Kinetic Books Virtual Physics Lab is designed to add a laboratory module to their digital physics textbooks. There are 16 labs, which take 60 to 90 minutes to complete including gathering data and answering questions. The labs give detailed explanations of the physics process that is the topic of the lab and how to conduct all the lab activities. Each lab includes a number of computer generated simulations that allow the physics students to determine the variables in the experiment.

Lab topics are available in the following general physics areas: Mechanics, Oscillations and Waves, Kinetic Theory of Gases, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics and Special Relativity. The publisher states the labs are not designed to completely replace traditional physics labs. These labs represent experiments that are hard to reproduce in traditional classrooms because of the nature of the experiment or skills required. For additional physic labs, we suggest you purchase and use Hands-On Physics Activities with Real-Life Applications by James Cunningham and Norman Herr. This book is available in our Physics section for $20.76.

Answers to lab questions may be saved and when the lab has been completed the entire lab can be saved and printed. If you close a lab before completing it, all the answers you have saved will still be available the next time you return to the program.

There is nothing in the Conceptual Physics, Principles of Physics, or Virtual Physics Lab software that tells you when is the optimum time for a student to attempt a particular lab. The labs do not require calculus, but do require algebra.

The simulations make these labs interesting to students. For example, the velocity and acceleration lab uses a skee ball simulation. In other labs, students will insert a spacecraft in Mars’s orbit and juggle chainsaws. You can see two sample labs at the Kinetic Books site. The first, the Cannon Lab, is an example of a goal-oriented lab. The second, The Ideal Gas Lab, is an example of a data gathering and analysis lab. All labs require experimentation and data gathering.

Virtual Physics Lab combined with either Conceptual Physics or Principle of Physics with use Hands-On Physics Activities With Real-Life Applications will provide a complete physics curriculum for $80 to $90. That’s a great price for a high school level science with lab component.

System Requirements

Windows Requirements
Win 98/2000/XP
120 MB Disk Space
128 MB RAM minimum
A Browser: IE version 6.0 or higher, Firefox version 1.0 or higher.
Note: it worked fine using Netscape 7.2, which uses Firefox.

Macintosh Requirements
MAC OS X version 10.2 or higher
90 MB Disk Space
128 MB RAM minimum
A Browser – Safari version 1.0.2 or higher