Sams Teach Yourself Java™ in 24 Hours, Sixth Edition

Going to School with Java

The Web includes numerous resources for educators and schoolchildren. Because Java programs can offer a more interactive experience than standard web pages, some programmers have used the language to write learning programs for the Internet.

For one such example, visit http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~van/sssjava to access a ski jump simulator created by Michiel van de Panne, a computer science professor at the University of British Columbia. The program uses Java to demonstrate physics-based animation as a skier tries several different slopes and jumps. The motion of the skier is controlled by moving a mouse one of eight directions, each of which affects the success of a jump. Figure 3.2 shows one run of the program right before ...