[Visualpython-users] VPython in physics

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

The current (double) issue of the American Journal of Physics, published 
by the American Association of Physics Teachers, is devoted to 
computation in the college physics curriculum, reflecting the growing 
importance of computation as co-equal with theory in experiment. VPython 
is represented significantly in two articles, one by Ruth Chabay and me 
on computation in the introductory (freshman) physics course taken by 
engineering and science students, and one by Andy Buller, Roger Fearick, 
and colleagues at the University of Capetown, on an interesting 
computational project in the introductory course for physics majors in 
which students model the motion of a disk-shaped spacecraft with a 
thruster at the rim that pushes tangentially.

The journal issue is connected to an upcoming summer Gordon Research 
Conference on computation in the physics curriculum, for which the 
following URL is the announcement:

http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2008&program=physres

Bruce Sherwood