Simulation with Open Source Physics

Butch DeBerry

Advisor: Dr. Bruce Mason

Outline• Motivation

• The Open-Source Software Model

• Open Source Physics

• Our project

• Conclusion

Motivation• Assist in the instruction of QM

• Improve the quality of understanding

• Make a lasting contribution to the physics education community

The Open-Source Software Model• Development distributed

among many submitters• Project manager sets

milestones and packages releases

• Users have access to source code– Improvements and

adaptations are encouraged

– Users are encouraged to submit their changes

Open Source Physics• Software library with

applications– Physical simulation– Numerical analysis– Graphical interface

• Library is relatively closed– Development centralized– Only release packages

available

• Applications are open all the way– This is what we’re working

onhttp://www.opensourcephysics.org

Our Project• QM probability distribution visualizer

– Display 3D graphical representation of quantum probability distribution

• Example: 3D Spin

– Improvement over current software• Only shows expectation value in 3D

– Requires extensive 3D graphics tools and knowledge

Conclusion• Goal: Write an application using Open Source

Physics library to display 3D probability distribution

• OSP’s 3D graphics library is incomplete– Contribute to OSP library

• Makes our work available for others• Developers are not favorable to outside contribution

– Develop our own• This is what I’ll probably do

– Wait for OSP developers• Wouldn’t make for much of a Capstone