laplace.Laplace will appear below in a Java enabled browser.
This Applet calculates and displays the potential of a field surrounding a capacitor. It employs a relaxation method to do this calculation.
To use:
Click the on/off button to begin the animation. You are seeing both a two dimensional and three dimensional view of the potential of a field being calculated. If you let it run, the display will reach equilibrium.
On the left is the two dimensional color-coded view of a given capacitor.
The color scale is as follows:
red = 100V
orange = 60-100V
yellow = 20-60V
gray = -20-20V
light blue = 20-60V
blue = -60- -100V
black = -100V
To change the location and or shape of the capacitor, click clear. Select +100V and draw the positive side of the capacitor wherever you choose by clicking and dragging your mouse. Then select -100V to draw the negative side. You can edit mistakes by clicking on a red/black cell to return it's value to 0. NOTE: Once you have cleared the grid, the default capacitor will disappear and you must draw your own. Refreshing the page will reset all values to the default conditions. Also note that values on the sides are wrapped so that a capacitor on the far left side of the screen may create a charge on the far right, etc.
On the right is the three dimensional view.
View the 3D graph in all positions by clicking and dragging on the grid. To change the view, select 3D, Contour, or Grid. To compare a current display with another, click the compare button and a new Frame will be initialized in your browser window. The new frame will be in the view that is currently selected. (NOTE: You can change the size of the new Frame by clicking and dragging the corners).