Self-executing zip of the entire workshop (one click to download everything)[1.5 mb]

• Simple things involved in making graphs come out right
• Scroll bars (sliders)
• How to insert a scroll bar
• A simple starting exercise with sliders, fitting a straight line by eye
• Examples using of scroll bars (click to download)
• Helmholtz coils (user adjusts the distance between coils with a slider)
• Adjustable drag on a pendulum via a scroll bar
• Adjusting frequency to locate 1-D acoustic resonances
• Using sliders to fit a curve (this sheet fits a lorentzian)
• Animation
• Superior animation using a scroll bar (better than what follows)
• Instructions for setting up an animation of Monkey and Hunter
• Animation of a pulse travelling to the right or left (click to download)
• Detailed instructions on building a pulse animation with enhancements
• Pulse animation with enhancements (click to download)
• Animation of monkey and hunter (click to download)
• Travelling and standing waves (click to download)
• Using VB to time an animation, and control the behavior of a graph (click to download)
• Runge-Kutta 2nd order integration examples
• Instructions for simple integration, as might be done using Simpson's rule
• Spreadsheet for simple integration (as per instructions above; click to download)
• Adjustable drag on a pendulum via a scroll bar (click to download)
• Acoustic resonance paper (after I.D. Johnston), discussing theory and RK2
• Adjusting frequency to locate 1-D acoustic resonances (click to download)
• Driven inverted ('gravity-defying') pendulum sheet (see TPT September 2002; click to download)
• Integration of r and theta vs t for 2 masses connected by a string, one on a frictionless tabletop, one hanging through a hole in the center of the table. A slider controls the time step, letting you see when the numerical roundoff errors become too large. (click to download)
• Some output and comments about the previous (tabletop) spreadsheet
• The TREBUCHET was the premier siege engine from about 1300 to 1500. This sheet models and integrates the trebuchet motion during launch. A slider (scroll bar) lets one animate the launch (just hold the mouse down in the open slider area, or on the triangle at the end). It also calculates the range x(hit) if the projectile were to be launched at a particular point in the motion (neglecting air resistance).
• Relaxation Methods for Laplace's equation
• Instructions for simple 2-D parallel-plate capacitor
• Theory of relaxation for 1-D and  2-D in rectangular coordinates
• Theory for cylindrical coordinates with no phi dependence
• Example: ultra-simple 2-d parallel-plate capacitor
• Use of Solver for fitting a curve or satisfying a condition
• Suggestions for using Solver to meet a simple condition and to solve radioactive decay data
• Radioactive silver decay data (just data; ready to be fitted by solver)
• Fit of data with exponentials by eye
• Decay data is plotted along with the 'fit' data and the eye has been used to judge what is best
• Solver fit of data (this is a sheet where solver was used to fit the data above)
• This sheet needs to have solver re-run. It's excellent on one decay constant, but not the other.
• Visual Basic
• Starting off using Visual Basic in Excel
• Bring up the control panel
• Add a scroll bar
• Add a label
• See the visual basic code underneath the label
• Examine several segments of sample visual basic code
• A text file showing VB help examples on loops and conditionals
• Demo program with simple arithmetic
• Use labels with code underneath to zero, increment, and double a column of values
• Using VB to time an animation, and control the behavior of a graph
• A ball moving right at constant V, then left at constant V is controlled by VB code
• A time delay is put in, to slow things down if they run too fast
• Detailed instructions on building a pulse animation with enhancements
• A label (button) is used to re-zero the time
• A slider (scroll bar) is used to change the width of the pulse
• Pulse animation with enhancements (click to download)
• RK2 calculation 'underneath' in VB; animated graphs of a collision (click to download)
• The top level shows two graphs, two balls moving and the KE of each
• VB is changing the time underneath, and numerically integrating, feeding data up to the sheet
• Locate acoustic resonances in a pipe (with or without holes) using VB
• The top of the sheet calculates final pressure in the pipe;
• VB underneath creates a graph of final pressure vs. frequency over a designated frequency range
• Ray diagrams in a spreadsheet