VPython is a computational tool that allows the generation of real-time 3D animations as a side effect of physics computations in Python. For the expert, VPython exists as a Python module that may be imported in a standalone Python installation, including in a Jupyter notebook. For the novice (including students in the introductory physics course with no prior programming experience), Web VPython runs completely in a browser, and requires no software installation. Computation has become central to all of STEM research, but integration of computation into physics instruction has been slow. Our own work has focused on integrating computation into the calculus-based introductory physics course, where students typically have little or no experience in computational modeling, through the Matter & Interactions curriculum. We will demonstrate the capabilities of VPython, and illustrate its use in intro physics.
Computation in the Calculus-based Intro Physics Course
Host: Ziqing Hong