# Tagged Questions

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0answers
39 views

### Does Celestia take the lunar orbit precession into account?

Does the lunar orbit plane rotate (8 year period precession)? Does Celestia take this into account while drawing the moon orbit?
2answers
723 views

### Software to simulate and visualize atoms?

Not sure if this is a physics or chemistry question. But if the motion of atoms and it's particles can be described by quantum mechanics, then is there a software that simulate full atoms and it's ...
1answer
355 views

### Physics simulation software to perform this very specific experiment

I need a physics simulation software that allows me to perform the following experiment: 1. Create a frictionless ramp/terrain defined by a parametric function; 2. Create a ball in an arbitrary ...
3answers
297 views

### Numerical simulation of mechanics problem

Say I have a planet and shoot something with a given velocity, which is a significant portion of the escape velocity, in a given angle into the sky. It has some initial velocity and there is the force ...
1answer
18 views

### Code to sample from & integrate light of a cluster?

Are there any publicly available codes to sample from an initial mass function (common ones... Kroupa, Chabrier, Salpeter) to construct a cluster, then use stellar models to generate an integrated ...
2answers
122 views

### Intensity loss due to vignetting

I was trying to get an expression for the loss of intensity due to vignetting in a simple optical system, and got a fairly complex integral. I was wondering if there's an easier way, or any book that ...
0answers
170 views

### Is there any know weakness with GNUplot fits? (especially with gauss) [closed]

my faculty push pretty hard on us using GNUplot but it gives me somewhat unconvincing results while attempting to fit a gauss-like function. Is there any known weakness with GNUplot fits or should I ...
1answer
439 views

### Stellar evolution simulation engine or software

Is there any general purpose stellar evolution simulation engine or software? Something to throw in properties of the star and to watch how (and why) they change along the timeline - with or without ...
3answers
309 views

### Numerical software to manipulate a light beam in its plane wave representation?

Any light field can be expressed as a sum of plane waves. Such an ensemble of plane waves is called the plane wave spectrum of the light field. The plane wave spectrum is the Fourier transform of the ...
0answers
111 views

### Spin 1/2 finite-difference field simulator?

Is there a finite-difference field simulator for spin 1/2 fields, something like meep for electromagnetism (spin 1)? Looking for something free (GNU, MIT or other open/free style license) and easy ...
3answers
39 views

### How to get started in Astronomy (UK based) [closed]

I have always been interested in space and astronomy (in my youth - I wanted to be an astronaut). However for various reasons, I never quite got started. I now want to get started - small but ...
2answers
1k views

### Where can I find simulation software for electricity and magnets?

Is there easily-available* software to simulate coils, solenoids, and other magnetic and electromagnetic devices? I'd like to play around with some design ideas, such as Halbach arrays, but physics ...
1answer
7 views

### What is the current evaluation of a sky map application for mobile devices?

Which sky map application for mobile devices have the best "feature satisfaction"-to-investment ratio? I would like to have a comparison between "sky map" applications for mobile devices and it ...
1answer
48 views

### What is the format for “local catalog” files used by JSkyCat?

I am trying to use JSkyCat to mark a set of coordinates on a FITS image, and have found the dialog for choosing a catalog file to load. However, I am having trouble finding any documentation on what ...
3answers
153 views

### Software for Creating Custom Star Charts?

I need to produce custom star charts for my website. I want to be able to do the following: Specify a region, maybe a constellation or just an arbitrary region Specify what appears on the chart ...
4answers
166 views

### What free software is there for observing the sky (sky map software)

I used until now only stellarium.org and I'm curious if there is any other software that is better than stellarium. By better, I mean: doesn't have high system ...
1answer
54 views

### How to identify the objects in an astrophoto, and what portion of the sky it covers?

Given an astrophoto with a resolution between 0.5 and 5 arcseconds per pixel, which ways exist to identify the direction of view, field of view, and objects in the picture? I believe most amateur ...
2answers
295 views

### Software for simulating 3D Newtonian dynamics of simple geometric objects (with force fields)

I'm looking for something short of a molecular dynamics package, where I can build up simple geometric shapes with flexible linkages/etc and simulate the consequences of electrostatic repulsion ...
1answer
104 views

### Spectral energy distribution fitting tools or routines [closed]

I have observed magnitudes and fluxes for an object in different wavelengths from optical to mm. Now I need a tool, routine or something like that to fit a spectral energy distribution (SED) and ...
3answers
364 views

### How to convert a FITS file to .xls Excel file?

We are trying to determine the isophots in elliptical galaxies in order to check De-Vaucouleurs law. To do so, we want to convert the data from a FITS file to Excel and analyze it using Excel math ...
10answers
75 views

### Are there websites or programmes that permit a simulation of the night sky in the past and the future on an ordinary computer?

Are there websites or programs that permit a simulation of the night sky in the past and the future on an ordinary computer? (For the past, I would be content with objects visible to the naked eye.) ...
1answer
31 views

### When taking a sequence of exposures for stacking/coaddition, what dither patterns are most commonly desired? Why?

When taking a sequence of exposures for stacking/coaddition, what dither patterns are most commonly desired? When visiting a telescope, what default dither patterns would a visiting astronomer like to ...
2answers
199 views

### What open-source n-body codes are available and what are their features?

I'm interested in doing simulations with large numbers of particles and need a good n-body code. Are there any out there in the public domain that are open-source and what are their strengths and ...
1answer
1k views

### What programming languages would be helpful for a physicist to know? [closed]

From the vantage point of a physicist and the kind of problems he would like a computer program to solve, what are the essential programming languages that a physicist should know. I know C++ and I ...
1answer
331 views

### IRIS alternative on mac?

I need to process some images taken from a telescope to determine the intensity of an astroid. This way I can determine the rotation period of this asteroid. The pictures were taken the usual way ...
3answers
300 views

### Supergravity calculation using computer algebra system in early days

I was having a look at the original paper on supergravity by Ferrara, Freedman and van Nieuwenhuizen available here. The abstract has an interesting line saying that Added note: This term has now ...
5answers
473 views

### Online physics collaboration tools

I.e. online discussion with your friends. A forum is probably too overkill in this case. Yet so far nothing can beat direct communication. Important feature: the ability to archive discussions. We ...
2answers
2k views

### Software for geometrical optics

Is there any good software for construction optical path's in geometrical optics. More specifically I want features like: draw $k \in \mathbb{N}$ objects $K_1,\dots,K_n$ with indices of refraction ...
1answer
88 views

### Physics II Video Courseware Recommendations

I'm looking for something to supplement my Physics II class. Last year I started using these video lectures to supplement my Calculus class and it helped tremendously. I also turned to this ...
3answers
541 views

### Is there a nice tool to plot graphs of paper citations? [closed]

I would like a tool which allows me to enter some paper citation, and then will begin drawing a graph, where each paper is linked to other papers that cite the original paper or are cited by it. It ...
1answer
443 views

### Software for simulating supersonic aerodynamics [closed]

Could you please suggest the software, where I can load my 3D model and see how it behave on various conditions (speed - preferably including supersonic, temperature, pressure)? Both free & ...
2answers
511 views

### Trying to model pinball physics for game AI

I'm working on an AI for a pinball-related video game. The ultimate goal for the system is that the AI will be able to fire a flipper at the appropriate time to aim a pinball at a particular point on ...
1answer
285 views

### Software to calculate forces between magnets

I am working on a complex configuration of magnets and every time I make an experiment something unforseen happens. Now I believe I could speed up the development by sitting down and calculating the ...
2answers
218 views

### Isotope properties plotting tool?

I'm looking for something that will generate scatter plots comparing different properties of isotopes. Ideally I'd like some web page that lets me select axis and click go but a CSV file with lost of ...
2answers
234 views

### Searching books and papers with equations

Sometimes I may come up with an equation in mind, so I want to search for the related material. It may be the case that I learn it before but forget the name, or, there is no name for the equation ...
14answers
21k views

### What software programs are used to draw physics diagrams, and what are their relative merits?

People undoubtedly use a variety of programs to draw diagrams for physics, but I am not familiar with many of them. I usually hand-draw things in GIMP. GIMP is powerful in some regards, but it's ...
6answers
1k views

### Physics and Computer Science

Not sure if this is a 'real' question, but what is the relation between physics and computer science? A lot of physicists are also computer scientists and vice versa. My professor has a PhD in Physics ...
7answers
1k views

### Software for physics calculations

What is some good free software for doing physics calculations? I'm mainly interested in symbolic computation (something like Mathematica, but free).
1answer
484 views

### Why is GNUplot so pervasive in Physics when there are much more modern tools? [closed]

First, I want to say upfront that this question need not dissolve into arguments and discussion. This question can and should have a correct answer, please don't respond with your opinions. GNUplot ...
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