Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the System Requirements for running PhET simulations?
• What is the ideal screen resolution to run PhET simulations?
• Can PhET simulations be used on my tablet/iPad/Android devices?
• I would like to translate PhET Simulations into another Language. Can this be easily done?
• Can I run PhET simulations from a USB drive?
• Where does the name "PhET" come from?
• How can I maximize PhET simulations in a browser?
• How do I embed PhET simulations?
• Is the source code available?
• What are Licensing requirements?

Windows Systems
Intel Pentium processor
Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7
256MB RAM minimum
Approximately 328 MB available disk space (for full installation)
1024x768 screen resolution or better
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later
Adobe Flash Player 9 or later
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later, Firefox 2 or later

Macintosh Systems
G3, G4, G5 or Intel processor
OS 10.5 or later
256MB RAM minimum
Approximately 317 MB available disk space (for full installation)
1024x768 screen resolution or better
Apple Java 1.5.0_19 or later
Adobe Flash Player 9 or later
Safari 2 or later, Firefox 2 or later

Linux Systems
Intel Pentium processor
256MB RAM minimum
Approximately 314 MB disk space (for full installation)
1024x768 screen resolution or better
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later
Adobe Flash Player 9 or later
Firefox 2 or later

Support Software

Some of our simulations use Java, and some use Flash. Both of these are available as free downloads, and our downloadable PhET Offline Website Installer includes Java for those who need it.

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 Vista

1. From Start menu, click on "Control Panel."
2. Press "Adjust screen resolution" under "Appearance and Personalization."
3. Use the "Screen resolution" slider to select a resolution and click "OK."

Windows 2000/XP

1. From Start menu, click on "Control Panel."
2. Double click on "Display" icon.
3. Select the "Settings" tab.
4. Use the "Screen resolution" slider to select a resolution and click "OK."

Macintosh

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

At this time tablet/iPad/Android device platforms do not fully support Java or Flash, which is required to run PhET simulations.

• iPads cannot run any of PhET's sims because these devices lack full support for Java and Flash.
• Android devices cannot run any of PhET's Java sims (the devices' java functionality is too limited). These devices can run a limited number of our Flash sims, but these sims will have poor performance and user input response on these devices.

In addition to the lack of support for required platforms, porting PhET sims to iPad/tablet devices is not simply a matter of rewriting the code in another language. PhET sims are designed for devices with a mouse and keyboard. There are certain things that are awkward with a touch screen (like typing, especially when the virtual keyboard covers what you want to look at, and right clicking), and some things that are impossible (like hovering over objects).

If your school district is considering the purchase of iPads or tablet devices, please understand that PhET simulations will either not function or perform poorly. We recommend laptops or netbooks with a minimum of 1024x800 screen resolution for using our simulations. For more information, see our system requirements.

The PhET simulations have been written so that they are easily translated to languages other than English. Please click here for more information.

Yes, but there are some situations where problems may be encountered. If you only want to run a small number of simulations, the best approach is to download the individual JAR files (i.e. the files that are downloaded when you press the “Download” button on the simulation pages) and save them on your USB drive. This should work under most circumstances. If you want to install all simulations using the Offline Website Installer, there can be some complications. The reason for this is that some of the simulations – specifically the ones that run under Java – have hardcoded path information in their launch files. This is due to a limitation of the Java Network Launching Protocol. This limitation means that if you install the Offline Website Installer to your hard drive and then copy all of the installed files to a USB drive, there is a good chance that many of the simulations will not run. One possible alternative approach is to install the Offline Website Installer directly on to your USB drive. This should work in situations where the USB drive is assigned the same drive designation (e.g. “E:”) when attached to a new machine as was assigned when the Offline Website Installer was installed. If the USB drive is assigned a different drive designation, again, many of the simulations will not run.

Our project originally focused on physics sims, and was hence named the *Ph*ysics *E*ducation *T*echnology project, or *PhET*. When we branched into chemistry, biology, mathematics and other areas, we decided to keep the name *PhET*, but to no longer describe it as an acronym.

Most browsers have an option to switch into a fullscreen mode. Below are instructions for the most common browsers:

• Internet Explorer (all versions): Press F11
• Firefox: Press F11 (Windows, Linux), Shift-Command-F (Mac)
• Google Chrome: Press F11 (Windows, Linux), Shift-Command-F (Mac)
• Safari: Fullscreen support with 3rd-party plugins (Mac, Windows)
• Opera: Press F11 (Windows, Linux)

Click the 'Embed' button under the simulation you would like to embed. This will bring up a text box of html code that you can copy and paste in order to embed the sim. Flash sims may be directly embedded or linked via an image to launch the sim. Java sims may only be linked via an image to launch the sim.