MyPhysicsLab – Physics Simulation with Java

Click on one of the physics simulations below... you'll see them animating in real time, and be able to interact with them by dragging objects or changing parameters like gravity. Get Java software if you don't already have it.

single spring	double spring	pendulum	chaotic pendulum
double pendulum	2D spring	double 2D spring	colliding blocks
cart with pendulum	dangling stick	rigid body collisions	sumo wrestling game
roller coaster	roller coaster with spring	roller coaster with 2 balls	roller coaster with flight
molecule 2	molecule 3	molecule 4	molecule 5
molecule 6

The next set of simulations are non-interactive movies.

fluid dynamics

reaction-diffusion

How Does It Work?

Explanations of the math and physics are provided in the simulation web pages. Free source code is provided for those wanting to experiment on their own. Here are some additional pages about the underlying math and software.

Help and FAQ How to get the simulations to work, and other answers.
Diff Eq Intro A gentle introduction to differential equations
Classifying Diff Eqs A taxonomy of differential equations
Numerical Solutions How to solve a differential equation without really trying
Runge Kutta Method The best numerical diffeq solver
Math Refresher For those whose trig and calculus are a wee bit rusty.
Links to related math, physics, and simulation websites.
Displaying Math on the Web Notes about how to display mathematics on the web.

Why Physics Simulation?

These physics simulations can be used to:

play around with for fun... try dragging with your mouse, or changing parameter settings
learn about physics and how to set up a model of a physical system
learn about numerical methods for solving equations
learn about differential equations and techniques for solving them
learn computer programming (free source code is available)
enhance your next video game project

Besides being fun to play with, I hope these simulations inspire you to learn about the underlying math and physics.

Simulations are essential in many areas of science and technology. When problems become more complex, it is difficult to use pure math techniques to predict what will happen. Scientists and engineers then create a mathematical model and use numerical techniques to run the model on a computer.

About Me

Hi, my name is Erik Neumann, I live in Seattle, WA, USA, and I am a self-employed software engineer. I started developing this website in 2001, both as a personal project to learn scientific computing, and with a vision of developing an online science museum. I grew up in Chicago near the Museum of Science and Industry which I loved to visit and learn about science and math.

I got a BA in Mathematics at Oberlin College, Ohio, 1978, and an MBA from Univerity of Chicago, 1984. My first software jobs were using the language APL which I enjoyed for it's math-like conciseness and power.

I was fortunate to get involved in the Macintosh software industry early on in 1985, joining MacroMind (which became Macromedia). I led the software development at MacroMind as VP of Engineering for 5 years. Our most significant product was VideoWorks, which was renamed Director, and lives on today as Adobe Director. In the 1980's, the interactive multimedia concepts that are so common today were new and being developed. VideoWorks was mainly an animation tool, but also incorporated programmable interactivity. Our main competitors at that time were HyperCard, SuperCard, and Authorware. Director was used in many different ways; I am most proud that it became the preferred way to prototype software user interfaces for a time during the 90's. Director was also used to develop the introductory "guided tour" tutorial that came with the Macintosh in the early years. And of course, Director was used for all sorts of art, design, and marketing projects.

I went on to work at Apple Computer on new multimedia and user interface concepts involving digital agents, animated user interfaces, speech recognition and distributed information access. In 1991, there was a sudden flurry of activity when Apple and IBM were trying to set up a strategic partnership. I became involved in the super-secret negotiations, and made the suggestion that what the world needed was a standard for multimedia that multimedia content creators could rely on to publish to (ultimately this is what HTML became). Based on these suggestions, Kaleida Labs was founded. Our work there developed a product called ScriptX, which turned out to be very similar to Sun's Java (which was being developed at the same time). ScriptX had goals of supporting all forms of multimedia (text, images, audio, video, animation, etc.), being cross-platform (Mac and Windows), interpreted, object oriented, with a garbage collector to manage memory (which was extremely tight back then).

I then moved to Seattle and turned my attention back to mathematics and science. I relearned calculus by doing all the problems in my old college text book and took further math classes at the University of Washington. I started developing this website as a way to practice what I was learning. I am now happy to use excellent tools such as HTML and Java, and leave their development to others. I continue to work on physics simulations, with several new ones in development.

Another math-related project I've done recently is FunctionLab, which is similar to a hand-held graphing calculator: it can graph several functions whose formulas you enter. This work was done at the request of my friend and climbing partner Greg Langkamp, who uses it in his teaching which combines math and environmental studies at enviromath.com.

I am co-author of two patents from my Kaleida days: No. 5,475,811 "Rewinding time-based script sequences", and No. 5,452,435 "Synchronized clocks and media players". At the 1995 MacWorld Expo I was recipient of the Multimedia Pioneer Award.

This website was selected as "cool math site of the week" by the Knot a Braid of Links project of the Canadian Mathematics Society.