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phetsims / pendulum-lab

"Pendulum Lab" is an educational simulation in HTML5, by PhET Interactive Simulations.
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Oscillation are shown w/ mass @ angle 0 #103

Closed orejolaphet closed 8 years ago

orejolaphet commented 9 years ago

You can initialize the mass at a very small angle approximately 0.1 degrees, but the sim displays 0 degrees. Oscillation occurs even though the initial conditions state 0 degrees. (Notice the dotted line for 0 degrees does not line up with the string of the pendulum) Also even though oscillation occurs the energy graph does not display anything. screen shot 2015-06-22 at 11 31 10 am

ariel-phet commented 9 years ago

@arouinfar - perhaps consider adding another decimal point to the angle measurement readout? Not sure if that is appropriate or not. But this seems like a design/pedagogical question not a bug.

arouinfar commented 8 years ago

Good observation @orejolaphet.

@ariel-phet, I don't think adding a decimal point is pedagogically necessary. I doubt students would confuse this behavior with a bug, and it could potentially facilitate conversations about rounding and small values. The decimal would also look a bit crowded if we add a second angle readout, as recommended in #95.