The EJS 2D Ising model displays a lattice of spins. You can change the lattice size, temperature, and external magnetic field. You can modify this simulation if you have Ejs installed by right-clicking within the plot and selecting “Open Ejs Model” from the pop-up menu item. The 2D-Ising model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_stp_Ising2D.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. Ejs is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models. Additional Ejs models are available. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or Ejs.

This web site has links to the materials for the 2006 Physics Quest middle school competition, hosted by the APS. The 2006 lesson covers static electricity, conductors and insulators, heat, and optics. These are connected to the life and science of Benjamin Franklin. The experiments are designed for small groups in a classroom or after school setting. Each of the experiments gives students a clue to solve the mystery.

This guide provides curricular resources for study of the history and science of the quest for ever colder temperature. Designed for teachers and informal educators of middle school students. this guide offers hands-on demonstrations, questions to encourage student participation, suggestions for class activities, and ways to encourage students to continue studying the science. Topics include low-temperature physics and the impact of technologies such as air conditioning, refrigeration and liquefied gases. This material is related to a two-part public broadcasting special, Absolute Zero, produced by Meridian Productions and Windfall Films. Absolute Zero is underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is based largely on Tom Shachtman’s acclaimed book, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold.

This guide provides recommendations for curricular modules on low temperature physics. Designed for teachers and informal educators of middle school students. this guide complements the Absolute Zero Community Education Outreach Guide. Suggestions on leading discussions, increasing student participation, and the use of inquiry are included. This material is related to a two-part public broadcasting special, Absolute Zero, produced by Meridian Productions and Windfall Films. Absolute Zero is underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is based largely on Tom Shachtman’s acclaimed book, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold.

The Acid Strong Base Titrations model show how to estimate the concentration of the acid in a given sample. If one follows the titration by a visual indicator, the neutralization is detected through a sudden change of that indicator color. This model shows the titration curve as a strong monofunctional base (sodium hydroxide, for example), is added to an aqueous solution of a monoprotic acid. The Acid Strong Base Titrations model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the jar file will run the program if Java is installed. You can modify this simulation if you have EJS installed by right-clicking within the map and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item.

Although the basic theories of thermodynamics are adequately covered by a number of existing texts, there is little literature that addresses more advanced topics. In this comprehensive work the author redresses this balance, drawing on his twenty-five years of experience of teaching thermodynamics at undergraduate and postgraduate level, to produce a definitive text to cover thoroughly, advanced syllabuses. The book introduces the basic concepts which apply over the whole range of new technologies, considering: a new approach to cycles, enabling their irreversibility to be taken into account; a detailed study of combustion to show how the chemical energy in a fuel is converted into thermal energy and emissions; an analysis of fuel cells to give an understanding of the direct conversion of chemical energy to electrical power; a detailed study of property relationships to enable more sophisticated analyses to be made of both high and low temperature plant and irreversible thermodynamics, whose principles might hold a key to new ways of efficiently covering energy to power (e.g. solar energy, fuel cells). Worked examples are included in most of the chapters, followed by exercises with solutions. By developing thermodynamics from an explicitly equilibrium perspective, showing how all systems attempt to reach a state of equilibrium, and the effects of these systems when they cannot, the result is an unparalleled insight into the more advanced considerations when converting any form of energy into power, that will prove invaluable to students and professional engineers of all disciplines.

The EjsS Asset Exchange Model Package contains JavaScript models to investigate the the transfer of wealth in a simple economic model consisting of N buyers and sellers, known as agents, who spend their time buying and selling goods at a yard sale. In this economic model, two agents A and B are chosen at random and goods are exchanged. If the price of the item is correct, neither agent gains or looses wealth but this is uninteresting and unrealistic. In a realistic transaction an agent can either pay too much or get a bargain so that one agent becomes slightly richer while the other agent becomes poorer. What happens to the wealth of agent wA if this process is repeated many times and if we assume that the agent receiving the bargain is chosen at random so that sometimes agent A gains and sometimes agent A looses in the transaction. In other words, neither agent is always shrewd or always gullible so that all agents have an equal chance of getting rich. Does this model produce an equitable distribution of wealth? The EjsS Asset Exchange Model Package was developed using the Easy Java/JavaScript Simulations (EjsS) version 5 authoring tool. Although EjsS is a Java program, it can create stand alone JavaScript programs that run in almost any PC or tablet.

This site published by the British Broadcasting Corporation explains how heat energy is transferred by the processes of radiation, conduction, and convection. It is written in "bite-size" pieces so that adolescent learners can grasp the concepts more easily and connect information with prior knowledge. Each page is supplemented with multiple images and animations.

The Binomial Coefficient model displays the number of ways k objects can be chosen from among n objects when order is irrelevant.   This number is known as a binomial coefficient and can be used to predict the the flipping of n coins with equal probability of heads and tails. The Binomial Coefficient model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_stp_BinomialCoefficient.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.

The EJS Binomial Distribution Model calculates the binomial distribution. You can change the number of trials and probability. You can modify this simulation if you have Ejs installed by right-clicking within the plot and selecting “Open Ejs Model” from the pop-up menu item. The Binomial Distribution Model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_stp_BinomialDistribution.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. Ejs is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models. Additional Ejs models are available. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or Ejs.

The basic goal of this experiment is the determination of the solar surface temperature from the relative intensities of the spectrum sampled at a number of wavelengths from 450 to 880 nm. The sampling is determined by a set of broadband interference filters that modulate the light intensity measured by the photocurrent in a reverse biased silicon diode. If the detailed characteristics of the filters and photodiode were all initially well known, a single set of measurements of sunlight through the filter set would suffice. In the absence of such information, the light from a tungsten lamp at different temperatures will be used to establish the appropriate calibrations. In addition, sunlight is also reddened by the atmosphere, which differentially absorbs the blue end of the spectrum. This effect can be corrected by measuring the spectral intensities as a function of zenith angle. Finally, least squares techniques determine the solar temperature by modeling the data with the Planck spectral distribution function. The experimental setup was developed by Professor Carl Akerlof at The University of Michigan. The experiment was performed during the Blackbody Radiation and the Solar Surface Temperature workshop at the 2009 Topical Conference on Advanced Laboratories.

The Boltzmann Distribution From A Microcanonical Ensemble Model allows students and instructors to explore why the Boltzmann distribution has its characteristic exponential shape. In this model, particles have only one degree of freedom–the energy to move in one dimension. Further, the density of accessible states is chosen to be uniform –i.e. each state is equally probable. Starting with a system of N=2 particles, you are able to generate simple empirical results for the distribution of energies among the individual particles. Then you can observe how this distribution changes with increasing N, gradually approaching the Boltzmann distribution. The Boltzmann Distribution From A Microcanonical Ensemble Model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_fmu_BoltzmannDistribution_PartitioningEnergy.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. You can modify this simulation if you have EJS installed by right-clicking within the map and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item.

The Boltzmann Machine Model simulates a ping-pong ball moving around on two flat surfaces that are connected by a ramp. This ball is given occasional random "kicks" which cause the ball to move unpredictably. Remarkably, this simple system is a macroscopic example of a two-level system* that obeys the Boltzmann distribution function. The Boltzmann distribution is typically associated with a microscopic system in contact with a heat bath; but in this case, the system is macroscopic and easy to visualize, and the random kicks serve the role of the heat bath. In Ref. 1, "Squiggle Balls" were used to produce the kicks for the Boltzmann Machine experiment, whereas in this simulation we use randomly generated velocities to produce the kicks. The advantage to using this simulation (as opposed to the experiment) is that parameters can be manipulated, and results can be obtained, much more quickly and easily. The Boltzmann Machine Model was developed using the Easy Java/JavaScript Simulations (EjsS) modeling tool version 5. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_fmu_BoltzmannMachine.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. You can modify this simulation if you have EJS installed by right-clicking within the map and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item. *This is a “two-level” system in the sense that there are two different values of potential energy: the value on the top surface and the value on the bottom surface. 1. J. J. Prentis, American Journal of Physics 68, 1073 (2000). This work was supported in part by NSF-TUES grant DUE-1140034.

The Brute Force Microstates model considers an isolated system consisting of N identical, non-interacting quantum particles. We wish to determine the total number of system microstates accessible to the system with energy E and hence the entropy.   For distinguishable particles, the simplest brute force method that can be devised involves N nested loops, each over the list of single particle energy levels. This results in a computational scheme that scales exponentially with the system size. Still, this is an instructive method to apply because it shows the rapid increase in the number of microstates for moderate N, and the corresponding exponential increase in computational time. The model displays the computation time as users to vary the number of particles N and the total energy E. The Brute Force Microstates model was developed by Wolfgang Christian, Trisha Salagaram, and Nithaya Chetty using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_stp_BruteForceMicrostates.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.

Investigating candle flames in microgravity can be done as either a demonstration or an activity. "Student reader" pages give background information about candle flames in microgravity. Student worksheets may be used to assess student learning.

The EJS Cellular Automata (Rule 90) model displays a lattice with any one of a finite number of states which are updated synchronously in discrete time steps according to a local (nearby neighbor) rule. Rule 90 is a specific nearby neighbor rule following the classification scheme developed by Stephen Wolfram that produces a Pascal triangle mod 2 (Sierpinski gasket) if there is a single initial cell with a value of one. You can modify this simulation if you have Ejs installed by right-clicking within the plot and selecting “Open Ejs Model” from the pop-up menu item. The Cellular Automata (Rule 90) model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_ms_explicit_Automata1DRule90.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. Ejs is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models. Additional Ejs models are available. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or Ejs.

The EJS Cellular Automata Rules Model shows a spatial lattice which can have any one of a finite number of states and which are updated synchronously in discrete time steps according to a local (nearby neighbor) rule. You can change the lattice size, pick different rules (0 to 255 as classified by Stephen Wolfram), and choose different initial starting conditions (toggle a cell on and off by clicking on a lattice site). You can modify this simulation if you have Ejs installed by right-clicking within the plot and selecting “Open Ejs Model” from the pop-up menu item. The Cellular Automata Rules model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_ms_explicit_Automata1DRules.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. Ejs is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models. Additional Ejs models are available. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or Ejs.

Structure of solids, liquids and gases at the molecular level is shown in this animation.

The Chemical Potentials by Monte Carlo Simulations Model performs canonical (NVT) and isothermal-isobaric (NPT) Monte Carlo simulations focusing the calculation of chemical potentials, for the fluid phases of the Lennard-Jones system, by using the virtual particle insertion method of Widom. Although it can not determine phase-equilibrium directly, the gas-liquid line can be approached as illustrated in the included case study. The model paves the way to uVT and Gibbs Ensemble simulations, and shows the limitation of Widom's method at high fluid densities. The Chemical Potentials by Monte Carlo Simulations Model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the jar file will run the program if Java is installed. You can modify this simulation if you have EJS installed by right-clicking within the map and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item.

The EJS Coin Flip Equilibrium model simulates a a simple system of N coins arranged in ordered rows. The coins all begin heads up. At each step of the simulation one or more coins are chosen at random and flipped over. Separate windows show the set of coins, a plot of the number of heads/tails after each step, the entropy of the system after each step, and a histogram of the occurrences of a given number of heads. The user can change the number of coins and the number of coins flipped at each step of the simulation. A user can modify this simulation if EJS is installed locally by right-clicking within the plot and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item. EJS Coin Flip Equilibrium model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_CoinFlip.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. EJS is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models. Additional EJS models are available. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or EJS.