Circuit simulator - SimOhm - now available

A fourth simulation product SimOhm is now available. SimOhm allows modeling and simulation of circuits such as the Wheatstone bridge shown below.

Currently, SimOhm support resistors and cells. Linear as well as parallel circuits can be modeled and simulated. Sliders are provided to vary resistances and cell voltages. To simulate, simply click on the play icon. Then click on the probe icon to the left of the play icon and move the mouse pointer over various circuit elements to view currents, voltages etc. throughout the circuit. The model shown above can be accessed by clicking here.

Collaborative Simulation at Fremont High School in Northern California

Teaching a class is hard work, regardless of whether there are 6 students in the class or 60. As well it should be - one is dealing with brains, the most complex objects in the universe. So to experiment with new tools and techniques in the classroom takes courage and vision. At the same time, without experimentation there would be no innovation. Kudos to Mike Amarillas of Fremont High School for developing an innovative collaborative simulation activity for his 150 students to engage with the concept of elasticity and collisions. See his one page assignment below.


Students used 20 mac computers in groups of 2 or 3 and built total of 80 different models in one day., Many of these models were amazing. It was clear from playing with these models that students were looking at the world through the lens of physics concepts they had learned. Click here to see of those models.

Importing images into your simulations

Now you can import images from the web into your SimNewton models and attach them to particles or the background. Images make is much easier to understand exactly what phenomenon is being modeled. Here is a simple model of a monkey swinging from a tree branch:

Choosing controls in your published simulations

We just added a Publisher icon to SimNewton which allows users to select which toolbar icons, sliders and checkboxes are presented to the viewer when he or she opens a simulation from the repository. The following video explains how to use this feature:

SimNewton: The perfect way to embed examples in your website.

Attention all physics teachers! Looking for a fun way to spice up classical mechanics? If so, take a look at SimNewton! SimNewton is the easiest way to view simulations YOU make from anywhere! All you need is a Google or Yahoo mail account to start making your own simulations?

Too busy to make your own? Check out our public models at www.siminsights.com and see how our simulations can help you!


You probably won't be convinced from just our voice, though. How about seeing our examples for yourself? We've made models that demonstrate examples from California's high school physics curriculum. Check out for yourself how you can use our simulations to help you teach!

You can even embed our simulations into your own blogs, notes, or wherever else you may need them! Play around with the model of a beam below!

Online game based learning of physics concepts

We are developing a set of educational self-paced stand-alone web-based games to help students learn basic physics concepts. These games integrate visual instructions with scientific inquiry pedagogy. The games are  designed to help students develop scientific reasoning skills and construct physics knowledge using the scientific inquiry approach.

Last semester we tested one of our games in an introductory physics class in a community college. The goal of this wave mechanics focused game was to investigate concepts of period, wavelength, frequency and wave speed as well as the relations between those concepts. Students were asked to complete the game and fill a survey as a homework assignment prior to the lecture on wave mechanics. All students received a full score regardless of the performance in the game. Click here to see a high school student playing the wave game and here to play the game yourself.


Twenty students played the game and filled the survey. Although half of them had taken a physics course before, most of them had none or very little knowledge of wave mechanics concepts. Most of the students were able to complete all four levels in the game completely, spending on average 24 minutes. The figure below shows the survey results.

The survey showed that most of the students significantly improved their understanding of the concepts. It is noteworthy that attitude questions are typically not very trustworthy because of general willingness of students to please the teacher. Nevertheless many students gave positive comments and constructive suggestions on improving the game.

SimNewton Helps Students Think Like Engineers and Scientists

Engineers and scientists look at systems from many viewpoints. They look at images, videos, charts and text. These views together allow the professional to understand the system much better than any single view would. Software products that enable multiple views cost upto tens of thousands of dollars and take considerable effort to master. Jobs that require facility with such software are often the highest paid in the company and those workers are held in high esteem.

So it makes sense to try to integrate similar software in the curriculum at all levels of education, to prepare students to tackle complex problems using powerful software. This is the idea behind SimNewton - to let students work and think like scientists by looking at real world systems from many viewpoints - as shown in the figure below.



The figure shows a bouncing ball being simulated in SimNewton which provides four different views to students: animation, text and images, YouTube video and charts. Together these views allow the student to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of a bouncing ball than would be possible with just one of the views.

SimNewton is free for six months and is simple to learn, as is evident from the following brief instructions that were provided to students at the first SimNewton pilot conducted at Fremont High School near San Francisco last May:

1. Open the Safari Browser: Finder Face > Applications > Safari
2. Go to www.siminsights.com
3. Click on the orange button in the top right: “Sign In”
4. Click on a type of account (Google or Yahoo)
5. Enter your log in information
6. Click on “New” to make a model

Thats it! There is no users manual, reference guide or FAQ list. The students appreciated the simplicity of SimNewton. One student wrote:

"What my group and I liked about SimNewton was its easy-to-use ability. It is simple and efficient..."
-Ben A.

Please visit www.siminsights.com for more student quotes and try out SimNewton yourself.

Letting Others Play with Your Simulations

There are many many simulations of interesting systems sitting on a hard drive, not being used by anyone. This is not because the creator wants to keep the simulations a secret, but because there is no easy way to share them with others. SimNewton makes sharing as easy as it should be.

Following is an interactive lumped parameter model of a cantilever beam built using SimNewton. Go ahead and click the Play icon and the simulation starts, just like a YouTube video, with one key difference: you can interact with the simulation as it runs, using your mouse. Remember to turn up your volume to hear the sounds.



For more such models, please visit our repository.

SimNewton used by high school seniors for exploring mechanics concepts

Last week marked the end of a month long research class at Pomona College. Part of the Pomona Academy for Youth Success (PAYS), the class provided students an authentic computational research experience . Starting with only a brief introduction to SimNewton, the team of five students explored advanced concepts such as stability, buckling and resonance. They then put their understanding to use in evaluating various bridge designs (see poster). The class met four times a week for two hours each day.

Collaborative simulations

A simulation takes too much effort to keep it to yourself. So its not surprising that most people share their simulations and the insights they afford. This sharing happens through conversations, meetings and presentations, but not through the browser because there is no Google Docs for simulations. At SimInsights, we are trying to change that.

We are working to enable collaborative simulations in the browser. We expect that this will facilitate meaningful discussions about rich behaviors that simulations almost always exhibit. We expect that this capability will help learning at all levels.

Please visit www.siminsights.com to experience our products.