Circuit
Applet for Java Plugin
Music
Visualization Tool This applet plays a music file and visually displays the
pitch and duration of each note. Have a look, it's easier to show you than it
is to explain.
Moonlight
Sonata
Brahm's
Piano Concerto #1
Star Wars
Cantina Theme
The original idea for this comes from Stephen Malinowski's Music Animation Machine. My contribution was to rewrite it in Java and make it web-accessable.
1.
a. Students know how to solve problems that involve constant speed and average
speed.
b. Students
know that when forces are balanced, no acceleration occurs; thus an object
continues to move at a constant speed or stays at rest (
http://stuegli.com/phyzx/sims/ph14e/acceleration.htm
c. Students know how to apply the law F =ma to solve one-dimensional motion
problems that involve constant forces (
Friction
Applet for Java Plugin Inclined plane with friction **** Fun
d. Students know that when one object exerts a force on a second object, the second
object always exerts a force of equal magnitude and in the opposite direction (
Resultant of
Forces (Addition of Vectors)
Resolution of a
Force into Components
Newton's Second Law
Experiment
e. Students know the relationship between the universal law of gravitation and
the effect of gravity on an object at the surface of Earth.
Free
Fall Lab - Terminal Velocity
Free
FallThis a ball in free fall and displays a position vs. time graph or a
velocity vs. time graph.
One
Dimensional Motion Simulations by Masatoshi Ito, Department of Physics,
Balloons Toss a
water balloon from the top building
f. Students know applying a force to an object perpendicular to the direction
of its motion causes the object to change direction but not speed (e.g.,
Earth's gravitational force causes a satellite in a circular orbit to change
direction but not speed).
g. Students know circular motion requires the application of a constant force
directed toward the center of the circle.
Coriolis
and Centrifugal Forces
Circular and
Simple Harmonic Motion horizontal and perpendicular components of
circular motion.
h.* Students know
i.* Students know how to solve two-dimensional trajectory problems.
****Shoot the Monkey - Cannon
Applet for Java Plugin
Projectile
Motion
j.* Students know how to resolve two-dimensional vectors into their components
and calculate the magnitude and direction of a vector from its components.
Resultant of
forces (addition of vectors)
Resolution
of a Force into Components
Vector Calculator
vector addition by Julio Gea-Banacloche,
k.* Students know how to solve two-dimensional problems involving balanced
forces (statics).
Lever Principle
l.* Students know how to solve problems in circular motion by using the formula
for centripetal acceleration in the following form: a =v2/r.
Carousel
(Centripetal Force)The
Conservation of Angular Momentum
m.* Students know how to solve problems involving the forces between two
electric charges at a distance (Coulomb's law) or the forces between two masses
at a distance (universal gravitation).
Conservation
of Energy and Momentum
2. The laws of conservation of energy and momentum provide a way to predict and
describe the movement of objects. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to calculate kinetic energy by using the formula E
=(1/2)mv2.
b. Students know how to calculate changes in gravitational potential energy
near Earth by using the formula (change in potential energy) = mgh (h is the
change in the elevation).
c. Students know how to solve problems involving conservation of energy in
simple systems, such as falling objects.
d. Students know how to calculate momentum as the product mv.
e. Students know momentum is a separately conserved quantity different from
energy.
Momentum
Applet for Java Plugin -
Collision Cart Simulation ****
f. Students know an unbalanced force on an object produces a change in its
momentum.
g. Students know how to solve problems involving elastic and inelastic
collisions in one dimension by using the principles of conservation of momentum
and energy.
h.* Students know how to solve problems involving conservation of energy in
simple systems with various sources of potential energy, such as capacitors and
springs.
Heat and Thermodynamics
3. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, although in many processes energy is
transferred to the environment as heat. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know heat flow and work are two forms of energy transfer between
systems.
b. Students know that the work done by a heat engine that is working in a cycle
is the difference between the heat flow into the engine at high temperature and
the heat flow out at a lower
temperature (first law of thermodynamics) and that this
is an example of the law of conservation of energy.
c. Students know the internal energy of an object includes the energy of random
motion of the object's atoms and molecules, often referred to as thermal
energy. The greater the temperature of the object, the greater the energy of
motion of the atoms and molecules that make up the object.
d. Students know that most processes tend to decrease the order of a system
over time and that energy levels are eventually distributed uniformly.
e. Students know that entropy is a quantity that measures the order or disorder
of a system and that this quantity is larger for a more disordered system.
f.* Students know the statement "Entropy tends to increase" is a law
of statistical probability that governs all closed systems (second law of
thermodynamics).
g.* Students know how to solve problems involving heat flow, work, and
efficiency in a heat engine and know that all real engines lose some heat to
their surroundings.
Waves
4. Waves have characteristic properties that do not depend on the type of wave.
As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know waves carry energy from one place to another.
b. Students know how to identify transverse and longitudinal waves in
mechanical media, such as springs and ropes, and on the earth (seismic waves).
c. Students know how to solve problems involving wavelength, frequency, and
wave speed.
d. Students know sound is a longitudinal wave whose speed depends on the
properties of the medium in which it propagates.
e. Students know radio waves, light, and X-rays are different wavelength bands
in the spectrum of electromagnetic waves whose speed in a vacuum is
approximately 3×108m/s (186,000 miles/second).
f. Students know how to identify the characteristic properties of waves:
interference (beats), diffraction, refraction, Doppler effect, and
polarization.
Electric and Magnetic Phenomena
5. Electric and magnetic phenomena are related and have many practical
applications.
As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to predict the voltage or current in simple direct current
(DC) electric circuits constructed from batteries, wires, resistors, and
capacitors.
b. Students know how to solve problems involving Ohm's law.
c. Students know any resistive element in a DC circuit dissipates energy, which
heats the resistor. Students can calculate the power (rate of energy
dissipation) in any resistive circuit element by using the formula
Power = IR
(potential difference) ×I (current) = I2R.
d. Students know the properties of transistors and the role of transistors in
electric circuits.
e. Students know charged particles are sources of electric fields and are
subject to the forces of the electric fields from other charges.
f. Students know magnetic materials and electric currents (moving electric
charges) are sources of magnetic fields and are subject to forces arising from
the magnetic fields of other sources.
g. Students know how to determine the direction of a magnetic field produced by
a current flowing in a straight wire or in a coil.
h. Students know changing magnetic fields produce electric fields, thereby
inducing currents in nearby conductors.
i. Students know plasmas, the fourth state of matter, contain ions or free
electrons or both and conduct electricity.
j.* Students know electric and magnetic fields contain energy and act as vector
force fields.
k.* Students know the force on a charged particle in an electric field is qE,
where E is the electric field at the position of the particle and q is the
charge of the particle.
l.* Students know how to calculate
the electric field resulting from a point charge. m.* Students know static
electric fields have as their source some arrangement of electric charges.
n.* Students know the magnitude of the force on a moving particle (with charge
q) in a magnetic field is qvB sin(a), where a is the angle between v and B (v
and B are the magnitudes of vectors v and B, respectively), and students use
the right-hand rule to find the direction of this force.
o.* Students know how to apply the concepts of electrical and gravitational
potential energy to solve problems involving conservation of energy.
GRADES NINE
THROUGH TWELVE –Chemistry
Atomic and Molecular Structure
1. The periodic table displays the elements in increasing atomic number and
shows how periodicity of the physical and chemical properties of the elements
relates to atomic structure. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to relate the position of an element in the periodic table
to its atomic number and atomic mass.
b. Students know how to use the periodic table to identify metals, semimetals,
non-metals, and halogens.
c. Students know how to use the periodic table to identify alkali metals,
alkaline earth metals and transition metals, trends in ionization energy,
electronegativity, and the relative sizes of ions and atoms.
d. Students know how to use the periodic table to determine the number of
electrons available for bonding.
e. Students know the nucleus of the atom is much smaller than the atom yet
contains most of its mass.
f.* Students know how to use the periodic table to identify the lanthanide,
actinide, and transactinide elements and know that the transuranium elements
were synthesized and identified in laboratory experiments through the use of
nuclear
g.*
Students know how to relate the position of an element in the periodic table to
its quantum electron configuration and to its reactivity with other elements in
the table.
h.* Students know the experimental basis for Thomson's discovery of the
electron,
i.* Students know the experimental basis for the development of the quantum
theory of atomic structure and the historical importance of the Bohr model of
the atom.
j.* Students know that spectral lines are the result of transitions of
electrons between energy levels and that these lines correspond to photons with
a frequency related to the energy spacing between levels by using Planck's
relationship (E =hv).
GRADES NINE
THROUGH TWELVE --CHEMISTRY
Chemical
Bonds
2. Biological, chemical, and physical properties of matter result from the
ability of atoms to form bonds from electrostatic forces between electrons and
protons and between atoms and molecules. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know atoms combine to form molecules by sharing electrons to form
covalent or metallic bonds or by exchanging electrons to form ionic bonds.
b. Students
know chemical bonds between atoms in molecules such as H2, CH4, NH3, H2CCH2,
N2, Cl2, and many large biological molecules are covalent.
c. Students know salt crystals, such as NaCl, are repeating patterns of
positive and negative ions held together by electrostatic attraction.
d. Students know the atoms and molecules in liquids move in a random pattern
relative to one another because the intermolecular forces are too weak to hold
the atoms or molecules in a solid form.
e. Students know how to draw Lewis dot structures.
f.* Students know how to predict the shape of simple molecules and their
polarity from Lewis dot structures.
g.* Students know how electronegativity and ionization energy relate to bond
formation.
h.* Students know how to identify solids and liquids held together by Van der
Waals forces or hydrogen bonding and relate these forces to volatility and
boiling/melting point temperatures.
Conservation
of Matter and Stoichiometry
3. The conservation of atoms in chemical reactions leads to the principle of
conserva-
tion of matter and the ability to calculate the mass of products and reactants.
As a
basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to describe chemical reactions by writing balanced
equations.
b. Students know the quantity one mole is set by defining one mole of carbon 12
atoms to have a mass of exactly 12 grams.
c. Students know one mole equals 6.02×1023
particles (atoms or molecules).
d. Students know how to determine the molar mass of a molecule from its
chemical
formula and a table of atomic masses and how to convert the mass of a molecular
substance to moles, number of particles, or volume of gas at standard tempera-
ture and pressure.
e. Students know how to calculate the masses of reactants and
products in a chemi-
cal reaction from the mass of one of the reactants or products and the relevant
atomic masses.
f.* Students know how to calculate percent yield in a chemical reaction.
g.* Students know how to identify reactions that involve oxidation and
reduction and
how to balance oxidation-reduction reactions.
Gases and Their Properties
4. The kinetic molecular theory describes the motion of atoms and molecules and
explains the properties of gases. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the random motion of molecules and their collisions with a
surface
create the observable pressure on that surface.
b. Students know the random motion of molecules explains the diffusion of
gases.
c. Students know how to apply the gas laws to relations between the pressure,
tem-
perature, and volume of any amount of an ideal gas or any mixture of ideal
gases.
d. Students know the values and meanings of standard temperature and pressure
(STP).
e. Students know how to convert between the Celsius and Kelvin temperature
scales.
f. Students know there is no temperature lower than 0 Kelvin.
g.* Students know the kinetic theory of gases relates the absolute temperature
of a gas
to the average kinetic energy of its molecules or atoms.
h.* Students know how to solve problems by using the ideal gas law in the form
PV =nRT.
i.* Students know how to apply
composition of gases and Graham's law to predict diffusion of gases.
Acids and
Bases
5. Acids, bases, and salts are three classes of compounds that form ions in
water solu-
tions. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the observable properties of acids, bases, and salt solutions.
b. Students know acids are hydrogen-ion-donating and bases are hydrogen-ion-
accepting substances.
c. Students know strong acids and
bases fully dissociate and weak acids and bases
partially dissociate.
d. Students know how to use the pH scale to characterize acid and base
solutions.
e.* Students know the Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry, and Lewis acidbase
definitions.
f.* Students know how to calculate pH from the hydrogen-ion concentration.
g.* Students know buffers stabilize pH in acidbase reactions.
Solutions
6. Solutions are homogenous mixtures of two or more substances. As a basis for
under-
standing this concept:
a. Students know the definitions of solute and solvent.
b. Students know how to describe the dissolving process at the molecular level
by
using the concept of random molecular motion.
c. Students know temperature, pressure, and surface area affect the dissolving
pro-
cess.
d. Students know how to calculate the concentration of a solute in terms of
grams per
liter, molarity, parts per million, and percent composition.
e.* Students know the relationship between the molality of a solute in a
solution and
the solution's depressed freezing point or elevated boiling point.
f.* Students know how molecules in a solution are separated or purified by the
meth-
ods of chromatography and distillation.
Chemical Thermodynamics
7. Energy is exchanged or transformed in all chemical reactions and physical
changes
of matter. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to describe temperature and heat flow in terms of the
motion
of molecules (or atoms).
b. Students know chemical processes can either release (exothermic) or absorb
(en-
dothermic) thermal energy.
c. Students know energy is released when a material condenses or freezes and is
absorbed when a material evaporates or melts.
d. Students know how to solve problems involving heat flow and temperature
changes, using known values of specific heat and latent heat of phase change.
e.* Students know how to apply Hess's law to calculate enthalpy change in a
reaction.
f.* Students know how to use the Gibbs free energy equation to determine
whether a
reaction would be spontaneous.
Reaction Rates
8. Chemical reaction rates depend on factors that influence the frequency of
collision of
reactant molecules. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the rate of reaction is the decrease in concentration of
reactants or
the increase in concentration of products with time.
b. Students know how reaction rates depend on such factors as concentration,
tem-
perature, and pressure.
c. Students know the role a catalyst plays in increasing the reaction rate.
d.* Students know the definition and role of activation energy in a chemical reaction.
Chemical
Equilibrium
9. Chemical equilibrium is a dynamic process at the molecular level. As a basis
for
understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to use LeChatelier's principle to predict the effect of
changes
in concentration, temperature, and pressure.
b. Students know equilibrium is established when forward and reverse reaction
rates
are equal.
c.* Students know how to write and calculate an equilibrium constant expression
for
a reaction.
Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry
10. The bonding characteristics of carbon allow the formation of many different
organic
molecules of varied sizes, shapes, and chemical properties and provide the bio-
chemical basis of life. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know large molecules (polymers), such as proteins, nucleic acids,
and
starch, are formed by repetitive combinations of simple subunits.
b. Students know the bonding characteristics of carbon that result in the
formation of a large variety of structures ranging from simple hydrocarbons to
complex poly-mers and biological molecules.
c. Students know amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.