-------------------------------------------- Physics collisions Oblique collisions, gas laws, restitution version 1.1 1998 Kevin Tam: kevin.tam@bigfoot.com -------------------------------------------- ------------------------ HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT ------------------------ To view Readme.txt on screen in Notepad enable word wrap. You may wish to read the installation section before proceeding. ------------ INTRODUCTION ------------ This is a oblique collisions simulator of particles. It shows balls that bounce around the screen and perform oblique collisions. As a result, it also provides a good simulation of the ideal gas laws. The volume can be changed by changing the window size. Temperature can be changed by increasing their kinetic energy. Density can be changed by adding balls. There are other features as well such as changing the restitution of the balls' collisions or changing properties such as the mass of individual balls. -------- CONTENTS -------- INSTALLATION TIPS AND TRICKS KNOWN ISSUES ABOUT THE AUTHOR REVISION HISTORY ---------------------- INSTALLATION ============ Run the self-extracting package to extract the files to a directory. To run the program, simply run Physics.exe. If you wish you can create a shortcut to this program on the desktop or start menu. To reduce download time, I did not include an uninstall program. However, to uninstall, simply remove the directory it was installed to and delete Physics.ini from your C:\Windows or equivalent directory. This removes all traces of the program. This application is freeware and the installation program is freely distributable. TIPS AND TRICKS =============== Here are some things to try with the simulation: Try changing all gas variables in pV=nRT to see if the gas constant remains constant. In my simulations it remains around 1600. Try reducing the volume significantly. You may find the gas constant increase because the particles of gas becoming large enough to throw of one of the assumptions of the ideal gas model that particles of gas must be small compared to their container You can simulate brownian motion. Make one particle heavier than all the others around it (about 15 times heavier) and put its velocities to 0. Watch that heavy particle get bombarded randomly Try introducing gravity and watch to see if energy remains conserved: GPE + KE = Total. Then reduce the coefficient of restitution below 1 to watch the energy fall. Sometimes, the balls appear to become a liquid then a solid as their kinetic energy falls. KNOWN ISSUES ================ There is a small issue after first release. When selecting NEW on the menu or loading a scenario, the balls do not appear on the screen until the simulation is started. It is recommended that balls are only added when the simulation is started. Otherwise, you get balls created on top of each other at the top left corner. ABOUT THE AUTHOR ================ I am currently a student in England. My programming is a hobby of mine and this simulator was originally designed to simulate oblique collisions for a physics project. However, its capabilities in demonstrating other areas of physics was expanded. If you found the program useful or there are any problems, you can email me at kevin.tam@bigfoot.com REVISION HISTORY ================ Version 1.1 This was a total rewrite of the program in C++ to maximise speed and increase the flexibilty of the program by allowing saving of scenarios and multithreading to improve the user interface. Version 1.0 The first version was written in Visual Basic using highly optimised animation techniques and coding to achieve smooth animation