Experimentation is vital to effective teaching of Physics but it is often impossible for high school Physics teachers to expose their students to the same variety of experiments that might be offered in a college-level course.  Generally, this is due to the very high cost of certain key pieces of apparatus.  Justifying the purchase of costly equipment that is useful for only one or two experiments can be quite difficult.  Also, many classic experiments require too much time to setup and/or conduct to be used in a typical class period.

Computer simulation can be used to conduct these experiments in a way that is both time- and cost-effective.  The National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) has hosted a free collection of Java-based physics simulations since 1996.

Strengths:

• Because the simulations use Java, they can run on almost any operating system
• Simulation applets can be downloaded and run locally
• There are many simulations offered, covering all areas of physics and new simulations are added frequently
• Users are able to request the creation of new simulations

Weaknesses:

• The site can be slow loading because it is hosted in Taiwan
• Some of the simulations are too advanced to be used in a high school Physics class
• Certain simulations require significant processing power to use

The NTNU Virtual Physics Laboratory would be most useful to high school or university Physics instructors.  Some of the simulations could be effectively used in lower-level physical science classes as demonstrations of particular concepts.

The site is free to access and use the simulations.  Downloading the applets requires a free account.  A computer with Internet access and the java runtime is required.  Some of the simulations require more processing power than others, so please test them on the hardware you plan to use.  Some also require sound.