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FunFysics is a fantastic piece of software. It was originally written in 1993 by David Snell and marketed by Minerva Software under the name of PrimeSolver, but was not widely known as it was primarily aimed at schools. The 'home' version was very limited in what it could do.
Now it has been brought up to date and relaunched with a new name and 26/32 bit neutral, making it available to all RISC OS users. The paper manual has been translated into HTML and is available while the program is running. There is even a built-in search engine to help you track down information from the manual. (You can even use this in the free demo!) Distribution is now by e-mail.
A collection of nearly 60 different tools or 'gadgets' is provided with which problems may be created and solved. There are energy sources and the mobile objects obey laws of motion. You can even fiddle with the air pressure and gravity to study their effects on a situation. It is basically a physics laboratory on your desktop, but safer to use. There is sound (provided there is air for it to travel through), but this may be adjusted for volume or turned off if not wanted.
The most important feature, however, is that it should be fun to use.
An evaluation version is available for you to download and try out. You can create and solve problems with it but not save the problems or results. A small collection of ready made sample problems is also provided.
The full version allows goal conditions to be set so that you can signal when the problem has been successfully completed.
The evaluation version downloads in an archive file. You will need David Pilling's Spark, SparkFS or SparkPlug to unpack it. To install, simply drag the FFdemo directory out of the archive to a convenient place on your hard drive and it is ready to go.
Once you start to explore the interactions between the various objects in Experiment mode you will soon discover that you get an awful lot of program for your money.
Here are some useful links:
Original PrimeSolver users will be pleased to hear that their old files will work with the full version of FunFysics! (But not the evaluation copy.)
Click here to buy on-line.
