FP101 - A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Investment and Retirement Planning

Investing for the future is serious business, but it can also be fun! We developed FP101 as a tool to help our friends and family members understand the basic principles of investing and retirement planning. The applet allows the user to quickly investigate a variety of investment strategies and their retirement implications. The primary goal of the program is to answer the question "How long can I afford to live before the money runs out?"

It can also be used to understand the following important facets of financial planning.

• The crucial role played by inflation.
• The "rule of 72," a quick and easy way to predict the future value of an asset.
• The extraordinary effect of time on the appreciation of investments.
• The importance of investing early in life.

EZField

EZField is an interactive simulation that allows the user to explore the beautiful and fascinating world of electricity. The applet offers a variety of tools for visualizing the electric and potential fields surrounding charged objects. It can display

• the strange, web-like patterns formed by electric field lines,
• the concentric, blob-like patterns formed by electrical potential lines,
• a colorful topological map showing the "hills" and "valleys" of the electrical potential field,
• a 3D "rubber sheet" view of the potential field, and
• a "compass field" view of the electric field highlighting its vector nature.

One other phenomenon that can be simulated by the applet is the behavior of electric charges that are constrained to move around on the surface of a conductor. As an oppositely-charged "magic wand" is brought close to the conductor, the applet shows how the conductor-bound charges  rearrange themselves to get as close to the wand as possible.

Diagram 2 - Screen capture of EZField's "Symmetric Free Charges" mode (to try it out, click here)

This figure shows the electric and potential field that would surround seven symmetrically arranged positive charges. The lines radiating outward are field lines, the concentric closed curves are equipotential lines, and the color-coding indicates the relative height of the potential field (regions of highest potential are red; regions of lowest potential are violet).
 

Diagram 3 - Screen capture of EZField's "finger painting" mode

This diagram shows the paths followed by four charges moving in response to mutual forces of attraction and repulsion (the two positive charges are red; the two negative charges are black).
 

Diagram 4 - Screen capture of EZField's "3D Conductor" mode

This diagram shows a cluster of negative charges on the surface of a dumbbell-shaped conductor congregating as closely as possible to the oppositely-charged "magic wand," which can be moved around using the mouse.

CoreSim - A Poor Man's Reactor Core Simulation

CoreSim uses animation to simulate the motions and interactions of neutrons in a nuclear reactor core. It allows the user to control key parameters such as the numbers and locations of fuel and control rods, the boron concentration in the coolant, and several physical constants (e.g. fission capture probability and moderator absorption probability) in order to explore the behavior of the system.

Diagram 5 - Screen capture of the CoreSim applet (click here to learn more about CoreSim)

This diagram is a snapshot of an active core containing 114 neutrons (red dots). The "tails" on the neutrons indicate their speed and direction. The gray circles represent fuel rods, and the blue material in between is the coolant (water). Whenever a fission event occurs inside a fuel rod, the rod flashes yellow. The "neutron population strip chart" (top right) shows how the total neutron population is changing with time. The "neutron history strip chart" (middle right) shows a comparison between the number of new neutrons created in fission events (red), the number of neutrons which leak out of  the core (green), and the number of neutrons which are absorbed in the coolant (blue). The "change core parameters" window allows the user to dynamically adjust several key parameters using sliders.

Java Graphics Template - An Artistic Introduction to Java Graphics and Animation

This applet was designed as a vehicle for introducing my co-workers to the Java language. The template provides a variety of standard controls, and allows the user to create a customized graphics application which may include animation. Let your imagination run wild!

Diagram 6 - Screen capture of the JGT applet

The pull-down menu allows the user to choose a variety of drawing shapes (lines, empty and filled rectangles, empty and filled ovals). When the animation button is clicked, the applet starts drawing the chosen shape at random positions all over the screen until the button is clicked again. The scroll bar allows the user to select one of 20 colors.

SkinDose - A Visual Basic Application to Calculate Radiation Doses Resulting From Skin Contamination

The application calculates shallow and deep skin doses and dose equivalent rates using a novel methodology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The user must input the following information:

• type of skin dose to be calculated (deep or shallow)
• radionuclide deposited on the skin,
• total source activity,
• total surface area exposed, and
• duration of exposure.

Diagram 7 - Screen capture of the SkinDose application

Collider - A Visual C++ Application to Simulate the Redistribution of Kinetic Energy Resulting From Collisions Between Gas Molecules

The application allows the user to specify an input file containing a kinetic energy probability distribution, then simulates a sequence of inter-molecular collisions. As the kinetic energy is exchanged, the program graphs changes in the energy distribution.

Diagram 8 - Screen capture of the Collider application

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