Old Physics Educational Software

Written by Daniel V. Schroeder and others.

All of this software is available free, as is. Good luck getting it to run on modern platforms. Links to newer substitutes are provided where these are available. Click here to go to my main software page, which lists only modern HTML5/JavaScript web apps.

Java Applets

For those who still have a browser that will run them...

• Radiation Applet by Andrew Flinders (WSU student): draws and animates field lines of an accelerated charge.
• Molecular Dynamics Applet: simulates molecular motions in two dimensions. Here is a modern HTML5/JavaScript version: Interactive Molecular Dynamics
• EField Applet: draws electric fields for any two-dimensional arrangement of charges.
• Sky Motion Applet: a planetarium simulation designed especially to show heavenly motions.
• Zoomer Applet: a modest attempt to show earth's place in the universe.

Older thermal physics applications for Mac and Windows

• Molecules is a two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation, similar to the Molecular Dynamics applet and Interactive Molecular Dynamics. This version has somewhat different features including the ability to simulate two types of dissimilar particles.
  • Mac OS 8-9 version (.sit archive)
  • Mac OS X (PowerPC) version (.sit archive)
  • Windows version (.zip archive)
  • REALbasic project source file
  • Source code in plain text format

• Ising is a Monte Carlo simulation of the two-dimensional Ising model.
  • Mac OS 8-9 version (.sit archive)
  • Mac OS X (PowerPC) version (.sit archive)
  • Windows version
  • REALbasic project source file
  • Source code in plain text format

Really Old Mac Software

The programs described below were developed for the Macintosh computer circa 1985-92. They are small, fast, and easy to use, but lack the color graphics that everyone expects these days. As far as I know, all of them run fine on PowerPC-based Macintosh systems, including OS X systems under the Classic environment. It might be possible to run them on Intel-based systems using third-party emulation software, but I've never tried this.

All of the programs described below, except for the Radiation program, were written by Dan Schroeder and Michael Martin. To download an archive of all of these programs, click here (.hqx format, 213k). The Radiation program is in a separate archive (see below).

• E-Field shows the electric field (represented by arrows) of an arbitrary two-dimensional distribution of point charges or of infinite-line charges (running perpendicular to the screen). It has a very easy user interface and is suitable for high school or college introductory courses. (Unless you're on a pre-OSX Mac, use the EField applet instead of this program.)
• B-Field is similar to E-Field but shows the magnetic field of an arbitrary arrangement of infinite wires running perpendicular to the screen.
• Radiation draws and animates the electric field lines around an accelerated point charge undergoing various motions, as described here. This program was created by Blas Cabrera, Sha Xin Wei, and Jim Terman; it is now in the public domain. Click here to download this program (.hqx format, 40k). (Unless you're on a pre-OSX Mac, use the new Radiation Applet instead of this old program.)

• Fourier analyzes a user-drawn wave form (within a finite interval) into its first 15 Fourier components, or synthesizes a wave form from user-specified coefficients. For a modern web version see Wave Builder.
• Q-Wave is similar to Fourier, but can analyze a wavefunction using any of three different sets of basis functions, corresponding to box, harmonic oscillator, and linear potential energy functions. For a modern web version see Wave Builder.
• Schrodinger animates the time dependence of a wavefunction built from the first six basis functions for either the box or harmonic oscillator potential. (Unless you're on a pre-OSX Mac, use the new Quantum Square Well and Quantum Harmonic Oscillator simulations instead.)

• Quantum1D is a bare-bones animation (with no user interface) of one-dimensional scattering of a wavepacket from a step potential. (Unless you're on a pre-OSX Mac, use the new Quantum Barrier Scattering simulation instead.)
• Spins allows the user to link together Stern-Gerlach devices to explore the mysteries of quantum mechanics for a system that is mathematically very simple. This program is described in AJP 61, 798-805 (1993), arXiv:1502.07036. Here is a version for the modern web. There is also a Java version created by David McIntyre of Oregon State University.

Last modified on 5 March 2017.