General Applet Instructions

Any applet in the Friction Lab has three areas as shown in the screen shot below. Click on an area to learn about its function.

Animation Control Center

The animation of the experiment is controlled by a few buttons. Usually the following four buttons are always present:
single step
Proceeds a single step further if animation is not running.
start
Starts animation if not already started.
stop
Stops animation if not already stopped.
reset
Resets the experiment to a predefined initial state.

Parameter Control Center

An experiment is usually controlled by several parameters. You can change these parameters by the control elements. There are two types of control elements:

The parameters of the experiment can be changed even when it is already running. Note: Numerical entries have to be confirmed by pressing the ENTER key in order to become effective.

Animated Experiment

In this area the experiment is visualized. When the start button in the
Animation Control Center is pressed you will see the animated dynamics of the system. By manipulating the control elements in the Parameter Control Center you can watch how the behaviour of the system will change.

In some experiments you can manipulate objects in this area with the mouse.


The Friction Lab© 2001, e-mail: Franz-Josef doht Elmer aht unibas doht ch, last modified: 2001/11/24