Bruce Sherwood

• Matter & Interactions: A calculus-based introductory physics curriculum with a contemporary perspective
• VPython: Easy real-time 3D programming, based on the Python programming language
• GlowScript: VPython in a web browser
• A video with Ruth Chabay on Thinking Iteratively given on the occasion of our receiving the 2014 American Association of Physics Teachers Halliday and Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergradute Physics Teaching
• Ruth Chabay’s award-winning physics game, Electric Field Hockey, now in 3D.

Articles & talks

• Two early papers on work and energy:
  • Sherwood, B. A. (1983). Pseudowork and real work. AJP 51, 597-602.
  • Sherwood, B. A., & Bernard, W. H. (1984). Work and heat transfer in the presence of sliding friction. AJP 52, 1001-1007
  • For related later work on work and energy, see
    • Chabay, R., Sherwood, B., & Titus, A. (2019). A unified, contemporary approach to teaching energy in introductory physics, AJP 87(7), 504-509, special issue on energy.
    • The point-particle system, a talk presented by Bruce Sherwood and Ruth Chabay at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in San Antonio TX, August 1999.
    • The zero of potential energy is not arbitrary, a talk presented by Bruce Sherwood and Ruth Chabay at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Rochester NY, July 2001.
    • Choice of system and the energy equation, a talk presented by Bruce Sherwood and Ruth Chabay at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Sacramento CA, August 2004.

• Chabay, R. & Sherwood, B. (2019). Polarization in electrostatics and circuits: Computing and visualizing surface charge distributions. AJP 87 (5), 341-349. Also see the accompanying VPython program that lets you explore the electric field of these charge distributions.
• Refraction and the speed of light
• Missing Matter in the Physics Majors’ Curriculum, a talk at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Edmonton, August 2008.
• Tracking Steps in Multistep Problems, a talk at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Salt Lake City, August 2005.
• Sparks, a talk presented by Bruce Sherwood and Ruth Chabay at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Madison WI, August 2003.

A conference on the PLATO system

• While at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (1969-1985), I participated in the development of the PLATO computer-based education system. Here are videos from a conference in June 2010 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA on the 50th-year anniversary of the birth of the PLATO system:
  • Don Bitzer and Ray Ozzie
  • Culture of Innovation
  • System Hardware
  • System Software, led by me
  • Courseware, led by Ruth Chabay, includes me
  • Communications
  • Games
• Brian Dear, the organizer of the conference, has published an excellent book on the history of PLATO, “The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture.”
• An American Journal of Physics article from 1971 by me on the PLATO physics program that is discussed in the Courseware session video.

Personal interests

• My essay in Physics Today
• My linguistic study of spoken Esperanto and of variation in Esperanto
• Esperanto-USA (with links to many other sites)
• Two good sites for learning Esperanto through the web:          duolingo.com        lernu.net
• Geometric algebra:
  • The Hestenes website
  • The Cambridge University website
• Cosmic Gall: a wonderful poem about neutrinos by John Updike