[OLPC-Games] Physics -- Newtonian mechanics.. for kids!

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

At Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:58:32 -0700,
Edward Cherlin wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 4:20 PM, Yoshiki Ohshima <yoshiki at vpri.org> wrote:
> >> So we could simulate a pendulum or a Newton's cradle? How do you
> >> handle collisions?
> >
> >  A pendulum for sure, but my version of three pendulums putting
> > together doesn't show the expected behavior.  The elasticity isn't
> > right for it, it seems.
> 
> What does it do? Can you get it to tell you what values of momentum
> and energy are passed through from balls 1-->2-->3?

  Heh, of course you can try by yourself.  But if you put a circle on
the floor (stand still), and make another hit from the side, the
momentum is shared by these two circles and both of them move together
at the same speed.

> Have you tried two pendula hanging from a horizontal string? Do you
> get the expected transfer of energy back and forth?

  Yes, but no.  I'm not sure what you mean by a horizontal string, but
the string I made is not flexible enough to make it happen.

  Speaking of examples, the screenshots at
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physics_(activity) aren't exactly something
I found "physics-y"; these are more like story telling in picture
books.  I made some examples (two pendula and a mesh, I did an arch
but it is gone).  These might catch more attention from teachers and
educators.

-- Yoshiki
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