PhET Blog

With the new Radiating Charge simulation, you can learn how electric field lines from a point charge evolve in time as the charge moves. Watch radiation propagate outward at the speed of light as you wiggle the charge. Stop a moving charge to see bremsstrahlung (braking) radiation. Explore the radiation patterns as the charge moves with sinusoidal, circular, or linear motion. You can move the charge any way you like, as long as you don’t exceed the speed of light.

In our new video, Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman explains how and why he started PhET.

We’re excited to add another simulation to our growing mathematics collection. With the new Graphing Lines simulation, explore the world of lines. Investigate the relationships between linear equations, slope, and graphs of lines. Challenge yourself in the line game!

If you’re running Java 7, we strongly encourage you update to Java Update 13 (build 1.7.0_13-b20). This latest Java release includes critical security patches and makes running Java in the browser more safe.

Get the upgrade here:

http://www.java.com

And if you’d like to learn more about the update, read about it here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57567412-83/oracle-pushes-out-new-java-update-to-patch-security-holes/

Note to Mac Users: to run our 3D simulations, Molecule Shapes or Plate Tectonics, you will still have to downgrade to Java 6 as described in our previous blog.

Have you tried Plate Tectonics or Molecule Shapes, but couldn’t get these sims to run on your computer?

Well, try again! We’ve upgraded both to work on as many platforms as possible. Please note that the simulations use LWJGL for the 3D graphics. Unfortunately, at this time LWJGL does not support Java 7 on Mac OSX. For to run these simulations, it is necessary to downgrade your Java to version 6. To learn how to do this, see

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5559?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

If you’re still having troubles, please let us know so we can ensure that it works for everyone.

Help bring PhET to tablets: Donate to PhET today.