PhET

PhET is a collection of physics simulations from University of Colorado. The application is simply a recollection of all the simulations released on the PhET website.

It includes the .JAR files that make up each simulation and it also comes with Java built in, so you don't have to download it yourself. Since all the simulations run on Java, you can simply play them in your web browser, or by double-clicking the .JAR file.

When you run the PhET application by clicking on the icon that is placed on your desktop, a web browser will be launched - the default web browser on your system. The local HTML file that is opened is simply the main page for an entire website that is stored on your hard drive. From there, you can access all the simulations and their home pages, with information on them and links to learning guides in DOC and PDF formats, although they are stored on the PhET website and you can't access them offline.

The simulations by PhET are the best ones I have seen and they range from incredibly simple to impossibly complicated, but there is a lot of content to be seen, and they are often very illustrative. I have many favorites, but the Air Hockey game or the Faraday experiments are among the best in my opinion.