Interactive AP Physics Simulations
Some physics ideas refuse to come through a static page. These simulations are built to be dragged: each one runs on the same equations as the calculators, and each responds the instant you move something. Free, no login, works on phones. Each simulation has a widget page with the iframe for Google Sites, Canvas, and class pages.
Set the launch speed and angle, fire, and watch the arc land where the equations say it will. Range, max height, and time of flight update as you drag, so you can find for yourself why 45 degrees wins on range and why angles that add to 90 land in the same spot.
Pairs with the projectile motion guide and the projectile motion calculator.
Given a scenario, you place the force arrows yourself and get checked, including the forces students invent by mistake. Drawing the diagram is the first skill every dynamics problem grades, and it is exactly the part a worked example cannot practice for you.
Pairs with the free-body diagram guide and the net force calculator.
Tilt the ramp and watch the force components trade off until static friction gives way and the block starts to slide. The slip angle depends only on the friction coefficient, not the mass, which is far more convincing to discover than to be told.
Pairs with the normal force guide and the net force calculator.
Two carts, and one slider that decides how bouncy the collision is. Momentum and kinetic energy are drawn as signed bars before and after, so the thing students are asked to take on faith becomes something they watch: the two momentum pieces trade size while the total refuses to move, at every setting of the elasticity.
Pairs with the conservation of momentum guide and the momentum collision calculator.