VIRTUAL LABORATORY FOR STUDYING AND UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PHYSICAL QUANTITIES

This paper describes a virtual laboratory (developed using the tool “Easy Java Simulations”) for the study and understanding of different physical quantities. A large library of quantities is included. This virtual laboratory will be freely available as “learning object” in the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) RiuNet database¹. This learning object is decontextualized, i.e., it is not part of a specific course of physics, or refer to other parts of a course, so they can be used in any physics course of physic or engineering degree.
The application makes questions about the dimensional analysis of different physical quantities, and it checks the answer and, if right, provides additional information of this quantity, such as its SI (Système International) unit. For a better understanding of the subject, the application provides the law of Physics that enables the user to determine the dimensional equation. Since this law can involve other derived quantities, the application includes a structure of tips that the user can unlock. The tips operate as a sequence that eventually leads to the basic quantities. This way, the user learns how the dimensional product of basic quantities that corresponds to a given quantity, can be found by means of successive relationships given by laws of Physics. Furthermore, this analysis does not require the knowledge of the meaning of the quantity, nor the related field of science.

Note: The Java laboratory (in Spanish) can be seen at http://labvirtual.webs.upv.es/Magnitudes.html. HTML5 version (in English) will be available at the time of the Conference.

¹https://riunet.upv.es