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phetsims / projectile-motion

"Projectile Motion" is an educational simulation in HTML5, by PhET Interactive Simulations.
GNU General Public License v3.0
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User request: add option for imperial units #226

Open arouinfar opened 4 years ago

arouinfar commented 4 years ago

A user requested this on Twitter, and then followed up via email.

I currently love using this applet when studying quadratic functions. I don't like how many traditional textbook just give students an equation like -16x^2 + V_0 x + h_0 where V_0 and h_0 are the initial velocity and initial height, without ever really explaining where the -16 comes from. We use the original projectile motion applet, https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/projectile-motion/projectile-motion_en.html, and have students set the degree to 90 and the initial velocity to 96 feet per second. Many of the typically Algebra projectile motion problems are in standard units and not metric. In order to use the applet I have students convert the 96 feet per second to 29.26 meters per second to collect data. They use the applet to collect data in meters for the height of the projectile each second. They then convert the data back to feet. Using the applet, it makes a perfect model for -16x^2 +96x. They use their data to make a quadratic function in factored form and then convert it to standard form to see the -16x^2 and 96x. It is really neat and the students love using the applet to do this and is so much better than just giving them the equation. In using the newest version of the applet, you cannot be as precise with the initial velocity so the data does not work to make a nice model for the standard units.

So it would be really nice if there was an option to use standard units and that would be really helpful for Algebra teachers. Another nice feature would be to be able to see that data in a table once you launch the object. It would also be nice to set the initial height to a higher height to maybe replicate what Galileo did by dropping objects and observing the distance dropped and time.

zepumph commented 3 years ago

@arouinfar do you want to work on this for this release of Projectile motion?

oliver-phet commented 2 years ago

Another request received 4/10/22:

I was looking into your projectile motion simulation (https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/projectile-motion) and was hoping to use it to introduce a unit on interpreting quadratics. Our measurements are in feet for the unit and I was wondering if it is possible to change the distance to be measured in ft on the simulation?

arouinfar commented 1 year ago

Unassigning myself until work resumes on this sim.