Friday, October 30, 2009

SimScience


A tweet led me to this site. SimScience is a product of a National Science Federation project between departments at Cornell and Syracuse (and perhaps others). It isn't a particularly 'fancy' web site, but the information provided more than offsets any issues one might have with the presentation.

The lessons presented are physics-based, which I find fascinating because of the ability to apply lessons to real-world applications. I live near two large dams, as do many of my readers. There are a series of lessons on cracking dams, ranging from beginning to advanced.

Given my interest in sports, I couldn't resist the leading questions to the content on fluid flow. Why does a golf ball have dimples? What makes a curve ball curve? I'm not sure I would become an immediate expert on drag and lift coefficients, but I would think lessons like these would be easy to apply to our everyday lives.

There's other content as well, including a section on crackling noises and info on membranes. Some of the simulations use Java, so be sure you have that on your workstation.

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