Design of an environment for physical phenomena simulation: application to visualization and animation of electrostatic field and potential

The paper presents new software whose objective is to develop interactive laboratories of physical phenomena simulation through the application of computational physics. With this aim, a new powerful work environment has been designed using Visual Basic Pro (vs. 3.0) for Windows. This environment is orientated towards the study of electrostatic fields and potentials. The software developed combines several characteristics: easy management and use-in order to get it, the program has graphical menus and options; animations of physical phenomena studied have been used in order to facilitate their comprehension; visualization-the system designed as well as the graphical results obtained are shown both in three-dimensional coordinates and in two-dimensional coordinates; interactive character-the environment allows the user to design his/her own physical systems when combining different elements; integrator character-it combines all the tasks integrated in the educative process: tutorial simulation and evaluation