A 23-year physics-classroom tool, reborn for the browser

Electromagnetism 3D is the modern browser-based successor to Electrostatics 3D and Magnetism 3D, the Delphi desktop software that has been used in physics classrooms since 2003.

How we got here

The original Electrostatics 3D was written in Delphi in 2000 as a visualization tool for intro E&M concepts — specifically, to let students build arbitrary charge configurations and see the resulting field in three dimensions. The companion Magnetism 3D shipped in 2003, covering wires, solenoids, magnets, and charged particle trajectories.

Both programs were distributed through Physics Curriculum & Instruction (physicscurriculum.com), which sold perpetual licenses to schools and colleges. Sales ran steadily for about fifteen years before Windows-only desktop software stopped fitting classroom procurement — schools moved to Chromebooks, IT departments stopped approving installable apps, and the product aged out.

Why we rebuilt it

Teachers kept emailing to ask where the browser version was. The physics is unchanged, the visualizations are differentiated, the curriculum fit is genuine — only the delivery mechanism was broken. So we rewrote it.

The new Electromagnetism 3D is a from-scratch TypeScript implementation built on React, Three.js, and Web Workers. Every feature of the original is here, plus new capabilities: Linear Integral Convolution for continuous field lines, Ampère's law path integrals for closed-curve verification, and higher-fidelity charged particle trajectories. It runs on any modern browser — Chromebooks, iPads, whatever the student already has.

What's next

The current release covers magnetism. Electrostatics 3D is being ported next and will join the same platform under a single account, single checkout — the Electromag 3D Suite. Existing customers of the Delphi version will receive a free upgrade path through the 2026–27 academic year.

Who builds it

Electromagnetism 3D is built by a small team led by the original author of Electrostatics 3D and Magnetism 3D. We're based in the United States and have been shipping physics-education software continuously since 2000.

Get in touch if you're a teacher, a department chair, or a researcher — we read every message.