Touch it, change it, see it

29 simulations

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  Science·Middle school

  Phases of the Moon

  Move the Moon around the Earth and see how much of its sunlit half we can see from here.

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  Science·Middle school

  Seasons: tilt and the angle of light

  Change the date and the latitude: how does the axial tilt change the angle of sunlight and the length of the day?

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  Science·Middle school

  Light’s path through the air

  Lower the lamp: air scatters blue light far more than red, giving a blue sky at noon and a red Sun at dusk.

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  Science·Middle school

  Series and parallel circuits

  The same bulbs on two boards: close a switch, remove a bulb and measure how the current changes in series and parallel.

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  Science·Middle school

  Spring balance

  Hang masses on the hook, read how far the spring stretches and how many newtons it shows; compare three springs.

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  Science·Middle school

  Same heat, different temperature

  Heat different masses with the same amount of heat: the joules are equal, the thermometer readings are not.

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  Science·Middle school

  The leaf factory

  Set the light and the carbon dioxide, and see that whichever is scarcest sets the pace of photosynthesis.

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  Science·Middle school

  The square-cube law

  Scale a model up k times: its surface grows k², its weight k³. At what size do the legs break, and why are elephant legs so thick?

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  Mathematics·Middle school

  The divided water tank

  Make the tank’s parts finer: the water stays put while the fraction’s name changes. See equivalent fractions.

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  Mathematics·Middle school

  The gearbox

  Change the number of teeth: teeth and turns are inversely proportional, and their product stays the same.

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  Mathematics·Middle school

  Exponential growth: the lily pond

  If the leaves double every day, on which day is the pond half full? Compare linear, exponential and logistic growth side by side.

• Free account needed

  Technology and Engineering·Middle school

  Workshop: circuits, experiments and Arduino

  Build and measure your own circuit on an empty bench, run experiments and plot them, program an Arduino with blocks. Your projects are saved to your account.

• 3D lab

  Technology and Engineering·High school

  Robot arm lab

  Turn a 6-axis robot arm in 3D, reach for targets and test inverse kinematics in two short tries.

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  Technology and Engineering·Middle school

  Inside the Elephant Clock

  How does the sinking bowl in al-Jazari’s Elephant Clock measure half an hour? Scrub through time and follow it.

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  Technology and Engineering·Middle school

  Hydraulic press

  Pump the lever: the pressure on the small piston passes unchanged to the big one, and the force grows.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  The journey of packets

  Split a message into packets and send it; cut a line and watch the routers deliver them another way.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  Brushed DC motor

  Set the voltage and the brake; in slow motion, watch the commutator reverse the current every half turn.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  The refrigeration cycle of a fridge

  The refrigerant boils at low pressure in the freezer and takes in heat, then condenses at the back and gives it off.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  A six-axis robot arm

  Turn the joints one by one and follow forward kinematics: where the gripper tip ends up, worked out from the angles.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  A three-speed gearbox

  Change gear: as the gear ratio grows, the output slows down but the torque rises; the power stays the same.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  Processor, memory and cache

  Run a small program step by step and see how long the processor waits for data from the cache and from memory.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  Inside the four strokes

  Turn the crankshaft and follow the piston and valves through intake, compression, power and exhaust.

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  Technology and Engineering·High school

  Solar panel

  Move the sun and the panel: how do the angle of the light and a single shaded cell change the panel’s power?

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  Experiments·High school and university

  The gold foil experiment

  Fire alpha particles at gold foil; swing the detector, count the ones that bounce back and trace the nucleus.

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  Experiments·High school and university

  Millikan’s oil drop experiment

  Adjust the voltage, hold the drop still in the microscope and work out the charge of the electron yourself.

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  Experiments·High school and university

  Photoelectric tube

  Change the wavelength, the intensity and the metal: it is the photon’s energy, not the intensity, that frees electrons.

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  Experiments·High school

  Faraday’s magnet and coil experiment

  Move the magnet in the coil: the galvanometer swings while the flux changes, and the current stops when the magnet stops.

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  Experiments·High school

  Foucault pendulum

  Pick a latitude and swing the pendulum: its plane slowly turns, the pins fall and the Earth’s rotation shows itself.

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  Experiments·High school and university

  Young’s double-slit experiment

  Change the wavelength, the slit spacing and the screen distance, and measure how the interference fringes spread.