Interactive simulations

1.  Moon lander

Land the lunar module.  You have limited fuel and must touch down in the safe zone at under five metres per scond.

It is linked here.

2. Rotations - axes in aircraft mode

Slide the mouse over the control bars to adjust the axes.

Click here.

3.  Rotations - a cube of balls

Slide the mouse over the control bars to adjust the axes.


Click here.

4.  Simulating an orbit. 

Change the starting velocity to see the satellite move in an ellipse.

Click here.

5.  An orbiting near-Earth satellite.

A recent TV programme showed a satellite boosting into a higher orbit by firing its rocket downwards.
Is that really the right thing to do?

Put the satellite into a steady orbit at a height of 1000 km.

Click here.

6.  Newton's cradle

Click on the balls to set them moving.
'View Source' to see how it's done.

Click here.

7.  A billiards game

Although greatly simplified, this shows how to model impacts and decelerating drag.
'View source' to see the code.  Could you enhance it to include 'side'?

Click here.

8. A Galilean cannon

Hold a ping-pong ball on top of a tennis ball, drop them together and see the ping-pong ball bounce high.
There is a YouTube example at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6SKQYfpqHc
What is the theoretical maximum height it can reach, if I can select a variety of masses for the balls?  First calculations suggest nine times the starting height, but try 40 for the ratio to be surprised.

Click here.

9. Unbalanced rotations

There are some simulations simulating the use of the inertia tensor to analyse tumbling motion.

Click here