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Rotating the coordinate reference frame

PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:09 am
by astronomyteacher
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/BlockOnAFrictionlessInclinedPlane/
edit: an example of what I mean from Wolfram Alpha.

i teach high school and college physics. I am preparing a lesson for tomorrow that has a box sitting on a ramp. The students are to take the weight vector and break it into components. However, in your program, the components are rigidly tied to x and y coordinates as aligned with the edge of the screen.

Is there a way to rotate the coordinate system to align with the top of the ramp? Then deriving the downhill force and the normal force components becomes much easier. This is a much more standard way of drawing the components (x - aligned with ramp surface, y - perpendicular to ramp surface), at least in the US.

If there's no way to do it at present, I'd like to request that as a future feature.

Thanks, I'm just getting started and it looks like a fun program.

Re: Rotating the coordinate reference frame

PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:17 pm
by emilk
Hello and thanks for the feedback!

The easiest way to accomplish the same thing in Algodoo is to go the other way about it and rotate the direction of gravity instead!

Start by making a horizontal plane and put a box on that. Then, by hoovering over the gravity button (falling apple) you can set an angle offset for the gravity.

I will consider adding a a slider for rotating the reference system in the next version.

- Emil

Re: Rotating the coordinate reference frame

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 6:17 pm
by astronomyteacher
Just wondering if this idea ever went anywhere.

Re: Rotating the coordinate reference frame

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:17 pm
by chris1983
I agree, this will be very useful.