Newtonian Mechanics Tutor

Software	OO language with good GUI tools, or a game engine
Covers	Object-oriented development, interface design
Skills Required	Programming, good grasp of basic mechanics (physics / applied maths), interest in psychology of learning
Challenge	Conceptual ?? Technical ??? Programming ???

Brief Description

The aim of this project is to develop a system to teach aspects of basic Newtonian mechanics, to support learning of early secondary school physics, and/or GCSE-level physics, and/or A-level or equivalent physics and applied maths, depending on what you decide to include.

The system should show accurate animations of physical systems, such as colliding snooker balls or Gallileo's rolling balls down an inclined plane experiment, and enable the users to manipulate parameters to change the behaviour of the system, such as the mass of a ball or the acceleration due to gravity (dependent on the size and mass of the planet you're on), and answer questions about how it will behave.

The idea is to get users to relate basic physical principles and equations to what they see, so that they develop an intuitive understanding of the systems that matches a correct theoretical understanding of what's going on. Ideally the system should both show the layout and behaviour of the system and relevant numerical parameters.

Variants

A good way to turn this into a game might encourage people to play with it longer. If the game incentivises trying hard to predict what will happen, it will help people develop correct expectations for how the system will behave.

A system for relatively advanced users could get them to do the maths needed to work out the right answers, and give them varying degrees of help.

The system could be used to get people to try their hand at scientific discovery, by playing with the parameters of a physical system to find the patterns in how it behaves and trying to work out what the rules are that govern it.

The system could aim to teach people about the differences between what really happens in some situations (like a marble falling off a table), and what people think happens (until they've learned and internalized basic Newtonian physics. These beliefs often have an uncanny resemblance to pre-Newtonian beliefs about motion. (If curious, look up 'Intuitive physics'.)

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