If you want to gain a deeper understanding of classical mechanics, starting with a good diff eq package and then implementing the physical phenomena in terms of

If you want to gain a deeper understanding of classical mechanics, starting with a good diff eq package and then implementing the physical phenomena in terms of diff eq code would also be a good exercise. Plots would be easy, but I don't think implementing animation from scratch won't be worth the time and effort imo. Python: [0] http://pundit.pratt.duke.edu/wiki/Python:Ordinary_Differential_Equations http://pundit.pratt.duke.edu/wiki/Python:Ordinary_Differenti... [1] http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/Group/readings/pythonissue_3of4.pdf http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/Group/readings/pythonissue_3of4.... If you are familiar with Matlab or Mathematica, diff eqs are fairly easy to play around with in those environments.