Bridging the Gap

The natural motions around us occur in 3-dimensional space. Whether these motions are small, large, simple, or complex, investigating the natural motions that interest us, and explaining their behavior enriches the study of motion. It brings greater engagement to the study of mathematics, kinematics, and Newton's laws.

Motion Visualizer 3D captures a natural motion and instantaneously displays it on a graph. Students see the 3-dimensional motions in the world around them represented in a 3-dimensional spatial graph that they can turn to view from any perspective.

For example, here Motion Visualizer 3D captured the motion of a free-swinging pendulum. This data clearly shows the precession of the free-swinging pendulum and how it varies in the x- and y-coordinates.

The 3-dimensional spatial graph forms a concrete reference from which the variables of position, velocity, and acceleration can be extracted and displayed on conventional kinematics graphs that are correlated back to the physical event that caused the motion.

View enlarged image of the screenshot

View rotating image of the 3D graph

In this way, Motion Visualizer 3D bridges the gap between the 3-dimensional world and the graphic representations that are central to the study of motion.