Simulation In Physics

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorUniversity, Master's May 2001

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Flight simulation has long been used as a flight-training tool. However, flight training is not the only field in which flight simulation is extremely valuable. Flight simulation is used by the aerospace industry for research, development, and testing of new concepts and designs. The possibilities of flight simulation have yet to be fully utilized by schools to further educate students in physics. Simulation can be used to teach performance, stability, design, and a host of other concepts to students. One of the main dilemmas preventing most schools from implementing simulation in their curriculum can be the cost. Complete simulation systems consisting of a cockpit, out the window display, computer systems, and software can cost more than one hundred thousand dollars. Most of the available software packages are very computer code intensive and can be difficult for students to learn and use effectively during the course of their class time. It would be much more effective and economical if a school was able to use commercially available, off the shelf software packages to educate students.

X-PlaneÃÂ¢ is an excellent software package to perform this task. Using X-PlaneÃÂ¢, I was able to make an aircraft and then test fly the airplane. X-PlaneÃÂ¢ comes with five pieces of software that makes it possible to do this. The user must enter the information for the airfoil in a program called Part-Maker. The airfoils are then put on the aircraft in Plane-Maker. Plane-Maker is where the user makes the aircraft. All kinds of different airplanes can be made in the program, planes, helicopters, and gyrocopters for instance. Flying the airplanes is a fun experience. All kinds of data can be output from the program and used to see how the aircraft flies.

Commercially available software programs can...