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About Newton's Aquarium™ |
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Developing an intuition for the motion of heavenly bodies is a challenge for even the best students. The problem is that human beings do not directly experience celestial motion. Our ancient ancestors went so far as to create entire religions around the notion of an Earth-centered universe. Even today, we continue to perceive the Earth as a fixed point in space. Quantifying celestial motion in terms of Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation is a greater challenge still. Newton's inverse square law describes the gravitational force acting between only two bodies. Several steps of algebra and geometry and dozens of calculations are necessary to determine the path of just a single planet. The motion of an entire solar system would take days to work out by hand. Due to such complexities, introductory physics studies often overlook orbital mechanics. This neglect is unfortunate, since orbital mechanics remains among the best demonstrations of classical physics. It allows everything from centripetal acceleration to conservation of momentum to Newton's three laws of motion to be seen at play.  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. |
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