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
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