Speaker
Description
Mathematical derivations alone do not necessarily lead to physical understanding. A tool that can replace the mathematical treatment of a physical process and at the same time increase physical understanding are interactive computer programs, also known as system dynamics software, such as Stella, Berkeley Madonna, Wensim, Dynasys, Powersim or Coach. Such interactive software solves differential equations and systems of differential equations using numerical methods. One works with a graphical user interface that is for the most part self-explanatory. We want to show how, for example, using Coach 7, one can start from a model from classical physics，with only minimal changes, and arrive at a relativistic model. It is sufficient to set mass and energy equal and the model provides essential statements of relativistic dynamics: the existence of a terminal velocity for all physical movements, the relativistic dependence of the velocity of a body on its momentum, the relation between momentum and energy of a body. All this is done without any change of the reference frame and without any calculations and is even suitable for teaching in the high school.
