search

phetsims / pendulum-lab

"Pendulum Lab" is an educational simulation in HTML5, by PhET Interactive Simulations.
GNU General Public License v3.0
4 stars 10 forks source link

User suggestion: horizontal ruler #212

Open oliver-phet opened 4 years ago

oliver-phet commented 4 years ago

A horizontal ruler would be really helpful to measure horizontal displacement. I would then get my students to measure the decrease in amplitude in a damped oscillator to graph exponential decay with time and see if it corresponded with predictions. The effects of increasing friction on the rate of decay could also be explored. I think it would significantly increase the functionality of an already great simulation.

arouinfar commented 4 years ago

The initial horizontal displacement can easily be calculated as length⋅tan(θ) where θ is the angle of displacement provided in the simulation.

Screen Shot 2019-09-23 at 2 10 00 PM

I would then get my students to measure the decrease in amplitude in a damped oscillator to graph exponential decay with time and see if it corresponded with predictions.

This part is more cumbersome to do without a horizontal ruler. The student would need to pause the sim at the end of each swing, use the tick marks to find θ and then calculate x using length⋅tan(θ).

I think the user's learning goal is achievable using the sim in its current state, but a horizontal ruler would add convenience and perhaps more flexibility, in general. I think it could be a nice addition to the sim the next time a dev is working on it.

If we decide to add a horizontal ruler, here are my thoughts:

How does that sound @ariel-phet?

ariel-phet commented 4 years ago

@arouinfar I think would have two separate rulers on the lab screen each with its own checkbox. Perhaps "Ruler 1" and "Ruler 2" with an icon that shows one is vertical and one is horizontal? For instance, Wave on a String comes up with both rulers at once, and it is pretty messy. Most people will be going after the learning goal of length of the pendulum so I would make the vertical ruler "Ruler 1" and the horizontal ruler be "Ruler 2"

oliver-phet commented 3 years ago

Another request received:

I work for UCLA Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching where I work with teachers to provide real world applications to model mathematics. I wanted to know if there is any chance that this simulation’s ruler could be rotated horizontally instead of only vertically. There is a relationship that I want to test out about a pendulum’s length and the horizontal distance traveled to make a full swing.

arouinfar commented 1 year ago

Unassigning myself since this sim isn't currently a priority. We can reconsider this suggestion the next time we revisit this sim.