PhET is an online series of physics, chemistry and other science simulators made by the University of Colorado. What does PhET stand for? Good question. I couldn’t find it anywhere, not even on the About PhEt page. Sheesh, eggheads… They have two physics simulators using skateboards. The simulations run in Java, which can be a pain in the butt depending on your browser and OS, but some run in the browser via HTML5. The screen capture above is from Energy Skate Park, and yes it is possible to make the loop. You can toggle various graphing functions to show energy types in proportion to each other. Tackling two stereotypes/inequities at once, the main figure in the HTML5 version of Skatepark Basics is female, proving that girls are good at science and skateboarding!
– Thanks to Tallboycan for the tip.
1 comment
Sean Gates
“The name “PhET” was originally an acronym for “Physics Education Technology.” However, the PhET site now includes simulations about many other subjects besides physics, so the acronym is too limited. The PhET team decided to keep the name because it is so widely recognized, but now it’s just a name that doesn’t stand for anything.”
LINK