Winplot - My Favourite Graphing Software! It is FREE!

In the teaching of physics, it is often that we need to do plots of equations. Many A-level teachers tend to use Excel. This is great when I am creating questions which requires students to take points off graph grids, however, not so great when I just want general (but accurate) shapes to different graphs.

My search of a software became imperative when I was lecturing waves and wanted to generate many different sinusoidal graph starting at different phases. After plotting a few graphs on excel, I gave up and decided to ask a (Further) Math teacher, who told me that she used a free software Winplot.

I have since been using Winplot to generate all my graphs. I found it relatively easy to use for generation of graphs - just type in the equation and the software auto generates for you. You get the flexibilty to change the scale set the thickness and it can be easily copied to the clipboard which can be pasted in any Word document.

It has been almost 7 years since I found Winplot and am still using it. The author constantly makes improvements to it and it is now one of the most powerful graphing software and the great thing is it is still FREE! It is also relatively easy to pick up and there are many external "instructors" that have produced tutorials, manuals, and video instructions.

If you are looking for a free graphing software, this is definitely one to try out.

Most updated version can be found at : http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/winplot.html

A good startoff point for learning are a set of instructional video by Steve Simonds which can be found here : http://spot.pcc.edu/~ssimonds/winplot/

Other supplementary materials can also be accessed here: http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/wpsupp.html

There are some youtube videos as well, one of which is given below.  If you like them, you can google for more at youtube.

Useful Tool for Drawing 3D - Google sketchup

I was at the Times bookstore last Saturday as it was my birthday month and I wanted to spend away 20% discount card.  I came across a new free tool called Google Sketchup.  It is tool that allows for drawing of 3D diagrams. 

I think that it will be a useful tool for Science Teachers.  If you do a google on sketchup, you can also find many free models for sciences available through the internet.  I have not learnt how to use it yet, but will definitely get to loading and using it.

The tool is available for download at http://sketchup.google.com/

Software Recommendation: Dia - A Free Software To Draw Circuit Diagrams

Dia :  A Free Visio-like Software

In teaching electricity, there is always a need to draw many circuit diagrams.  I had initially used the Art box in Microsoft Word to draw the diagrams.  However, I found it a little cumbersome as constant adjustment of the diagrams are needed especially linking between the different circuit components.

I was introduced to Microsoft Visio and I do admit it is useful, but too much an overkill for me as it is relatively expensive considering the fact that I only want to use it draw electrical diagrams.

Recently, I came across a free, open-source software called Dia.  It is a great software, as it contains most of circuit components that you can easily find in the A-level syllabus.
It is a slightly scaled down version of Visio, but definitely serves my purpose.

This is a definitely a good tool to have with you.

[Click on the title of this writeup to access the site to download the software.]