Physics Animations / Simulations

Molecular Model for an Ideal Gas
Watch the molecules of an ideal gas hold up a piston by collisions. You can set the pressure, number of molecules and velocity of the molecules.

Multimedia Physics Studio
Huge set of animations using animated gifs and shockwave, originally developed by Tom Henderson of Glenbrook South High School.

Newtonian Mountain
A fun Java applet which lets you choose the speed at which a cannon ball is fired from the top of a mountain. Use the reset button after each launch and watch the red projectile. Choose a high enough speed and you can see it go into orbit. In the case of an orbit, it will (of course) always return to the launch point.

NTNU Virtual Physics Laboratory
Java applets covering many areas of physics (mechanics, dynamics, waves, thermodynamics...).

Physics 3220 Quantum Animations
These animations are *.ma files which run under either Mathematica or Mathread. The latter is freeware, and links are given to download it.

Wave Optics
Play with wavelength, slit spacing, and distance to the screen in a double slit interference Java applet.