Falling Magnet Applet

A poster presented at the January 1999 AAPT Meeting (PDF file) explains some of the mathematics and physics of this animation. See pages 5, 6, and 7 of this document, especially equation 14 on page 7, for the differential equations we are solving to get the motion of the falling magnet. The parameter called "Resistance" ("Dipole moment") below corresponds to the parameter called "alpha" ("beta") in equation (11) of this paper.