EOE-004 Fast tracks

Extreme physics data and simulations (e.g. of high speeds and small sizes), delivered modeling-workshop style with self-discovery rather than rote-learning the goal, can provide explorers of any age with clues to how science adapts to new phenomena. In particular, high speed airtrack simulations offer clues to relativistically informed patterns of thought (e.g. local rather than global time), and data for non-trivial experiments describing motion at any speed. They are also very much in the tradition of Galileo's experimental studies of acceleration e.g. done by rolling things down inclined planes and dropping things off of leaning towers. To experimentally explore relativistic effects in real or imaginary worlds, of course, simulators might come in handy.

For example, with a compressable spring plus a fast clock-equipped glider and timer gate-pair, Minkowski's spacetime version of Pythagoras' theorem (the flat-space metric equation) is there to be found. With a second glider, anyspeed expressions for momentum and kinetic energy emerge experimentally as well. 

• • Our fast track java applet. Note that Mozilla FireFox supports Java (as of 5 Nov 2015) but Google Chrome no longer does. Hence a JS/HTML5 version is probably about due. Any volunteers?

References:

• • P. Fraundorf (2001) "An experience model for anyspeed motion", physics/0109030 (xxx.arxiv.org e-print archive) related webnotes.