Excel spreadsheets are used as an excellent tool in physics laboratory experiments related to wave optics. This paper presents a simple way to simulate diffraction of waves through a slit using Excel spreadsheets without any tedious programming. These simulations are used to visualize the effect of variation of different parameters such as number of slits, wavelength of incoming light, slit width and slit separation on Fraunhofer diffraction pattern.
This paper presents the usage of an Excel spreadsheet for studying charged particle dynamics in the presence of uniform electric and magnetic fields. The equation of motion of the charged particle is developed under different conditions and the data is obtained in an Excel spreadsheet under variation of parameters such as the velocity of charged particle, applied field strength and direction. For visualizing the change in trajectory of the charged particle 2D and 3D plots are further obtained by using Excel and Origin Pro8.5 graphical software's, respectively.
This paper presents a simple way of simulating the motion of two oscillators coupled via springs. A linear model using Hooke’s law describes the motion of a coupled oscillator through a set of two coupled second-order linear differential equations. A spreadsheet is programmed to obtain the numerical solutions of coupled differential equations using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. The main thrust behind programming the spreadsheet is to solve the differential equations for a physical system under different initial condition and to understand the motion of coupled masses graphically. The programmed spreadsheet can also be modified to include damping in the system and visualize a damped dynamical system. The algorithm developed for programming presents the use of inbuilt functions of the spreadsheet and is user-friendly, especially for those who are not familiar with the spreadsheets. Simulations of the coupled oscillator would help students to visualize the effect of variation of different parameters, such as mass, initial velocity, spring constant, and damping factor, on the motion of coupled oscillators.
This paper describes a way to simulate and visualise 3D representations of the resultant electric field vector propagation for plane, circular and elliptically polarised waves. These polarisation states are obtained by the superposition of two coherent linearly polarised waves oscillating in two mutually perpendicular directions. The required data to obtain the simulations for these representations is generated by programming an Excel spreadsheet for polarisation equations and varying the process parameters such as phase difference and amplitude of the superimposing waves. The obtained data are then linked with Origin Pro 8.5 software to draw 3D vector plots which provide a visual aid to understanding the propagation of the electric field vector with space and time. The method can be used as an easy and effective way to understand the concept of polarisation.
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