PhET Progress Report

Sam Reid

November 19, 2009

 

An online version of this report is available here.

Here's a pie chart representation of the time distribution.

 

Unavailable Nov 22-29, out of town, available by cell phone and intermittent email

 

Reduced hours last week due to academic obligations

 

CCK

·         Looked through all CCK tickets and updated status against the new cck physics engine

·         Fixed a bug in the stopwatch time readout, see #359

·         Sent a list of about 6 issues for Sam M to test, feedback is positive

·         Resolved #1889: exception on voltmeter + battery

·         Posted 3.17.19 and 3.18.20

·         Kathy/Wendy: Waiting for feedback on 3.18.20 and recommendation to post

o   This version solves 5 significant physical issues present in the current website version, including:

1.      electrons running off the wire (#367)

2.       adding quantitative support for time-dependent measurements

3.      correct physics for circuits with capacitors and/or inductors.

·         #1888 notify folks when 3.18 is posted, Marj could help

·         Gerard: comment on #687

·         Mike: Any other ideas for CCK numerical model based on prototype I sent you?

·         Kathy/Mike: comment on CCK AC + capacitor issue #1839

o   Turn off workaround if there are only AC sources.

o   Is the workaround “causing” or “resolving” the high-frequency oscillation?

 

Gene Network

·         Worked with John on model and graphics for mRNA

 

Misc

·         Discussed deploying sims to KSU

·         Bug in common strings deployment (ZipException), needs more work

·         Look over JO’s changes to clock controls

·         Verify CM’s change set in phetcommon regarding closing JARs, see #1895

 

Motion series

·         Worked on popup-combo box issue, counterintuitive results, see #1880

1.      It was easy to post an application in which the warning does not appear, not sure what’s different between this and the sim version

2.      Revealed some problems on mac in which window decorations show around popup, e.g. ph-scale

3.      Still needs investigation

·         Add Go button left of slider

1.       Sim starts up with no Go button visible

2.       When the sim is paused and the user moves the slider or types in the text box, the Go button becomes visible

3.      Go button remains visible after becoming visible

·         Add clear button in chart area

·         Split vectors when in point-of-origin mode

·         Moving man coming up next, waiting until a version of F&M + Ramp posted to tigercat before undertaking significant refactor

·         Wendy: Please comment on point-of-origin issue, see NP’s email

 

Density Sim

·         Jonathan: please provide feedback on density sim model #1868

 

Eating & Exercise

·         Wendy/Noah: Waiting for decision about how to represent time and temporal changes

1.      Wendy: If we reuse the motion-series controls, should they be ported to Java?

 

Piccolo

·         #1821 update piccolo

·         In RadioactiveDatingGameApplication 2nd tab, some bounds have NaN against Piccolo 1.3, and nothing renders

·         PSwing needs improvements for drop-down boxes

·         PSwing needs improvements for removing components

 

Phetcommon

·         Better support for coordinate frames, see MyCanvas.  Probably should port it to Java for discussion purposes.  Is there already documentation somewhere about the flaws with existing system?

 

Cellular Automata Tutorial

·         Wendy: please let me know if you’d like to include this with PhET’s sims