High School + Physics + Linux = ?

Posted by Cliff on Monday September 16, 2002 @08:50AM from the we-need-more-penguins-in-high-schools dept.

earlums25 asks: ""I'm a high school physics teacher stuck in a school where not only is Windows rampant, but the sysadmin isn't interested in alternatives. I want to present a case where my students could use Linux boxes instead of Windows for the purpose of showing them there are alternatives. The major obstacle is that I haven't found software for Linux that would take the place of 'Precision Timer,' a piece of software that allows students to connect photogates through a Pasco 6500 interface. The software would need to recognize the input signal which comes in through the Pasco interface (a 1/4 inch plug connected the gameport), record time, plot data, print/save data and plots, and do basic calculation of speeds, accelerations, averages and standard deviations. Any ideas?"

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Hmm... by Screaming+Lunatic · 2002-09-16 09:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

How about asking Pasco to support Linux?
I've written tons of drivers for little components like that. It shouldn't be too hard to do. The software on top of the driver is another story. It might take a while to implement depending on the feature set required.