Classical Mechanics   Resource Packet

Contents (with links) of the Classical Mechanics Resource Packet by Topic

Maple Classical Mechanics Activities
(Individual Maple files are downloadable here)

Rigid Body Rotations Animated in Maple

'Active Learning' suggested classroom activities

Suggested Activities from the CUPS Project

Self-extracting Maple R3 files for PC. Zipped Maple files. (Convertible to Mac).	Self-extracting Maple R4 files for PC. Zipped Maple files. (Convertible to Mac).
Self-extracting Mathematica files for PC. Zipped Mathematica files. (Convertible to Mac).	Self-extracting spreadsheet (Excel) file. Zipped spreadsheet (Excel) file.

These run reliably under Windows 95 if the following precautions are taken

Download both the executable file and the batch file. (The batch launches the executable.)
Save both in a directory whose name is 8 characters or less.
Double-click the batch file (not the executable) to launch the DOS program.

  Driven inverted pendulum. (User controls frequency, amplitude of vertical drive for an inverted pendulum. At a high enough combination of amplitude and frequency, and the right phasing, the inverted pendulum will oscillate upside down, drive from below.)
[Executable invpend.EXE ]   [Batch invpend.bat ]

  Rigid body motion under no torque. (This shows the motion of a rigid body whose dimensions are specified by the user, and whose initial angular momenta are also user-specified. It shows the orbit in angular momentum space as the intersection of an ellipsoid and a sphere, letting one see where stable motions will occur. It also animates the motion of the body itself, showing both angular momentum vector L and angular velocity. These two vectors are simultaneously represented in xyz space where L is constant, and 123 (body-axis space).)
[Executable rigid.EXE ]   [Batch rigid.bat ]

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