Day 42: Coulomb’s Law Computational Model

Today, AP Physics 2 students started developing their a computational model for Coulomb’s Law. Unlike some of their previous computational models in GlowScript, I provided a minimal framework this time. The goal of students developing their own computational model for a free point charge in the presence of a fixed charged object was threefold: 1) students would develop a deeper understanding of Coulomb’s Law; 2) this model would serve as a bridge to understanding electric fields; 3) this model provides an opportunity to model a dynamics problem using vector math. In order to work towards this third goal, I introduced the concept of a unit vector and the functions to normalize a vector and returns its magnitude.

Screen Shot 2014-10-23 at 10.16.22 PM

  ##electrostatics ##representations ##tech ##glowscript  

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