Index of /physics/phet/dev/nukes/1.08.09

 Name                                                    Last modified      Size  Description
 Parent Directory                                                             -   
 nuclearphysics.jar                                      23-Jun-2006 13:45  845K  
 nukes.jnlp                                              23-Jun-2006 13:46  1.2K  
 nukes.png                                               07-Jun-2005 17:44   24K  
 nukes_es.jnlp                                           15-Jun-2006 16:00  1.3K

Click to launch:

Nuclear Physics

What's new in 1.08.09

General

Tweaked the behavior of the energy profile in the Alpha Decay panel.
Added a "Rewind to last decay event" feature to the Alpha Decay panel.
Note that the decay event is recognized by the model when an alpha particle gets outside the blue ring. At this point in time, the nucleus should have actually changed from polonium to lead, and the total energy line should have dropped, but that's not what shows in the simulation. Although it is possible to show the alpha particle inside the blue ring when the simulation is rewound, it will be tricky, and pretty ugly code-wise, to make it happen.

To Do

Implement rewind feature for the alpha decay panel.
Make containment vessel in Chain Reaction panel break up and fly apart and "vaporize".
Add a wiggle-me to the Controlled Reaction panel.
The rest of the items in Kathy and Wendy's list

Known Problems

One of the Phet logos on the right of the window needs to be removed.
If you resize the window before displaying the Single Nucleus Fision panel for the first time, the elements on that panel will not be sized correctly.
Spinners on the Chain Reaction panel control panel don't always spin when you first hold the mouse button down on them.
Now that the neutrons don't have tails when they are flying around, you can't see them in the Controlled Reaction panel.
Chain Reaction panel doesn't put all the nuclei you specify in the spiner into the container if it can't find the place to put them, and it doesn't tell you why.
Containment vessel in Chain Reaction panel doesn't fade out or do anything now.

History

1.08.08

General

The alpha decay panel now has polonium 210 decaying to lead 206.
The alpha decay panel now has the new energy profile panel.
The Single nucleus fision panel has the original energy profile displayed on a panel similar to the new on on the alpha decay panel.

1.08.07

Chain Reaction panel

After firing a neutron on the Fission: Single Nucleus panel, disable Fire Neutron button until module is reset

Chain Reaction panel

Chain Reaction panel no longer has performance problems when U238 is in the containment vessel.

Controlled Reaction

Controlled Reaction panel works properly after Reset button is clicked.
The Energy Graphs box pops up on the far top left corner of my screen and the sim is in a window that fills only part of my screen so I didn’t notice the graph until later. (If you close it there is no way to get it back). Also The Energy Graphs box does not go away when I change panes. To correct these problems Try putting the energy graph fixed in the lower portion of the play area below the chamber I would suggest the lower left if we are going to put it in the play area.
Maybe extend the blue so that the holder of the blue is below the black and we can see that they are connected. This might help cue the user to the handle. Maybe move whole the vessel and handle over to the left a bit so handle isn’t so crowded.
Things move in this panel too fast also. I’d suggest half speed and we’ll look again. It may need to be slower.

1.08.05

Chain Reaction panel

After firing a neutron on the Fission:Single Nucleus panel, disable Fire Neutron button until module is reset

Chain Reaction panel

Chain Reaction panel no longer has performance problems when U238 is in the containment vessel.

Controlled Reaction

Startup time and performance of Controlled Reaction panel are now what they were before the port to the current level of common code.

1.08.04

General

Removed all the look and feel modifiactions for now. Will add them back in after adding color picker.
Changed tabs so that they look like our new Tabs.
Improved startup performance by defering initialization of each panel until the first time it's used. Note that the Controlled Chain Reaction panel takes a long time to initialize.

Alpha Decay

Lower panel is correctly lined up under the upper panel

Fission: Single Nucleus panel

Removed alpha particle from legend

Chain Reaction panel

Neutron is fired from the same spot in the panel, regardless of the size of the vessel
Neutrons are either absorbed or reflected when they hit the containment vessel.
Nuclei are absorbed when them hit the containment vessel.
U238 turns into U239 once they absorb a neutron.
Added U239 to legend.
Removed alpha particle from legend

Controlled Reaction

The neutrons in this panel have tails and look like photons. They should just be round balls.

1.08.03

General

Should start up on first tab
Pause and Play settings stay where they are placed when you switch panes.
Remove help buttons since there is no help.
Have the legend on each panel only display the applicable items to each tab.
Button labels are illegible in Java 1.5
You can’t see what the buttons (Reset, Help, Pause) say.
Change tabs so that they look like our new Tabs. Not very do-able. I made them bigger, though, and more prominent

Alpha Radiation

The atoms bounce around to fast. There speed needs cut down to 25% of it’s current speed and then we’ll look again
Change the label “Running time to decay (msec)” to “Time to decay” and can the units be placed with the number?
After the decay the alpha particle is moving around in the background instead of in the foreground.
The lower section should look like a graph sitting in the play area rather than more play area. During interviews all the students thought it was a physical representation and could not make sense out of it. If it looks like a graph, it may go over better. Try making the axis lines more prominent also.
gridlines overlay the profile, and there's a label to further suggest it is a graph
In lieu of a rewind button I added a control that will pause the simulation at the start of alpha decay. The user can then step through the decay.

Fission:

Speed reduced to half.
Graph in lower portion as in Alpha Radiation panel
nucleus on graph pane of single nucleus fission module flashes oddly sometimes

Chain Reaction panel

Remove “Number of” and just have the label 235U nuclei (with spelling correction) as the label for each spinner.
Remove “Percent” put a % sign to the right of the box or better yet, in the box with the number so that it’s formatted the same as the number.
I would suggest a vessel that’s half as thick.
There’s a wired little box that shows up around Enable Containment Vessel when you choose the check box but once you do something else in the control panel it disappears.
"Enable Containment Vessel" color isn't the same as the other labels in the panel

Controlled Reaction

The neutrons in this panel have tails and look like photons. They should just be round balls.