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

[Brian Jordan]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Yoshiki Ohshima <yoshiki at vpri.org> wrote:
> 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,

This gave me an idea...

Just after adding motors to the most recent version of Physics (too
fun), I took a BULB-exposure shot of Physics in motion on my camera.

Here is the result:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Housegolf.jpg

Neat!

Thanks,
Brian

>
> -- Yoshiki
>
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