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0006   <!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE"><!-- change language only here -->
0007 ]>
0008 
0009 <book id="step" lang="&language;">
0010 
0011 <bookinfo>
0012 <title>The &step; Handbook</title>
0013 
0014 
0015 <authorgroup>
0016 <author>
0017 &Anne-Marie.Mahfouf;
0018 &Anne-Marie.Mahfouf.mail;
0019 </author>
0020 
0021 <!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
0022 </authorgroup>
0023 
0024 
0025 <copyright>
0026 <year>2007</year>
0027 <holder>&Anne-Marie.Mahfouf;</holder>
0028 </copyright>
0029 
0030 <legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>
0031 
0032 <date>2021-10-24</date>
0033 <releaseinfo>KDE Gear 21.08</releaseinfo>
0034 
0035 <abstract>
0036 <para>&step; is an interactive physical simulator. It allows you to explore the physical world through simulations. It works like this: you place some bodies on the scene, add some forces such as gravity or springs, then press the <inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="media-playback-start.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> <guiicon>Simulate</guiicon> icon in the toolbar and &step; shows you how your scene will evolve according to the laws of physics. You can change every property of the bodies/forces in your experiment (even during simulation) and see how this will change evolution of the experiment. With &step; you cannot only learn but feel how physics works!
0037 </para>
0038 </abstract>
0039 
0040 <keywordset>
0041   <keyword>KDE</keyword>
0042   <keyword>kdeedu</keyword>
0043   <keyword>physics</keyword>
0044   <keyword>simulator</keyword>
0045   <keyword>forces</keyword>
0046   <keyword>Step</keyword>
0047 </keywordset>
0048 
0049 </bookinfo>
0050 
0051 <chapter id="introduction">
0052 <title>Introduction</title>
0053 <para>&step; is an interactive physical simulator.</para>
0054 
0055 <para>
0056 &step; features:
0057 
0058 <itemizedlist>
0059   <listitem><para>Classical mechanical simulation in two dimensions</para></listitem>
0060 
0061   <listitem><para>Particles, springs with damping, gravitational and coulomb forces</para></listitem>
0062 
0063   <listitem><para>Rigid bodies</para></listitem>
0064 
0065   <listitem><para>Collision detection (currently only discrete) and handling</para></listitem>
0066 
0067   <listitem><para>Soft (deformable) bodies simulated as user-editable particles-springs system, sound waves</para></listitem>
0068 
0069   <listitem><para>Molecular dynamics (currently using Lennard-Jones potential): gas and liquid, condensation and evaporation, calculation of macroscopic quantities and their variances</para></listitem>
0070 
0071   <listitem><para>Units conversion and expression calculation: you can enter something like <quote>(2 days + 3 hours) * 80 km/h</quote> and it will be accepted as distance value (requires libqalculate)</para></listitem>
0072 
0073   <listitem><para>Errors calculation and propagation: you can enter values like <quote>1.3 ± 0.2</quote> for any property and errors for all dependent properties will be calculated using statistical formulas</para></listitem>
0074 
0075   <listitem><para>Solver error estimation: errors introduced by the solver is calculated and added to user-entered errors</para></listitem>
0076 
0077   <listitem><para>Several different solvers: up to 8th order, explicit and implicit, with or without adaptive timestep (most of the solvers require GSL library)</para></listitem>
0078 
0079   <listitem><para>Controller tool to easily control properties during simulation (even with custom keyboard shortcuts)</para></listitem>
0080 
0081   <listitem><para>Tools to visualize results: graph, meter, tracer</para></listitem>
0082 
0083   <listitem><para>Context information for all objects, integrated wikipedia browser</para></listitem>
0084 
0085   <listitem><para>Collection of example experiments, more can be downloaded with &knewstuff;3</para></listitem>
0086 
0087   <listitem><para>Integrated tutorials</para></listitem>
0088 </itemizedlist>
0089 </para>
0090 </chapter>
0091 
0092 <chapter id="using-step">
0093 <title>Using &step;</title>
0094 
0095 <para>&step; simulates a physical world. The main part of &step; (1) is the world scene in the center of &step; main window where you first place physical objects and where you see the simulation. On the left of this scene a palette (2) let you choose your physical objects. You can freely move this palette anywhere on your desktop by dragging the title bar. On the right of the scene you can see the current world description (3), its properties (4), some help to explain some words (5) and the history of the current world (6). Each of those panels can be placed elsewhere on your screen by dragging the title bar.
0096 </para>
0097 
0098 <screenshot>
0099   <screeninfo>Here's a screenshot of &step; when you start it for the first time</screeninfo>
0100   <mediaobject>
0101     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="mainwindow.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0102     <textobject><phrase>&step; Main Window</phrase></textobject>
0103   </mediaobject>
0104 </screenshot>
0105 
0106 <para>To help you get started, &step; integrates a series of tutorials which easily teach you how to build an experiment. Please see step by step to start with the first tutorial.
0107 </para>
0108 </chapter>
0109 
0110 &tutorials;
0111 &examples;
0112 
0113 <chapter id="credits">
0114 
0115 <title>Credits and License</title>
0116 
0117 <para>&step;
0118 </para>
0119 
0120 <para>Program copyright 2007 &Vladimir.Kuznetsov; &Vladimir.Kuznetsov.mail;
0121 </para>
0122 
0123 <para>Contributors:
0124 
0125 <itemizedlist>
0126   <listitem><para>Author: &Vladimir.Kuznetsov; &Vladimir.Kuznetsov.mail;</para></listitem>
0127   <listitem><para>Contributor: &Carsten.Niehaus; &Carsten.Niehaus.mail;</para></listitem>
0128 </itemizedlist>
0129 </para>
0130 
0131 <para>Documentation copyright 2007 &Anne-Marie.Mahfouf; &Anne-Marie.Mahfouf.mail;
0132 </para>
0133 
0134 <!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
0135 
0136 &underFDL;
0137 &underGPL;                 <!-- GPL License -->
0138 
0139 </chapter>
0140 
0141 &documentation.index;
0142 </book>
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