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The Advanced Physics Virtual Laboratory Series: CD-ROM Mechanical Oscillations and Waves

This CD-ROM is one of a series produced by Bradford Technology and I started looking at it full of high hopes. The series is aimed at A-level so I have a good idea of what I might expect from such a package and how it may relate to my A-level students. The setting up was straightforward and, apart from a few minor hang-ups whilst running another package, I experienced no problems in running the software. There are nine simulations on the software all relating to oscillations and waves, including SHM for springs and pendulums, forced oscillations, stationary waves, beats and the Doppler effect. The format is more or less the same for each. There is a simulation on screen with parameters that can be controlled by a slider (which on my machine could not be changed while I was writing this). This can be run continuously or stepwise. With some of the simulations there are graphs of the motion or some other variables, or a results box which runs rather like a clock while the simulation is running. Each simulation has a Help page with some background information and relevant equations. These went slightly beyond my A-level syllabus. The help page could also be listened to in slightly abbreviated form. I didn't find this helpful. The package has some good features: the section on resonance has some useful graphs and shows the sharpness of resonance changing as the parameters change; the beats section shows clearly the superposition of two waves and allows the parameters to be changed in a useful way. However, there are some very frustrating features: only part of a display can be seen on the screen and this is a major drawback. The section on the Doppler effect had some graphics that were next to useless and the Experiments Movies section seemed like an afterthought - there was only one on the disc I had, purporting to show chaotic motion; even allowing for the fact that my machine may not be the latest model, the clip of film of a pendulum bob being bashed about by a tuning fork left me none the wiser as to what the object of the exercise was. Each section comes with a `problem' to solve. This is a number cruncher involving the formula stated in the Help page. The student can put in an answer and be told whether it is right or wrong. The solution is simply the numerical answer. This could have been more imaginatively tackled by including some questions that actually related to the simulation and making the student go back and try a few things in a constructive manner, i.e. a sort of worksheet. Overall, I find it hard to recommend this package (although the blurb on the packet claimed that it is `recommended by teachers'). The concept of a virtual laboratory is a strange one - students are divorced enough from phenomena as it is. I don't think that enough thought has gone into the fundamental question of why the package has been put together in the first place, apart from the fact that it is technically possible. For the price, there are many things that would come higher on my list.