Performing Experiments Using Simulation Techniques

Two years back one of my professors Prof.Subrahmanyam introduced me to a very new technique of teaching and learning which fascinated me a lot. Being in the science stream we were bound to do practicals where by experimenting we learn a lot, by drawing inferences from the results we obtain. But this has been an inherent problem in India that most of the colleges fail in providing good equipment for lab saying they lack funds or by constant usage of the equipment by many students their accuracy goes down and hence student looses out there and has to satisfy himself by whatever is provided.

One solution to this problem is using simulation techniques. There are many softwares available for different subjects where student can not only perform the experiment but also analyse the result from different aspects.

I have worked on few such softwares like Multisim, Electronic workbench, Commsim, and LabView.

Multisim and Electronic Workbench are electronics s/w where any complex circuit can be constructed then tested and also analysed. Here no programming is involved. There are icons representing different components required for constructing a circuit like a resistor, capacitor, power supply and so on. These icons can be dragged using the curser brought on the screen and connected usinng virtual connectors available there.

I was more thrilled to work on LabView. This is the graphical programming package. That is it does not involve the conventional text based programming . This package can be used for designing instruments, for acquiering, analysing and processing the data.
This package consists of a FRONT PANEL which can be used to design the front part or appearence of any instrument . It has a Controls Pallete which contains different types of Knobs and indicators. Then every instrument has a complex circuitary inside which can be designed on The BLOCK DIAGRAM which is another window like Front panel. Block diagram contains a Functions Pallete using which graphical programming can be performed. These programs are called as Virtual Instruments (VIs).

The most interesting part of this package is data acquisiton. Ofcourse it requires a little interfacing to be done. That is we had to design an instrumentaion amplifier for amplifying the signal because the data acquisition card cannot read very low voltages. Let me tell u we designed this instrumentation amplifier using Multisim software. Actually, we were using LabView for measuring temperature. Once that data is acquiered it can be stored and also analysed.

I profusely thank Subrahmanyam Sir for introducing me to such an intersting aspect of Physics where I can play with the subject while learning. Thank u Sir!!!!