Physics to go: Web-based tutorials for CoLoS physics simulations

Software that simulates physical processes can greatly enhance the learning process in physics; however, meaningful simulations are dependent upon choosing interesting parameters, and students rarely choose interesting parameters because the material is new to them. To make simulation software effective there must be tutorials that build the skill to interpret the simulations and provide models that guide the student in choosing the parameters for the simulation. Using HTML, JAVA, and animation files, tutorials can be constructed that are cross platform and can be used by any JAVA aware World Wide Web (WWW) browser. It also allows the tutorials to be freely distributed on the WWW. All of these are significant issues, but more importantly, the students can use a browser with which they are familiar. This greatly reduces the time spent learning to use the computer and operating system; thus leaving more time to concentrate on the physics. In this paper some examples from electricity and magnetism will be presented, and techniques to produce the tutorials will be discussed.