States of matter: the particle model sim
Drag a heater slider to take 50 g of ice to water to steam and back while a magnified box shows its particles go from a vibrating lattice, to sliding past each other, to flying apart and hitting the walls; record the heating curve with its flat parts, then squash sealed syringes of air, water and wax.
Kinetic particle model of matter · covers the O-Level, IGCSE, GCSE topic
Use it in your lessons
- Try it here: anyone can unlock 2 figures free, and a free account unlocks up to 5. Runs on a laptop, a Chromebook or a phone; nothing to install.
- Present it and share student links with the teacher plan, from US$5 a month, billed yearly.
- Put it on your own website or LMS for US$9, paid once, or every sim from US$29 a month.
Free guide: 12 practicals as sims, and how to run one in a lesson →
Need a version for your exact set-up? Have one made: US$49 a figure in an order of 5.
More physics sims
- Sound: vibrations, a medium and the oscilloscope simDrag the microphone and turn the oscilloscope's time-base and Y-gain to see louder = taller and higher pitch = more waves; read n waves over d divisions, work out T and f = 1 ÷ T and have each step checked; watch the air's compressions and rarefactions; pump the air out of a bell jar and graph the fading sound; and race a pulse through steel, water and air.
- Speed of sound by echo simClap in front of a wall, get in time with the echoes and time a run of them with a stopwatch, work out v = 2d ÷ t and see why one echo is too short to time by hand; then time a pulse between two microphones in air, water and steel with v = d ÷ t and compare the three speeds on one graph.
- Stability and toppling simTilt a hinged board with a model bus, a bottle of sand or a wooden cone on it and watch the weight line from G leave the base as it topples; then measure the toppling angle of six wooden blocks on the protractor and plot tan θ against (b ÷ 2) ÷ h.
- Three forces in equilibrium: the triangle of forces simHang a load from two newton-meters, read the tensions and the angles, then draw the closed triangle of forces to scale and check it against the meters.
- U-tube manometer simJoin a U-tube manometer to the gas tap, a flask squeezed by a syringe or your own breath, read both levels to the nearest mm, find h and work out Δp = ρgh and the gas's pressure, then swap the water for oil or mercury and widen one arm to see what changes.
- Walk the graph: match a motion graph by walking simWalk in front of a motion sensor so your displacement–time, velocity–time, distance–time or speed–time line matches a target, then measure it with the gradient and area tools.