[Edu-sig] Oregon Curriculum

[Terry Hancock]

Hi Javier,
On Tuesday 11 February 2003 06:35 pm, Javier Escobar wrote:
> I would like to receive some comments, ideas, sugestions.
> At this point, I'm just figuring out the most general ideas about the work,
> and I havenīt started jet using Python. 
[...]
> I'm involved in teaching physics. 

Well, you understand this is totally self-interested, but I would really
like to see some of the following things (or find them if they already
exist).  I suspect that PyGame would come in handy for doing
them, though there may be other options:

1) 2-D (or projected 3-D) n-body integrator for orbital mechanics
   demos.  Especially a good interface for inputing objects, masses,
   and velocities of test objects.

2) A flat-space demonstrator of some kind -- basically like "Asteroids"
    but a little more straightforward, and possibly 3-D subjective.  A
    docking simulator would fit really well.

3) Something that deals with the launch + staging problem -- with or
   without atmospheric drag considerations, but definitely considering
   ground collision.  Probably a 2-D simulation is best.

4) Ballistic lander sim in 3-D (e.g. maybe building on FlightGear).

5) Use rocket nozzle parameters, fuel+oxy, and other physical
    parameters to compute thrust and specific impulse of an
    engine. That is, a rocket engine design simulation.

These would all figure into a series of space technology classes
we are planning to teach.  Eventually, I'd probably plan to write
them myself, but you did ask for suggestions. ;-)  Obviously, a 
really cool program could put all these together in one simulator,
but that sounds pretty complicated to me.  I think a simple sim
for each concept is probably better.

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com