About xystress
What this site is
xystress is a collection of 9 interactive simulations covering Waves & Oscillations, Electric & Magnetic Fields, Fluid Mechanics, Solid Mechanics & Stress, and Heat Transfer & Thermodynamics. Change a parameter and see what happens straight away: the animation, the graphs, and the measured values all update as you go.
Everything is free, there is nothing to install, and you don't need an account. Start from the home page, or browse all simulations.
Educational purposes only
Everything on xystress is for learning and teaching. The models are deliberately idealised so that the physics is easy to see, and their results can contain errors. Don't use them for engineering design, analysis, or safety decisions. See the Terms of Use.
Who it is for
- Students who want to build intuition next to their lectures, and to check their own working against the step-by-step solutions that several tools show.
- Teachers who want to demonstrate an idea live in class. The address of a simulation includes its settings, so you can share a link that opens exactly the case you set up.
- Engineers who want a quick, visual refresher on a familiar topic (as a learning aid, not a design tool).
How the simulations work
Every simulation runs in your browser, in SI units. Heavier ones use background threads and, on devices that support it, the graphics processor, with an automatic fallback so that they work everywhere. Nothing you do in a simulation is sent to a server.
Each physical model is tested against analytical solutions or textbook benchmarks before it is published, and each simulation page explains the equations and assumptions behind it, so that you can see where the model stops matching reality.
Privacy and feedback
There are no accounts, no cookies of our own, and no advertising trackers. The details are in the Privacy Policy.
Found a mistake, or want a topic covered? Get in touch.