The following work is supported by the NSF, grant MDR-91-55708.
MiniMouseLab is a simplified version of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics full-featured kinematics software
called MouseLab.
MiniMouseLab was written by Freeman Deutsch.
MouseLab, is an innovative, highly graphical, interactive program that enables users to gain an intuitive feeling for the relationships between several fundamental physical concepts: displacement, velocity, and acceleration. The program uses the mouse to graphically input data or move virtual objects on screen, freeing the user from the additional hardware required by traditional microcomputer-based physics labs. As the user moves the virtual object on screen, the program calculates and displays graphically all derivatives and integrals of motion simultaneously. The user can also input with the mouse a time history of displacement or velocity or acceleration; Mouselab will then calculate the other two functions. The user can replay the mouse's motion, stopping and starting it at will.
MouseLab allows students to learn by exploration and discovery rather than by formal manipulation of equations. Students learn at their own pace, develop their own insights, and can go to MouseLab to test their predictions. MouseLab was awarded First Prize in the fifth annual competition sponsored by Computers in Physics, a publication of the American Institute of Physics.
Physics Academic Software
Box 8202
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8202
(919) 515-7447 Information
(800) 955-8275 Ordering
Email: pas@ncsu.edu
Fax: (919) 515-2682
Web: http://www.aip.org/pas/
cost $100, single copy
cost $250, 10-copy Lab pack
cost $400, high school site license
PC/MAC