The
Wavetable
Project
Tabletop ocean/atmosphere physics simulator
What is this?
The Wavetable is a table-top earth fluid dynamics simulator. It allows you to play with eddies, hurricanes, and other atmospheric and oceanic effects.
The Wavetable Project aims to make fluid dynamics and earth science more accessible, by providing the materials to build your own Wavetable and experiments to see earth physics in action. The Wavetable Project is
- open source,
- designed to be affordable,
- and approachable by all ages.
We have run courses with the Wavetable with elementary through graduate students. The Wavetable has been used both for front-of-classroom demonstrations and student-guided exploration in groups of 3-4. Both the construction and use of the Wavetable get students excited—they get to work with an apparatus hands-on to produce significant (and beautiful!) physical effects.
The Wavetable is designed to be easy to implement. The build is made of 3D printed and off-the-shelf materials, and requires only hand tools to assemble. And after construction, it stores robustly in its own box—it can be stacked, strapped to a bike, or shipped across the country!
The Wavetable Project was built by students at The Nueva School in collaboration with Prof. Leif Thomas at Stanford Earth Systems Sciences. Please get in touch to learn more!