The Conservation of Mechanical Energy simulator -- SimuF\'isica

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and features of the SimuFísica Mechanical Energy Conservation simulator, a free, multilingual tool designed to enhance physics education by illustrating energy transformations in mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a new, accessible simulator within the SimuFísica platform that visually demonstrates energy conservation principles for educational purposes.

Findings

The simulator effectively illustrates energy transformations in mechanics.

It supports online and offline use across multiple platforms.

Two example applications demonstrate its educational utility.

Abstract

Currently, the benefits of using computer simulations in the school environment are widely recognized by educators. The encouragement to use these simulations in classrooms is supported by the National Common Curricular Base, a normative document that defines essential learning for basic education. This article focuses on the exploration of the Mechanical Energy Conservation simulator, a free simulator developed with the purpose of illustrating the transformations between kinetic, gravitational potential, and elastic potential energies. This application is part of SimuF\'isica\textsuperscript{\textregistered}, a multilingual and multiplatform software that offers computer simulations for teaching physics, which operates both online and offline. Throughout the article, some features of the SimuF\'isic\textsuperscript{\textregistered} platform and the details of how the Mechanical Energy Conservation simulator works are objectively presented. Two illustrative examples are provided, demonstrating the application in action for solving mechanics problems.