One of the few purely educational computer animated films is "Force, Mass and Motion," by F. W. Sinden of the Bell Telephone Laboratories. The film illustrates Newton's laws in two dimensions. Orbits are shown of two massive bodies under central force action for various laws, such as inverse cube, direct cube, etc.. as well as for the familiar inverse square law.

		The use of computer animation for the display of the results of scientific computations is a form of education - one scientist passing information to another. It suggests the use of computer animation for the classroom. One immediately thinks of a whole host of phenomena and concepts that uniquely lend themselves to illustration by computer movies. The idea of a "limit" in the calculus. Other examples are Newton's laws of motion, kinetic theory in physics and chemistry, fluid flow in engineering - in fact, one can argue that a good deal of the instruction in the physical sciences is in terms of "movies" of mathematical models of nature - except that the student does not normally see the movies; he only hears verbal descriptions of them. Perhaps more important is the opportunity computer animation gives to the scientist and engineer to make his own movies. The user programmes computer animation in the language of mathematics, a language in which the physical scientist or engineer is proficient. Moverover, the scientist can make films with a minimum of dependence on directors, producers, and animators.
Orbits of bodies with inverse square law interaction. The plue sign is the moving centre of mass.

Much as in writing a book, where one submits a manuscript and receives back a proof in print ready for reading, so can one now submit a programme and receive back a proof film, ready for viewing. The scientist can be master of his own house; if he wishes, he can maintain complete creative control over the films he makes. Previously Frank Sinden constructed for Edward E. Zajac the "sub-programme" called ORBIT which computes the orbit to produce films. Sinden used his general programme, ORBIT, for producing a family of orbit films as a funtion of the relevant variables, it is simply a matter of writing the instruction CALL ORBIT and specifying values to obtain the particular orbit film desired.
		Orbits of two bodies with direct cube force law of interaction.

Frank W. Sinden illustrated the educational potential of computer movies in his article F. W. Sinden, "Synthetic Cinematography," Perspective 7, 1965, pp. 279289.