What is the form of a planetary orbit? The astronomers from Ptolemy to Copernicus had a clear (but wrong) answer to this question: A planet moves on a circle or at least on an orbit which can be explained by superposition of circular motions.
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Circular motion plays an important role in nature and technology. So, the planets move on (approximately) circular orbits around the sun.
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This app simulates a well known experiment which demonstrates the conservation of momentum and energy.
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This HTML5 app deals with the extreme cases of a collision process illustrated by two wagons: For an elastic collision it is characteristic that the sum of the kinetic energies of the involved bodies is constant.
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This HTML5 app shows the motion of a projectile. You can vary (within certain limits) the values of initial height, initial speed, angle of inclination, mass and gravitational acceleration. The effect of air resistance is neglected.
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This app demonstrates a motion on an inclined plane with constant velocity and the corresponding forces.
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You can raise or lower the load with the mouse. If you click on the mouse button, a spring balance will appear showing the tension in the string. You can change the weight of the load and the hanging pulley(s) by using the appropriate boxes.
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When solving physics problems, it is often helpful to replace one force by a combination of two forces with given directions. Of course, these two forces must be equivalent to the given one. This means that their vector sum must agree with the given force.
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This app deals with forces exerted on a body (assumed as point-sized). You can vary the number of single forces by using the choice box at the ride side.
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