Analyzing dynamic pendulum motion in an interactive online environment using flash

Abstract

A pendulum 'engine' with dynamic parameters can be created and pendulum functions manipulated and analyzed using interactive elements in Flash. The effects of changing the damping (convergence) properties, initial release angle and initial velocity conditions can be explored. The motions then can be digitized using the Flash Digitizer 1.1, exported and graphed. The powerful properties of actionscripting, coupled with the flexible interactivity of the Flash environment, allows for attractive and mathematically driven Flash movies. Along with the accessibility and interactive nature of the Web, and by contextualizing the history and mathematical applications of pendulum motions, this lesson becomes teacher and student-friendly for physics and mathematics classrooms. © 2005 Springer.