I’ve always wanted to create a Fourier Series applet, but Flash was just too darn slow to do the discrete computations efficiently.  Now with Flash 9 and Actionscript 3.0, the speed of Flash has been increased to the point that it can do the computations, in REAL TIME!  So here is the Fourier Series applet:

Thumbnail for Fourier Series applet

The applet allows you to choose a periodic curve from the drop down (up?) menu to compute the fourier series of, or you can draw your own curve.  Choose the number of terms using the sliding menu and see how the fourier series approximates the real curve!

It’s about time.

Many people have been pestering me to create some new content for my site.  I have been really busy the past few months so I could not create much, but I have finally found some time to create some new content.  A little while ago I found myself teaching wave mechanics to a grade 11 class.  I had a lot of fun teaching them, we had the chance to play with slinkies and snakies (its like a slinky except its longer and skinnier) and discovered the physics behind wave motion, reflection, translation and wave interactions.
I noticed that I do not have an applet that could demonstrate the aspects of wave mechanics, so I finally got around to creating one.

This applet allows you to create waves, and wave pulses in a string with elastic properties.   You can also create your own wave by dragging one of the ends of the string.

The string is divided into two sections, and each section can have different properties.  When the properties of each section is the same, the two strings behave as if it is one string,  but when the properties are different, some interesting things happen when waves pass from one string to another.

The different colours of the string represent tension, black is lowest tension, green is higher, then blue and then finally red.

Let me know if there are any problems with the applet, I have tried to test is as much as possible.  But I could have easily overlooked something.

Enjoy!

 

New Electric Fields Applet

I have just redesigned the electric fields applet that I had on my site earlier. The old version was not very interesting, and took a lot of CPU power so I took it down when I redesigned the site. The new applet is much better looking and isn’t so CPU intensive.

Electric Fields Applet

Electric Fields Applet

 

New Simple Pendulum Applet

I have just uploaded a new physics applet based on the Simple Pendulum

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Simple Pendulum

The applet allows you to change the length, gravity, amplitude and drag factor of the pendulum and see how the pendulum reacts.

Updated

Hello Everyone,

I have just updated the page to have a new look.  Hopefully you all like it.  Also, I rewrote the graphing calculator.  If you notice any bugs, please let me know in the comments section.   Enjoy!