Blackbody Physlet

I’m supposed to keep on top of these things, and I’ve certainly read about them enough, but usually in passing and I immediately rush off to the next thing on my "to-do" list. What am I mumbling about? Physlets! These are physics applets you can find on the web. Here’s one on blackbody radiation I stumbled across in my notes from last year’s Northeast Astronomical Imaging Conference. In fact, Davidson College has a whole set of physlets that are fun to play with (well, they’re fun if you’re a little geeky like me and you like to push buttons and move sliders to see what happens). You can buy the book with the CD, but there are some samples listed in the links on the left side of the page.