FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OnScreen Science, Inc. Releases Universal Binary Macintosh Version of OnScreen Particle Physics
SOMERVILLE, MA—December 1, 2006—OnScreen Science, Inc.® today announced the immediate availability of a Universal Binary (PowerPC/Intel) Macintosh version of its modern physics teaching software OnScreen Particle Physics™. Version 1.3.3, in addition to running natively on Intel-based Macintoshes, also fixes a printing problem encountered running the previous version on these machines. OnScreen Particle Physics™, which provides an entree into the relativistic quantum world through its simulated particle detection chamber, is also available for the Windows platform. There is full compatibilty of particle physics event files created by any version of the software on either platform. The new version will require Mac OS 10.3.9 or higher and is free for any current license holder of OnScreen Particle Physics™ 1.3.
Since its introduction as a Computers in Physics educational software contest winner, OnScreen Particle Physics™ has been used in hundreds of high schools, community colleges, and universities to give students virtual hands-on experience with the facts and concepts of modern physics. The software has been featured in Quarknet Summer Teacher Workshops funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Quarknet's Project Co-ordinator at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, Tom Jordan, called OnScreen Particle Physics™ "a remarkable tool that students can use to explore particle physics in an engaging, authentic way."
The software displays simple but physically accurate particle physics events as particle tracks in an on-screen simulated 3D detection chamber. Students are provided with on-screen tools for making the measurements necessary for analyzing the simulated events. User's and Instructor's Guides provide hints and examples to lead students to determining the masses and lifetimes of unstable particles using the very same techniques and equations used by real particle physicists. No math beyond algebra and vectors is required.
An interactive simulation of charged-particle motion in a magnetic field, in which the student can capture a particle on the screen and observe the changes in its trajectory as the student varies the magnetic field by means of an on-screen control is also provided. This simulation is designed to build tuition about the complicated force and to help make sense of the tracks seen in the detection chamber.
OnScreen Particle Physics™ is now available from OnScreen Science, Inc.®, 46 Wallace St. Somerville, MA 02144 or online at www.onscreen-sci.com for a price of $134 (USD). Ten-computer site licenses are available for $469. There is a sixty-day money-back guarantee of satisfaction.
OnScreen Science, Inc.® publishes Ph.D.-scientist-designed software for science education tasks particularly benefiting from computer simulations. In addition to OnScreen Particle Physics™, the company also offers OnScreen DNA™, a 3D virtual DNA model with interactive simulations of replication and transcription.