1 - SCREEN RESOLUTION

PhET simulations work best at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. (Some of them are written so that they cannot be resized.) At lower resolution (e.g. 800 x 600), all the controls may not fit on your screen. At higher resolution (e.g. 1280 x 1024), you may not be able to make the simulation fill the whole screen, or if you do, it may slow down performance. To change your screen resolution, follow the directions below:

Windows

• From Start menu, click on "Control Panel"
• Double click on "Display" icon
• Select the "Settings" tab
• Use the "Screen Resolution" slider to select a resolution and click "OK"

Macintosh

• Open the System Preferences (either from the Dock or from the Apple menu)
• Open the Displays Panel and choose the Display tab
• On the left of the Displays tab you can select one of the Resolutions from the list
• Quit or close the System Preferences when done

2 - SIMULATIONS WITH SOUND

Simulations that use sound can be unstable when run on computers using old device driver software. If you are encountering crashes or other undesirable behavior with any of our simulations that use sound, we advise updating your sound drivers, as this may solve the problem. For assistance with updating your sound drivers, contact your computer vendor or audio hardware manufacturer.

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3 - SUPPORT SOFTWARE

Some of our simulations use Java, and some use Macromedia Flash. Both of these are available as free downloads.

Java

To run the simulations that have a tag under them, you must have Java version 1.4 or higher installed on your computer. You can obtain the free downloads by clicking here

Note for Netscape Users

After you have installed Java Web Start, you will need to close and re-open your browser for Java Web Start to work.

Java Web Start vs Java Applets

Java Web Start technology has been used rather than Java Applets. Java Web Start, which is a free mechanism from Sun, is a more robust way of launching Java programs over the Web than applets. If you have had problems running applets in the past, you may well find that Java Web Start works much better.

Flash

To run the simulations that have a tag under them, you must have Flash 7 or newer installed on your computer. You can obtain the free support software required for them by clicking here

If you get a blank window when you try to launch a flash simulation, you probably need a new version of the Flash player, available for free at Adobe

NOTE
Older versions of the Flash^TM Player can cause problems. If you receive an error such as this:



You should download a current version of the Flash^TM Player here

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