A computer‐based tool to foster engineering students' interest in dynamics

With the aim of connecting the subject Dynamics with the real world, an educational software has been developed to assist teaching the course to first‐year undergraduate industrial engineering students. The software simulates the 3D movement of the oscillating group of a washing machine that includes some of the familiar elements of a mechanical system: motors, pulleys, springs, or shock absorbers. The student is able to set up, run, and analyze the output of the mechanical model, which enhances the students' appreciation of the potential and utility of the mathematical model obtained for a mechanical system and helps them to reinforce some relevant mechanical concepts by changing the input parameters of a specific system. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 19: 475–486, 2011

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