Physics-1 - Ten Copy License (Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP)

Imagine a textbook in which the illustrations were working models of the objects being studied so that a pendulum, for example, actually swings. Further imagine that the reader has the ability to choose what view of the pendulum is displayed. It might be an animation view representing the movement of the pendulum in real space. It might be a graph of angular position and velocity vs. time. It might be a plot of position vs. velocity. Now suppose that the reader could change the length and mass of the pendulum, include bearing friction and air resistance and push the pendulum in several different ways. In effect a virtual model of the pendulum would sit there on the page surrounded by text detailing the theory and practice of swinging objects. And perhaps on another page of this textbook is a model of projectile motion embedded in the text describing it. Elsewhere perhaps we find a potential energy well with a particle in it. And in another chapter objects colliding and scattering. And on another page might be satellites orbiting a planet of mass 5.98e24kg. Now let's imagine that in this textbook the text may be edited, added to or written from scratch by the reader and that the new physical systems may be created to illustrate the principles expounded in the text... and that these new systems may be studied and modified by future readers. This is the paradigm upon which we base our run-time books, including the virtual laboratory in the book as embedded models. Physics-1 is such a run-time book. The text includes the following topics: Measurement in Mechanics Rates of Change Motion in One Dimension Constant Acceleration Vector Arithmetic Motion in Two Dimensions Newton's Laws of Motion Applying the Second Law Circular Motion Work and Kinetic Energy Potential Energy and Fields Systems of Many Particles Linear Momentum and Collisions Rotation Rotational Dynamics Equilibrium and Elasticity Oscillations Gravity Fluid Mechanics Mechanical Waves Sound Wave Superposition Nature of Space The run-time technology that powers Physics-1 is a next logical step in computer-aided education. In the beginning there were printed textbooks with static pictures and graphs that just lay there on the page. Then there were computer-aided texts that were basically just electronic page-turners. Next came multi-media presentations where animation, video, audio and all sorts of snappy pictures were presented along with the text. Even the slickest multi-media presentation though is frozen at the time the program is produced, at compile-time, as the programming people say. All the reader can do is choose a path through material that has been prepared for her. When our book programs are running, at run-time as it were, the reader can get into the underlying algorithms and make changes to the displays that serve as our illustrations, fundamentally changing the program as it runs to illustrate ideas that the author may not have thought of. Practically infinite variation is possible.