by Eric Rauchway

On seeing Marginal Revolution's item about a beautiful Flash animation explaining ten dimensions and superstring theory (with a narrator who sounds like--is?--Peter Coyote), I was sad to discover it's possibly not very good in terms of actual physics. Which brings up the challenge of illustrating abstract concepts, which educators increasingly face as we use computer presentations in class. Here's a favorite of mine: an animation explaining relativity via Einstein's light clock, which I use when teaching Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps by Peter Galison. I've also used the canal lock animation referenced in this article to explain the hydraulic metaphor for globalization and equalization. Anyone else have a favorite animated concept? Or favorite principles about how to animate and illustrate abstractions, aside from the classic Edward Tufte rules? (One of these days I'm going to explain that while PowerPoint may be evil, computer presentations are not. But that will take more time and energy than I have today.)